DIGITAL FASHION

spearheaded by Stefano Rosso, International Trade and Marketing ’03, who is CEO of BVX, the new Web3 arm of Diesel’s parent company, OTB group. In his previous role as CEO of Diesel North America, Rosso fell in love with gaming culture and recognized its growing importance. “I realized that gaming was going to change everything, from the entertainment system to the way we interact online,” he says.

Creating the first D:Verse collection was a learning experience. Rosso’s initial target audience the traditional Diesel consumer wasn’t interested, so he switched to Web3 natives, people who are already spending money sometimes large sums in the metaverse.

Rosso emphasizes the importance of making NFT ownership a continued benefit. “When you drop an NFT, you should not think the game is over that’s where the game starts. The community is investing in you, and they expect opportunities to come from it.”

D:Verse NFTs come with perks galore. Buyers get access to a private chat room for connecting with other fans, and to discounted NFT pre-sales, raffles, and additional digital wearables. Other benefits have included invitations to a Diesel fashion show in Milan and an event at the flagship in New York City, more digital wearables for their avatars and Snapchat filters, physical versions of the NFT fashions, and the ability to vote on the colors of a limited-edition sneaker.

Yet metaverse fashion is still in its infancy, says Jamie Pallot, an executive producer for Sensorium, a VR platform that creates large-scale immersive media experiences. He says brands that successfully market digital fashion are rare. “For every two or three examples of a creatively inspired, well-managed, and seamlessly handled project, there are tens if not hundreds of washout attempts where some brand says, ‘Hey, we made 100 NFTs of blah blah,’ and nobody buys them.”

Virtual Fashion Shows

in a desert, and on a sailboat.

“It was the first foray into using 3D virtual prototyping to create a new vision of the fashion exhibition that’s narrative but is situated in a metaverse,” says Michael Ferraro, executive director of the DTech Lab.

Democratizing Design

Digital design isn’t just for major brands; it’s creating new career possibilities for those who want to launch collections without a huge cash inflow. By day, Kevin Tung, Fashion Design ’16, works as an associate designer at White House Black Market; by night, he is building a career in digital fashion. His aha moment came in 2020, when a virtual pair of sneakers sold for $15,000. Those “Cybersneakers” were created by RTFKT (pronounced “artifact”), a digital fashion company that Nike acquired in 2021. RTFKT’s sneaker NFTs can now be worn in select metaverses and video games.

Tung joined a designer network called Digitalax and participated in Digital Fashion Week New York, which offers virtual runway shows, discussions, and a metaverse trade show. Many digital fashions are pure fantasy they defy gravity or look like they’re on fire, but Tung’s body-conscious pieces, accented with metallics, could be translated into fabric.

He believes digital fashion will be the breeding ground for future designers. “Every designer wants their own label, but you need a lot of money and time,” he says. “Digital fashion levels the playing field. In 10 years, I think you’re going to see a lot of creative directors getting their start in digital fashion.”

Metaverse Skeptics

Those who make the metaverse a part of their lives and a 2022 report by Citi predicts 5 billion users by 2030 will want to express their personality through fashion via their avatar. Fashion designers and brands are working to ensure consumers have plenty of options.

Nike, Gucci, and Balenciaga have spaces in the multiplayer online video games Fortnite and Roblox, where players can interact with digital fashions and even buy them. Luxury brands like Balenciaga and Prada staged virtual runway shows to present both digital versions of real garments and fantastical digital-only creations.

Some of these garments are sold as NFTs, which allows owners to wear them in multiple games and metaverses; others are less expensive copies, wearable only in the game where they’re purchased. In 2021, a digital Gucci bag on Roblox sold for $4,115, more than the retail price of the physical bag. And that wasn’t even an NFT.

Diesel launched its NFT brand D:Verse in February 2022, offering digital versions of four of the season’s runway fashions. The effort was

Most brands are still figuring out how and whether to present fashion shows in the metaverse. FIT’s DTech Lab is experimenting in this space. Since its founding in 2017, the innovation lab has helped apparel companies embrace digital fashion design. Recently, a partnership with Cotton Incorporated pioneered virtual fashion shows that tell a story. A team of students and faculty created narrative videos that put digital versions of studentdesigned cotton garments into 3D environments to demonstrate high-tech finishes and inspire designers to use them. The three dramatic videos show avatars in a snowscape,

To many, interacting in the metaverse sounds exciting, a peak experience and a demonstration of the wonders of technology. To others, it sounds depressing. “I am in no way sold on the metaverse,” says curator Danielle Paterson, Art Market Studies MA ’22, Photography and the Digital Image ’20. “I don’t want to go to a party from my couch.”

But the metaverse era does seem to be happening, whether we like it or not. Double A Labs founder Amber Allen compares it with the adoption of the internet. “In ’94, Katie Couric was like, I don’t want this internet. And now it’s everything. If I told you 20 years ago that we’re going to find our lovers, our community, our shopping online, would you have believed me? I promise this new shift will be the same.”