The infinite world of digital fashion

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute was right when it chose "Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology" as the theme for its 2016 exhibition. Debuting on the first Monday in May with its annual Met Gala, which featured a red carpet with outfits inspired by those from the sci-fi future: metallic beads and sequins, gravity-defying 3D appliqués and glow-in-the-dark gowns.

, to name a few, no one would have imagined that we would be in a world of digital fashion less than a decade later.

Now, in an era where terms like "NFTs" and "metaverses" have become part of everyday conversation, it's time virtual clothing proudly took the spotlight.

Understanding the fashion for the digital space begins with understanding the technology in 2023. More specifically, the latest generation of the Internet, also known as Web 3.0 or more commonly known as Web3.

We don't necessarily need to know the minutiae of cryptocurrencies or DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) to be a patron or a spectator of fashion's foray into the space.

Still, a basic understanding of the style set's intersection with the Web3 world can't hurt.

The main space you need to see?

The metaverse.

“Right now, there are two burgeoning concepts of a metaverse for fashion,” Tobi Ajala, founder and CEO of TechTee., a digital agency specializing in luxury and fashion, says: “First, you enter a [virtual] space without an avatar, but you have access to all these virtual assets, like Gucci Garden.”

Ajala further explains that this route channels the experience of walking through a museum or window-shopping, but in an elevated way.

More often than not, it serves as an extension of the brand.

The user has a personal avatar that they can customize and dress up to experience the brand in a whole new way.

You might remember a time in 2019 and 2020 when brands like Moschino and Valentino were creating specific digital collections for video game franchises like The Sims and Animal Crossing, respectively, and they sure weren't the only ones.

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Since then, clothing made with vectors and pixels instead of fabric and stitching has become more common.

Case in point: Burberry's gaming collaboration with Minecraft, "Burberry: Freedom to Go Beyond," was one of the biggest gaming collaborations of 2022. According to Phillip Hennche, director of channel innovation at Burberry, collaborating with franchises from Video games like Minecraft allow the brand to engage with its audience in a whole new way.

“Minecraft, as a game, lives in the digital.

It is about the creation of virtual universes.

On the Burberry side, we essentially do the same thing, but in a physical way.

We have our stores, we have our product, and we have created a brand universe within that,” he says.

The collaboration featured Burberry-branded digital merchandise such as an Equestrian Knight character, a monogram maze and unique Burberry x Minecraft "skins."

“Self-expression, for us, has always been very important,” adds Minecraft consumer products director Federico San Martín.

“Personalization is key to allowing us to represent ourselves as people and in the world of gaming.

This is a space that is evolving;

now we see people trying to represent themselves the same way they are as humans in video games.”

With that in mind, the British fashion house also created a physical Minecraft-themed capsule collection for fans of the brand to shop and mix and match their characters.

Now, customizing your avatar goes beyond combining clothes.

Although, who among us doesn't want to see a digital mini-me running through these virtual worlds?

It becomes a new form of self-expression.

According to the Institute for the Future of Marketing, there is a growing demand for digital fashion: 47% of consumers are "interested in digital clothing, and 87% have already purchased some form of digital fashion."

To Ajala, this makes sense.

“If you want longer hair as a digital avatar, you just press a button or pay $3.

Meanwhile, if you're in the real world, it could take years to let your hair get to shoulder length,” she says.

"There are definitely human validation methods and elements in there, but right now, I see all of these things as contributing factors,

Another way to rock digital fashion is through AR, which is like George Yashin and ZERO10, an augmented reality fashion platform, has been experimenting with beautiful and literally out-of-this-world designs.

“The main power of this platform and the entire digital fashion movement is to create something that cannot exist in real life.

We see the most requested items [at ZERO10] are crazy wings and dresses with weird physics.”

The main benefit of this type of technology (besides the fun, of course), he mentions, is that you can now make a smarter buying decision, which ultimately leads to fewer returns and less carbon spent on shipping. .

Beyond interactive video games and virtual dressing rooms, how else can you interact with digital fashion assets?

Many designers have released their own NFTs.

Ajala, who believes that NFTs will be more successful in the arts, fashion, sports and music industries, says that the value is in the love of the object.

With virtual tryouts, video games, metaverse fashion shows, and NFTs only marking the beginning of how we experience digital fashion, there's no telling what will come next, but rest assured it will only make the industry stronger.

via ELLEUSA

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