Moda / Fashion
Fashion loves the Metaverse The emperor’s new digital clothes or the future of brands?
ters wears a digitally branded sweat- shirt that you can also buy in the real world – for a price of 725 eu- ros. As a comparison, in Fortnite currency the same item would cost you around 1000 V-Bucks, which is slightly over ten euros. Famous American designer Ralph Lauren and his creative team created digi- tal ski equipment that you can wear in Roblox’s Ralph Lauren Winter Escape, while French luxury sports brand Lacoste has secured its place in Minecraft: apart from the digi- tal wardrobe, an actual capsule col- lection that’s available for real-life purchasing has also come to life. The giants of mass fashion that are Spain’s Zara and Sweden’s H&M also wanted their own slice of this “digital cake”, thus you also can buy their “unreal” pieces in shops, and not only in the Metaverse. This might not have proved to be an in- stantly lucrative project, but it cer- tainly served as a great marketing catchphrase – especially in this age of sustainability, when all the com- panies that brand tons of clothing in season are under scrutiny. This all inevitably also led to a real-life fashion show inspired by adventures in digital style - one such show was held in Bangkok in early autumn and generated great interest. Still, regardless of how creative and exciting all of these collabora- tions have proven to be, their mon- etisation is still only a small piece of the complex capitalist puzzle. No one knows what the global fashion market will look like in six months, let alone in ten years, so it still ap- plies that one Chanel bag in the hand is worth a thousand in the digital bush.
Fashion has “changed clothing” in the Metaverse, and it’s the year’s most fascinating “makeover” The situation is clear, the fashion industry is generating serious profits in the Metaverse, utilising this fascinat- ing platform to reach new demo- graphics, expand market reach and promote the latest (branded) goods. It was this March when the world witnessed the first ever Metaverse Fashion Week – a four- day virtual event packed with fash- ion shows, panel discussions and other digital events that unfolded in the virtual three-dimensional world of Decentraland. Prestigious fash- ion brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Et- ro and Roberto Cavalli accepted to participate, and anyone who was online was able to log in, browse and buy. In Decentraland, the avatars of users can roam the platform, hang out, play games, sell and buy everything from digital real estate to fashion items – using cryptocur-
rency. According to experts in this “brave new world”, this format is particularly attractive to globally in- fluential manufacturers of clothing, footwear and accessories, and they will increasingly approach the sale of digital fashion according to the principle of NFT art. Choosing the right outfit for your avatar will be aspirational for the average user, just like shopping in the real world. The validity of this hypothe- sis will most likely be confirmed with Generation Z and Millenni- als, who are expected to be able to spend around five hours a day in the Metaverse in the next five years. That’s one of the conclu- sions of an extensive study by McK- insey – meaning that all that screen time won’t leave a lot of time to get dressed and leave the house. For now, fashion brands are mostly in the phase of raising aware- ness of this new market and collab- orating with developers to create dif- ferent clothing options of this new dimension. Famous fashion com- pany Balenciaga has joined forces with the creators of the game Fort- nite, in which one of the charac-
Odabir prave odevne kombinacije za avatar biće aspirativan za prosečnog korisnika, baš kao što je kupovina u stvarnom životu Choosing the right outfit for your avatar will be aspirational for the average user, just like shopping in the real world
68 | Metavers » Metaverse
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