Have you ever wished to see a fashion show without a flashlight, camera, or crowd? Do you want to be a model in a fashion show conducted by fashion brands?
The days of rushing to London Fashion Week or waiting for fashion premier league tickets are over. Through the interminable possibilities of the Metaverse, it’s now possible to attend digital fashion shows from your desktops.
Fashion maniacs began flocking to ‘The Metaverse’, the newest technological buzzword. The digital landscape is interlacing with developing virtual realities and augmented realities to create a digital world.
The virtual world permits millions of users to experiment with fashion and styles beyond the possibilities of the real-world fashion business. From Balenciaga, a US online store, to Stephen Cooke, a London menswear designer collection, the emerging arena of Metaverse fashion ripens with innovative brands.
World-class luxury fashion labels and designers vie in Metaverse fashion with their chic NFT collections. What prompted this growth?
The article details how NFTs and Metaverse fashion will disrupt the future fashion industry.
The Metaverse Fashion
Because it has entered the mainstream, the Metaverse no longer requires a formal introduction. The digital version of the physical world realized by combining Virtual and Augmented reality has influenced every corner of daily life. Fashion is not an exception because the Metaverse drew the attention of big fashion houses.
Metaverse virtual spaces have emerged as new destinations for famed fashion brands and their adherents worldwide.
Initially, apparel and accessory businesses partnered with video gaming firms. In 2019, Louis Vuitton joined Riot Games and made original skins for League of Legends. Skins are digital garments in games. The LV League of Legends game collection ranges somewhere around $170 to $5.6k for the exclusive LV picks.
Doggo surprised the game and fashion-savvy by appearing in a Balenciaga hoodie in 2021. Doggo is a popular video game character in the Fortnite video game and is presented as a model after the Fornite-Balenciaga collaboration. Doggo appeared in a ‘ Billboard’ video wearing the Balenciaga-Fornite hoodie and jeans.
Game characters in the outfit have created tremendous media attention among game-fashion maniacs.
In addition to Doggo, the other three famous characters of the Fortnite game, Banshee, Remirez, and Knight, also featured in Balenciaga makeovers. Battle Royale ‘Knight’ appeared in a hoodie and armor boots, representing his character. ‘Banshee,’ a rifle specialist, wore a yellow striped bodysuit, while ‘Remirez’ appeared in tattered jeans and a top.
Sailing deeper into Metaverse fashion stories, luxury fashion and leather goods brand Gucci has joined hands with the online gaming and metaverse platform ‘Roblox’ and created a virtual store.
Gucci opened up a Gucci Garden, an exhibition on Roblox, on May 17th, 2021. Gucci Garden of Gucci Gardens’ luxurious courtyard has attractive furnishings and beautiful flowers. Virtual avatars can relax and enjoy these places. The fourteen-day exhibition facilitated visitors to buy Gucci’s exclusive and limited edition digital collectibles for their avatars.
The exclusive partnership between RALPH LAUREN and Zepeto launched a digital apparel line. Zepeto is an application for avatar simulation and social networking. Users can create their digital twins and collect suitable clothes for them.
RALPH LAUREN x Zepeto digital designs featured 12 looks with 50 unique items. Premium collection of vintage polo Ralph Lauren style, limited edition skateboard, and other summer varieties are the special pieces included.
The public attention to the Metaverse fashion trend skyrocketed in 2021. Before the year ended, Nike acquired RTFKT Studios. The virtual shoe company makes a variety of digital shoes NFTs. RTFKT has a history of selling authentic sneakers paired with virtual ones for around 600 NFTs within six minutes.
Hence, the cutting-edge innovation technologies of RTFKT helped Nike to introduce next-generation tokens to draw more customer engagement. Nike acquired RTFKT Studios for young Nike followers.
Nike has already implemented a fashion and apparel store called ‘Nikeland‘ in Roblox. The Nikeland showroom enables visitors to purchase Nike shoes, clothes, and accessories for their digital avatars. Nikeland offers a free Nike cap and bag to visit anywhere in the Roblox virtual planet.
Adidas entered the Web3 market in collaboration with Bored Ape Yacht Club and PUNKS Comic, premium NFT collections.
Adidas NFTs are an exception to the standard NFT collection. Because Adidas bought a BAYC ape. The furry blue monkey named Indigo Hertz appeared in an Adidas jacket, cap, and other accessories. This Ape represents Adidas in Metaverse fashion. So, it wasn’t a surprise for the NFT community when Adidas announced that its limited edition NFTs have sold out.
The apparel giant made three major partnerships to enter the Metaverse. In addition to BAYC, Adidas Originals partnered with comic series Punk comic and cryptocurrency investor Gmoney as well.
Metaverse fashion wheel comprises lifestyle brands and popular fashion labels that sell Fashion NFTs. The 3D avatars of fashion models wearing digital garments became a new and convenient way of promotion and advertisement. The companies are targeting Gen-Z and Gen Alpha cohorts.
No doubt, fashion has been glancing at a complete tech-savvy fortune.
It experiments with horizons beyond the realm of reality. By participating earlier in the metaverse shift, the fashion industry wants to conveniently stand ahead in the competition.
Non-Fungible-Tokens (NFT) in fashion
Luxury fashion NFTs became a hot topic in the Metaverse destination. When companies shifted to digital shows from physical stages, exclusive collections of their designers sold as NFTs and commanded millions of dollars in the Metaverse. The big fashion names have partnered with NFT companies to issue unique designs and luxurious accessories as Non-FungibleTokens.
In 2019, a Dutch startup named The Fabricant, along with Dapper Lab and Johanna Jaswoska, an artist, sold a digital outfit for $9500. Subsequently, fashion business leaders such as Louis Vuitton, the world leader in luxury, LVMH Moet Hennessy, created NFTs.
Dolce and Gabbana, a Milan-based luxury fashion company, has partnered with Polygon and launched the NFT collection. The collection named Collezione Ganezi includes women’s outfits, men’s clothes, and a high-end jewelry collection.
Mason Rothchild and Eric Ramirez surprised everyone when they sold a 3D animation of a NFT bag for $23500 on Basic.Space, which is a private E-commerce platform for members only. It was an illustration of pregnancy in a perplexing creation.
Furthermore, Gucci collaborated with Alessandro Michele, an Italian fashion designer. A four-minute film inspired by Gucci’s area collection was sold at an auction for 25000 million USD.
The joint partnership of Arianee platform, French Fashion, and Haute Couture Federation produced a NFT collection. NFTs can be purchased now and exchanged during Paris summer fashion week in 2022.
British luxury fashion and beauty label Burberry has collaborated with Mythical game’s Blankos block party and released an NFT collection. A shark named Sharky B is the NFT that can be acquired and traded in the Blankos Block party marketplace.
What if you could purchase an apparel in the form of NFT and try it on your avatar with the help of Augmented Reality?
This is what one of the popular digital clothing stores DESSX, is doing.
Daria Shapovalova and Nadalia Modenova, the co-founders of DRESSX, provide a virtual platform for buyers and brands to enter into the Metaverse. It helps the designers in making digital clothes and converting them to NFTs. The DRESSX application allows creators to wear and check them using Augmented Reality.
The recently announced partnership between Sandbox and ALTAVA Group aims to promote more luxury brands to Metaverse. ALTAVA, a Singapore-based company, helps fashion and lifestyle brands to enter the Metaverse. The first NFT collection from the partnership will be dropped on March 24.
Furthermore, the origins of the digital luxury fashion industry are similar to the origins of E-commerce. Companies want to treat their customers well and maintain their loyalty by providing the best-customized products. Initially, it was only digital clothing or accessories, but it was later combined with physical products. The concentrated efforts finally resulted in the Metaverse platform with a try and buy opportunity for customers.
Boson Portal metaverse fashion week is here
The article cannot be concluded without mentioning the upcoming Boson Portal Metaverse fashion week (MVFW).
Boson Portal is a virtual lifestyle and cultural playground in Decentraland. Recently, Boson Portal announced a Metaverse fashion week from 24th to 27th March 2022. The four-day fashion runway has pop-up shows, shoppable stores, events, and parties.
Famous fashion brands across the globe may showcase their new collections. Fashion week leverages the advantages of unending metaverse opportunities with emerging fashion trends. Certain brands like Hugo (a subsidiary of rebranded Hugo Boss) partnered with Boson Portal in MVFW, which will allow the attendees to buy physical goods in Metaverse.
Virtual avatars representing the participating brands will do a ramp walk. Some exclusive collections are shoppable, meaning viewers can purchase those outfits as NFTs and try them on their avatars. These NFTs can be resold or kept aside and redeemed for the exact physical clothes. But the physical redeemable option is available with selected companies only.
Boson requires an Ethereum wallet to enter the portal. There will be separate shows and virtual rooms for brands. Most of the shows have open access, but some require VIP access to enter the virtual event. This upcoming virtual fashion event is eagerly anticipated by global fashion brands and the fashion industry.
Reports say Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce&Gabbana, Elie Saab, The Fabricant, Jacob & Co, Vogue Arabia, Guo Pei, Etro, Paco Rabanne, Hogan, Dundas, Cavalli are all part of the show. The digital fashion followers and the industry are keenly waiting to gather in the luxury fashion district of Decentraland to experience the most iconic fashion representations and catwalks.
Epilogue
Fashion in Metaverse is unlimited, but NFTs are the backbone of Metaverse’s revenue generation. So both co-exist to revolutionize the digital fashion industry.
The shift from the physical fashion world to digital fashion has provoked a parallel fashion evolution in Web3.
As of now, Metaverse is not everyone’s cup of tea. It requires a good internet connection, computer systems, and a wallet to participate. As a result, it is hard to bridge the divide between publicity and adoption.
Several brands are shifting to become early entrants in the race. Therefore, experts warned brands not to blindly jump into the Metaverse because of its hype.
Notably, smaller brands that do not have enough technical resources and budget cannot shift into the Metaverse quickly like the big giants.
However, leaving the dilemma apart, the parallel fashion world has been booming in the fashion district of Decentraland since last year. The same has been a motivation for many platforms to interconnect Web3 to Fashion with the help of NFTs.
When physical shopping shifted to E-commerce during the pandemic, shoppers worried about the apparel and imagined how they would look. In Metaverse fashion, shoppers can try the fit for their avatars using VR and AR technology in seconds. Purchase directly and keep it in their digital wardrobe.
Looking down the history of the apparels and accessory business, physical shopping has primarily transitioned to E-commerce, which is rapidly growing right before our eyes.
Now, most of the Metaverse collaborations accompanied physical collections. In a nutshell, Metaverse fashion is still naive, or currently, it is a space for big names, but it is growing at an accelerating pace. Therefore, undoubtedly, this era will also witness increased adoption of the Metaverse in the future.
Keep Reading:
