(London) A spectacular dress, a crinoline of multicolored overlays, taken from designer Roksanda’s show which has just ended at the British Museum, faces the same dress on a digital screen, which will soon come to dress the avatars of the metaverse.
Posted at 2:05 p.m.
In the midst of London Fashion Week, professionals discussed Monday, at an event dedicated to the future of the sector, the rise of NFTs, the metaverse, augmented reality in the beauty industry. sophisticated fabrics and drapes.
According to Caroline Rush, director of the British Fashion Council, the British fashion federation, brands must already think about their presence in this parallel universe at the risk of quickly finding themselves overwhelmed.
The metaverse, contraction of meta and universe, is a network of interconnected virtual spaces accessible through augmented or virtual reality (AR or VR) glasses, and sometimes described as the future of the internet.
NFTs — non-fungible tokens or non-fungible tokens in French – are tamper-proof certificates of authenticity and ownership, based on blockchain technology (blockchain), the same one that authenticates cryptocurrency exchange transactions.
For brands, it’s a way to connect with the three billion fans of video games in the world and sell them digital products: even in the world of avatars, some take care of their look.
Adidas announced in December the launch of its first collection with NFT and its American competitor Nike acquired RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”), a digital fashion start-up company which is also based on a blockchain.
According to the digital press, RTFKT sold hundreds of pairs of virtual sneakers last year in just six minutes, for $3.1 million.
NFTs would also be a way to democratize fashion, by making it possible to buy digital designer clothing for a small sum, participants in the discussion panel said on Monday in London.
It is also a way for designers to imagine clothes that go beyond the realm of the possible, such as boots that ignite or even dresses in water.
And for brands, augmented reality allows all kinds of customers to suddenly be dressed in their colors: “imagine that you are wearing augmented reality glasses and that all of a sudden you see all this audience dressed in Roksanda…”, imagine Leanne-Elliott Young, co-founder of the Institute of Digital Fashion.