The Fashion Metaverse: An Inside Look

INTEGRATION OF FASHION IN THE METAVERSE

Fashion is an integral player in the Metaverse with many luxury brands such as LVMH, Gucci, and Balmain creating digital luxury wearables and experiences for their consumers. Many fashion luxury brands are also buying up real-estate on platforms such as SandBox Games expanding within this vast landscape. According to Matthieu Nouzareth of SandBox Games, “About two thirds of SandBox real-estate on the Metaverse have already been purchased.” 

With huge brands taking up space within the Metaverse, Meta, formally known as Facebook, has begun creating their first luxury marketplace and recently collaborated with brands such as Prada, Thom Browne, and Balenciaga to create digital wearable collections for avatars within the Metaverse. These avatars are becoming digitised expressions of people with Meta stating, "Avatars can convey how much of an extrovert or introvert you are, your sense of humour and even your fashion sense." 

LVMH x League of Legends collaboration

WHAT ARE THESE BRANDS DOING?

Burberry is also finding its place in the Metaverse by furthering its partnership with Mythical Games’s Blankos Block Party. Burberry is developing a branded virtual world, introducing new characters and distributing virtual accessories in the game. Following a successful launch last year with their digital Burberry-branded Sharky B character and corresponding accessories, Burberry is releasing a new unicorn character called Minny B.

Gucci has been another early and notable adopter, having recently extended its early partnership with Roblox while building out new real estate in The Sandbox. In 2019, Louis Vuitton began a historic collaboration with League of Legends, and since then, it has released a game of its own where players may earn NFTs for learning about the brand's history.

Designers such as Rebecca Minkoff became the first female American designer to enter the Metaverse in 2021. So Far Minkoff has created 2 NFT drops and her most recent drop only exists in the Metaverse with Minkoff explaining, “There is no physics. So the weight of a garment, like a jewel-encrusted gown that would weigh hundreds of pounds in the real world, could work in the metaverse.”

Rebecaa Minkoff NFT collection one

COMMUNITY BUILDING IN THE METAVERSE

A recent study done by McKinsey&Co showed that there has already been over $120 billion invested into the Metaverse in 2022 and 79% of consumers active on the Metaverse have made a purchase. It is projected that there will be between $5-8 trillion invested in the Metaverse by 2030 . Researchers have already found that gaming platforms are expanding to multiple uses such as socializing and attending virtual concerts. For the luxury brands industry, games have evolved to be testing grounds for concepts like digital fashion and virtual worlds, even beyond the concept of competition-based gameplay.

With Fashion brands beginning to create digital experiences on the Metaverse, companies such as Decentraland launched Metaverse Fashion Week earlier in 2022 and showcased digital wearables from brands such as The Fabricant and Etro. Fashion technology companies such as The ORDRE Group (TOG), began creating customisable virtual showrooms for high-fashion firms. These virtual showrooms allow buyers and retailers to experience the brand’s showrooms without being physically present. These experiences are showcased through a virtual lens thus helping alleviate over-arching travel costs by making the buying/selling process more attainable. 

Metaverse Fashion Week 2022

With many fashion brands heading into the world of Web 3.0, these brands need to ask themselves how they are adding to the value of their community within these virtual spaces. Simone Berry of People of Crypto explains that brands need to recognize the key differences between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. These brands also need to ensure that they are incorporating the brand’s ethos into the community they are building within the Metaverse. With the difficulty of tracking key performance indicators in virtual spaces, fashion brands entering the Metaverse need to be representing themselves to the highest calibre from point of entry thus ensuring their communities are ethical and functioning at optimal levels. KPIs will be more difficult to track and measure as brands move progressively into these uncharted territories.