Juliet BFashion has always been a pioneering sector in many areas… and surprisingly lagging behind in others. But in recent months, It’s hard to blame him for missing the NFT and metaverse train. We can even say that brands, particularly in luxury and sportswear, have largely participated in the hype around these two new technologies.
In just one year, we have seen Gucci and Ralph Lauren attract millions of visitors to their virtual pop-ups. Adidas, Puma and Burberry launch their NFT collections.
Moreover, on March 24, we will even be able to participate at the first virtual Fashion Week on Decentraland.
Brands and celebrities from the fashion world are therefore determined to lay their – digital – stone in the building of the metaverse. But is this a temporary investment, to capitalize on the spotlight the latter is currently enjoying? Or a more serious transition, which should transform in the long term the way of creating, marketing and selling fashion items…
Fashion and metaverse: how gaming plays the role of Cupid
A first application of NFTs and the metaverse was made in gaming. It was therefore quite logical that fashion made its entry into these two spheres.s following in the footsteps of his predecessor. And by capitalizing both on these good practices and the communities they allowed it to bring together.
The big brands have therefore started to take their first step into the metaverse by designing outfits for gamer avatars.
We think, for example, of Louis Vuitton, which was one of the first luxury brands to create skins in League of Legends. But also to Balenciaga which also offered fashion items sold in the game Fortnite. Likewise, with video games afterworld created for the occasion, Balanciaga exhibited the elements of his digital fashion.
Sportswear brands are not left out. Nike, for example, launched its own digital lifestyle brand, at the crossroads between culture, fashion and esports. RTFKT was launched in 2020 by a team of creatives who develop products and exclusive experiences based on blockchain, NFTs and augmented reality.
Virtual sneakers elsewhere are enjoying great success as evidenced by the StepN project on Solana or the project NTR1- Meta, a pair of connected sneakers.
Adidas has announced its collaboration with Sandbox, the metaverse game based on Ethereum.
Digitalization of Fashion Week and presentation of collections on the metaverse
The metaverse is also the new frontier that fashion brands are exploring to escape the fierce competition they face in real life during Fashion Week. In March 2022, Decentraland organize the first Metaverse fashion week. An event to which dozens of creators are invited, from Hugo Boss to Balenciaga (which will also present its Fall/Winter 2021 collection via the video game “Afterworld”).
Fashion week on Decentraland
The virtual podiums will therefore be hosted on Decentralaland, which will also offer spectators the possibility to buy clothes and accessories for their avatars (from their Ethereum wallet like Dappradar).
These outfits will be marketed in the form of NFTs, which will then be possible to keep, exchange for physical clothing, or resell to the highest bidder. Most of the shows will be free to enter (the same cannot be said for IRL Fashion Week), but some shows will be reserved for VIPs.
According to the latest rumors, brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, Elie Saab and Paco Rabanne should also be there!
Fashion and NFT washing?
But brands don't just exploit the metaverse and NFTs as new sales channels. These have also become real weapons of mass communication, intended to restore the image of an industry which is not always singled out for its good deeds and its social impact.
NFTs and the metaverse thus offer brands a new way to engage with younger generations. Rebecca Minkoff used them as a means to promote the charity " The Female Founder Collective". A great success, since she sold 400 virtual clothes in less than 10 minutes via The Dematerialised.
What future for fashion in the Metaverse?
If brands seem so obsessed with metaverses, it is because they see it as an opportunity to innovate on the one hand and to find new customers on the other.
It's hard to predict the future, but a trend on which the fashion sector (like almost all fields of activity) will have to count is indeed that of an increasingly artistic blurring of the boundaries between virtual and physical experiences.
For luxury brands, which have long positioned themselves on an inaccessible image, the metaverse represents a real shift. And the possibility of being closer to their customers, and above all expanding their audience (even if virtual clothes are not much more affordable than their physical counterpart).
A subject that we have not covered in this article, but which deserves attention, it is also the advent of a new generation of influencers, and therefore brand ambassadors in the metaverse.
On this subject, you can read our article on virtual idols who have everything to be the ideal influencers of the virtual world.
A good way for creators to create their ideal muse, even if we can rightly fear their lack of roughness.
But the most exciting part is yet to come. Personally, I'm curious to see how the smaller creators are doing take over the metaverse to create outfits that we would only wear in our Instagram photos (bye bye the waste of Shein hauls).
Or how e-commerce platforms will create virtual fitting rooms in the metaverse to facilitate consumer choice and limit returns!
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