Fashions place in the Metaverse
The world is ever changing, technology is dictating daily life. Many industries are starting to understand the benefits of recent technological advancements and are looking to diversify to cater for a generation becoming completely dependent on smartphones. The proliferation of portable technology has changed the way consumers look at products, leading businesses to adapt to the demand of the digital age.
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The fashion industry is not immune to these demands, and the task of finding the balance between retaining the art form and not falling behind the times is going to be a difficult balancing act. Is fashion still fashion if it can’t be touched or worn? Imagine watching a Saturn Fashion Week through your virtual reality headset whilst sat in your front room. The amount of opportunity that is certain to arise from this newfound medium, is going to change what we think we know about modern day fashion.
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Facebook recently
announced the rebranding
of its company, transitioning
into simply ‘Meta’, with plans
for the next step in the
evolution of social media. In
a promotional video, posted
on the CNET YouTube
channel, Mark Zuckerberg
announced his newest
aspiration: “You’re going to
be able to bring things from the physical world into the Metaverse. Almost any type of media that can be represented digitally; photos, videos, art, music, movies, games, books you name it.” The Metaverse is the culmination of social media. A virtual world, an augmented reality, think Ready Player One if you’ve seen that movie, or read the book by Ernest Cline.
What does the Metaverse mean for the future of fashion? Personalities will be presented through avatars, wearing virtual pieces from designers that feature in the physical world. Picture this, you are walking down Oxford Street, virtual reality headset on and all around you are avatars sporting the newest pieces from the most popular designers. One of the most popular sports brands of all time, adidas, recently entered the virtual fashion scene. In December of 2021, the German sports powerhouse collaborated with Yuga Labs, the creator of Bored Ape NFTs. Bored Apes have taken over social media recently and a whole array of celebrities have been investing in this new internet craze, with some paying up to 769 ETH (£1,681,839) for what is essentially a glorified screenshot. The market is clearly healthy and holds lots of opportunity for anyone willing to exploit it.
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Another, more recent example of fashion going virtual was at the Prada FW22 show, which occurred on January 16. Puerto-Rican NFT booster, G money was invited to the event, which he celebrated by only posted pictures displaying his new investment. Priced at 140 ETH (£124,309), the investor has pioneered a new element to the high fashion world, expanding horizons and created new avenues for creativity.
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Image Source: Unsplash
Image Source: Unsplash
I had the opportunity to speak to up-and-coming business owner Umar Niaz. The UAL student shared his thoughts on the process of growing a business, his ideas about moving into the virtual world and the challenges that may arise with meeting the demands of a new type of customer base.
Umar started UFN London, to provide high quality everyday essentials. The garments feature simple, punchy designs displaying text of different areas around London. The brand offers affordable prices, while remaining transparent about the production process and the work that goes into developing their products. Using only Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) factories to enable close monitoring of all stages of manufacturing. UFN commented on its website: “We are not here to pretend we are perfect, and we have a long way to go but in every aspect of our brand we are implementing ways to create longer lasting, higher quality and beautiful garments.”
The garments feature simple, punchy designs displaying text of different areas around London. The brand offers affordable prices, while remaining transparent about the production process and the work that goes into developing their products. Using only Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) factories to enable close monitoring of all stages of manufacturing. UFN commented on its website: “We are not here to pretend we are perfect, and we have a long way to go but in every aspect of our brand we are implementing ways to create longer lasting, higher quality and beautiful garments.”
Niaz is looking to one day diversify UFN and move into the virtual realm, however like a lot of us, he doesn’t have a full understanding of what this entails: “I’m not going to lie. I don’t know anywhere near as much as I’d like to, however seriously think it has a lot of potential and once people know how to use it, they can really start to capitalise.” The potential for success can be seen across social media, it only seems natural that the world is going to become increasingly virtual as time goes on. Niaz says: “In the future I would 100% like to get involved as I see the industry going in this direction.”
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With the fashion industry being one of the world’s biggest polluters, the introduction of the Metaverse may help to reduce the carbon footprint. “Some aspects of virtual fashion are going to be really beneficial, especially when talking about climate change,” says Niaz. The volume of production will be massively reduced. Helsinki Fashion Week SS20, went completely digital, because of the pandemic, which lead to the carbon footprint of each guest to drop from 37kg to 0.66kg.
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“It will be up to the old fashioned, traditional designers and brands to keep up and adapt or risk being left behind,” says Niaz, and it certainly feels that this is a big talking point when it comes to virtual fashion. So just how will the big fashion houses be able to evolve their brands to keep up to date with the technological advances that are happening in the world. It feels that the ‘future’ is arriving.
