Would you buy clothes that don't exist? And how much would you be willing to pay them?
There are articles claiming that virtual fashion will someday be ubiquitous.
We are all increasingly living in something that is called the metataverse.
The metataverse is nothing more than the transformation of the internet from a two-dimensional platform to a three-dimensional environment.
The dematerialization of fashion is here and will change the fashion industry as we know it.
Digital fashion seems like something from the future to many of us, but, in reality, we have already been creating our digital persona since the birth of social media.
Fashion is a $ 2.5 trillion global industry that touches everyone on earth.
When the world was at home during the pandemic, there was still a place to go out and get dressed.
Welcome to the metataverse.
The metaverse originated from video games, where players already spend over $ 100 billion annually on virtual goods.
Dressing up avatars has come a long way and video games have become a profitable means for luxury fashion brands to reach new customers.
Screenwear is the new streetwear.
Production of a digital garment emits 97% less CO2 than a physical one.
The downside? Minting and mining NFT requires skyrocketing energy consumption in the real world. The shift to more environmentally efficient methods can’t come fast enough.
Yet virtual fashion facilitates the expression of multiple selves in a virtual world where brands recreate the experiences that define fashion culture, while not forgetting our eternal joy of getting dressed up in real life.
Fashion plays such a big role in helping people express their identity. And if lots of people are starting to spend a lot of time in virtual spaces it seems natural, then, that they could use fashion as a vehicle for expressing their identity in those spaces.
We used to take photographs and have them developed and hang them up in our homes. Most kids don’t even have physical photos, they only have collections of digital photos. So we could expect the same thing with many physical things. Why would I want a collection of stuff that no one can see, when I can have a collection of digital stuff that everyone can see?
Digital garments will help us express ourselves in ways we weren’t able to do before by creating a digital look for our digital self.
Anyone can wear anything no metter what body type, gender or age: digital fashion is universal!
On social media, your digital self could be expressive with hundreds of new clothing items while in real life, you could have a minimalist capsule wardrobe.
But how will we use virtual fashion?
You can wear it on your real self thought an AR filter or you can take it into a computer game or your virtual avatar on social media.
There are already social pages of digital influencers, increasingly requested by fashion brands.
Digital influencers sponsor brands, participate at the most glamorous events, tell their daily life on social media and are style icons.
Historically, fashion had a poor track record in anticipating and adapting to new technologies and platform shifts. But this time around, the big brands seem to be moving faster. Whether they can compete with the digitally native entrepreneurs defining the space? Well, that remains to be seen.