A spectacular dress, a crinoline of multicolored overlays, taken from designer Roksanda’s show, which has just ended at the British Museum in London, faces the same dress on a digital screen, which will soon come to dress the avatars of the metaverse.
In the middle of London Fashion Week, from February 18 to 22, professionals focused on February 21, during an event dedicated to the future of the sector, on the rise in force of NFTs, the metaverse, the augmented reality in the industry of fine fabrics and sophisticated drapes.
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According to Caroline Rush, director of the British Fashion Council (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 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, the same as that which authenticates transactions. of cryptocurrency exchanges.
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 2021 the launch of its first collection with NFT and its American competitor Nike acquired RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”), a digital fashion start-up 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 in London. It’s also a way for designers to imagine clothes that are beyond the realm of possibility, like flaming boots or water dresses.
And for brands, augmented reality allows all kinds of customers to suddenly be dressed in their colors: “imagine wearing augmented reality glasses and suddenly seeing the whole audience dressed as Roksanda…”imagines Leanne-Elliott Young, co-founder of the Institute of Digital Fashion.
In December 2021, the Parisian couturier Julien Fournié – who dresses extremely wealthy clients in Asia and the Middle East – had propelled his elitist fashion “in the metaverse” via PUBG MOBILE Battle Royale Game by allowing players to acquire ballet-inspired clothing and accessories Nutcracker for their avatar.
Spring-Summer 2022 Men’s Fashion Week and Fall-Winter 2021-22 Haute Couture Week were the first fashion weeks to feature an NFT experience. The first by offering journalists, photographers, influencers and buyers, via a QR code to scan, a NFT of a numbered digital artwork by illustrator Richard Haines.
The second with the Aelis house which had unveiled Luce Immortal, an artistic and eco-responsible project offering a dress from its fall-winter 2021-22 collection in the form of 5 NFTs. This event extending into the real world through the presentation of this dress to the four corners of the world thus forming a bridge between the universe physical and virtual.