From Gucci to Balenciaga, big fashion brands are making their way into the metaverse.
Although public interest in the metaverse hasn’t been lost entirely, brands are trying to capitalize on its popularity.
Many luxury brands have already jumped on the gamification bandwagon, selling branded skins and buying land in the metaverse.
We’ve already visited Decentraland Fashion Week, played the Balenciaga game, and regularly seen digital collections transition from mass market to luxury.
Also, on Web3, there is a serious showdown between the Hermès brand and the artist Mason Rothchild, the man behind the MetaBirkins leather bag non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This event has drawn public attention to the fact that Hermès uses the fur of exotic animals while the digital fur is just an image. MetaBirkin poses an important question: “What do luxury lovers pay for?”
Hermès claims that MetaBirkin uses the brand for its own benefit. His answer, effectively, is that it’s none of his business: artists draw what they want. It is a virtual creative content, not a physical product, and not even a counterfeit. In other words, a digital bag cannot be sued.
Also, if someone has a digital version of Birkin, they would probably like to buy a real bag by buying a token.
MetaBirkin does not harm Hermès’ business in any way. Perhaps it will even attract a new audience, making a product more modern and fashionable.
Anyway, this case is a wake-up call for luxury brands, indicating that they need to launch their digital fashion departments or cooperate with contemporary artists who are already online.
In general, NFT Birkin bags are very popular: Sellers digitize their vintage bags and sell them as NFTs, producing a real one at the same time. Kanye West bought one for his girlfriend, Cheney Jones, for a staggering $275,000. Is this a surprise? With NFTs, such a bag becomes modern art and is considered an investment both in real life and in NFTs.
After these situations, it is clear that the world of fashion has moved to digital fashion. Who is going to miss out on the hype once again and make some extra cash?
Well, first of all, brands started producing their own NFTs, which gives access to a private fan club. It’s like a favorite customer’s membership card, but more expensive. It can also be bought, resold and won, but it is not guaranteed.
Tiffany’s offers an example: TiffCoin. Of course, there are only 499 in circulation, and they debuted at a price of 30 Ether (ETH). If you buy one, you will have access to exclusive brand events. However, in reality, what you are buying is “something hidden”. You do not know the type of events or how long you will have access to them. But perhaps the owner could be a collector or an honorary customer of Tiffany & Co.
Dolce & Gabbana did the same, but they went further and launched up to three versions of their boxes. Dolce offers three types of boxes: the Black has an NFT with physical and digital drops, along with invites to events in the metaverse, the Gold box has invites to live events, and the Platinum has more exclusive offers.
One by one, brands are starting to offer the opportunity to buy real clothes in their boutiques with crypto. Cryptocurrency holders can now shop at Philipp Plein, Gucci, Off-white, and Balenciaga.
To pay in style, they need a suitable wallet. Fendi will help them. After all, they were the ones who presented their Ledger collaboration crypto wallets at Men’s Fashion Week. They look like the small iconic Fendi Baguette bags but in Web3.
Now, brands are producing the same collections digitally and in reality. For example, Zara jumped at the opportunity to make their brand known, so they launched a digital version of their clothes. Despite his reasoning, who wants to go to Zara’s metaverse that has no difference from the real one. Although it is a difficult start, there could be a better one in the future.
But Dolce & Gabbana went further, adapting their ideas in real time to the metaverse. First of all, he dressed the cats; Second, the clothes shimmered and shone because in the Metaverse, brands have to stand out, especially to customers who have enough money to buy a Dolce & Gabbana fur.
Usually, digital fashion continues to be an instrument for capturing an audience, free from media traffic. Brands understand it very well, they publish that you have something digital and that’s it, it will spread at the speed of light.
For example, Adidas has launched an AI-generated, personality-based avatar creation platform: answer a few questions and choose a pair of shoes. It’s the same ad campaign: Everyone decides to make their avatars and post them on social media; is the best marketing. Of course every avatar looks the same, but that’s not the point.
And finally, all this digital fashion has moved onto the catwalk.
At Metaverse Fashion Week, the Etro brand brought out its Liquid Paisley collection. And, in real time, it turned out to be much fresher than current brand trends.
Now, there’s more:
- silver metallic textures,
- Suits,
- Suspender mini skirts, such as selecting a piece of clothing when creating a character,
- Big thick shoes
- long black leather coats,
- Wet Look Hairstyles: A style that is difficult to reproduce in 3D due to the texture,
- Glasses from the “cyber world” that all the self-respecting brands have already launched, from Balenciaga to Coperni.
We are all loaded into the Matrix. The fashion of cybernetic aesthetics has come back to us, after the great popularity of the Wachowskis’ film, in addition to how natural it is in modern life.
Now more than ever, audiences should want to dress like the Trinity from The Matrix, in a Balenciaga coat, Gucci sunglasses, and a Metabirkin—a real one—with a dangling Fendi x Ledger crypto wallet.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should do their own research when making a decision. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.