The Metaverse and it’s Involvement with the Fashion Industry
More fashion brands are building awareness in the metaverse, a term which has recently received a lot more recognition due to social media networking site Facebook changing their name to Meta. Prior to this, the term metaverse was not regularly heard of and has since given consumers an understanding of the term and the idea of a parallel world. For those unaware of the term, Marjorie Hernandez and Karinna Nobbs who are co-founders of digital fashion start-up, The Dematerialised, echo Rogers, describe the Metaverse as “nothing but the Internet breaking free from the two-dimensional barrier into this three-dimensional environment… that starts blurring more and more with our daily life.” This week, the RealTime Conference was held between Monday 13th December to Wednesday 15th December 2021 to bring together cross-industry experts on an international scale with the theme being ‘The Rise of the Metaverse: Populating the Metaverse’. The conference informed consumers of how digital fashion is key for the future of the metaverse and how avatars and environments in live broadcast enable consumers a new experience, as well as many more topics. This alone reflects how this digital world is becoming a normality that can be easily accessed when desired.
Ralph Lauren is taking steps into the metaverse as the brand is debuting their first digital fashion line in Roblox Corporation’s virtual world. Roblox Corporation is a California based video game developer providing a global platform with the mission to bring people together through play. A ‘Winter Escape’ experience is available where players can participate in various winter activities such as ice skating. Users can try clothing on their avatar and purchase items from the Polo Shops, which features eight different sportswear looks taken from the Polo Sport, Stadium, and Snow Beach archives and inspiration from the 1990 Ralph Lauren Sport line. Items are predicted to be priced around 125 to 300 Robux which equates to approximately $1.25 to $3, with more looks such as limited-edition accessories and bonus items to be released weekly.
“Our engagement in the metaverse is a natural extension of our lifestyle brand which, at its core, has always been about stepping into the worlds of Ralph Lauren. Our partnership with Roblox builds on years of digital innovation and underlines our belief in the opportunity that virtual spaces and economies present—especially when it comes to the next generation of consumers.” – Alice Delahunt, Chief Digital and Content Officer at Ralph Lauren.
This isn’t Ralph Lauren’s first experience with the metaverse, as they previously released a digital clothing collection in August with South Korea’s virtual world Zepeto by Naver Corporation which featured three interactive Ralph Lauren-themed spaces to offer users the opportunity to explore via their avatars. Since this launch, the fashion brand gained 1.5 million visitors as well as selling 145,000 products.
This isn’t Ralph Lauren’s first experience with the metaverse, as they previously released a digital clothing collection in August with South Korea’s virtual world Zepeto by Naver Corporation which featured three interactive Ralph Lauren-themed spaces to offer users the opportunity to explore via their avatars. Since this launch, the fashion brand gained 1.5 million visitors as well as selling 145,000 products.
Ralph Lauren’s announcement hasn’t been the only news for the metaverse, as Exthereeal’s digital conference occurred two weeks ago where we saw keynote speakers from various industries at the virtual Nordic event. Exthereal’s aim to introduce a wider audience to virtual fashion was demonstrated through speeches and participants as fashion students, gaming representatives, entertainment industry members, fashion brands, and crypto professionals united. One of the solutions discussed featured a showroom with more than 20 digital items, including a collection by DressX, a platform which offers various virtual garments. The showroom could be visited through a Virtual Reality headset using AltspaceVR. The event was focussed around sustainability in particular, discussing that in order to stay relevant brands must cooperate with creative people and help to build communities which starts with cross-industry co-operations.
“This is the most sustainable way to visit a showroom or a fashion show - no physical clothes were shipped for this project and there is no need to travel to visit the showroom. When people buy and return many items online, there is a huge carbon footprint on our planet. Digital fashion can disrupt the industry and reduce pollution by reducing the postage returns from online stores. This is the future of sustainable fashion.” - Olesja Hännikäinen, co-founder of Exthereal.
It's interesting to see new advancements within the digital fashion industry, as it offers consumers more opportunities to express their fashion interests virtually rather than purchasing physical clothing that will affect the environment through its production and when discarded. However, brands can use this to their advantage to gain insight into interest of their collection by analysing how consumers react to the products before releasing a physical collection.
Do you think the opportunity to explore fashion within the metaverse will cause a reduction in physical sales?
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(Information sourced from: fashionunited.uk, fashionnetwork.com, europarl.europa.eu)
Image 1 sourced by H Heyerlein, Unsplash
Image 2 sourced by Robynne Hu, Unsplash
Image 3 sourced by Gerd Altmann, Pixabay
Image 4 sourced by Okan Caliskan, Pixabay