Deciphering Luxury Fashions' Entrance to the Metaverse (Article)

Deciphering Luxury Fashions' ENTRANCE TO THE METAVERSE

BY PORTIA GREENIG

As luxury fashion prepares for a digital future, its entrance to the metaverse exposes the attitudes of overconsumption plaguing modern culture, which brands must resolve through more than digital garments.

As we ascend the steps to Electric/City, we find ourselves in a rainy, neo-noir-like cityscape resembling New York’s concrete jungle and Tokyo’s bright neon lights. The rain has not dampened the city’s energy as shoppers pour into Central Square, taking photos and chatting with friends. Yet, a particular feature gives this place its unique identity: it does not physically exist.

Electric/City is a digital world born from London-based designer Charli Cohen, in collaboration with the iconic luxury retail giant Selfridges. It is among a growing wave of projects using fashion to traverse the metaverse. The metaverse, a concept born in Neil Stephensons 1992 novel ‘Snow Crash’, is an immersive online world where people can interact and socialise via personal avatars or augmented reality (AR). In Electric/City, shoppers can buy physical and digital garments to dress a unique avatar with access to more than 300 virtual spaces across the metaverse. “We can give customers the ability to choose whether they want a physical or digital Charli Cohen garment and, if digital, what platforms they want to take it into”, Cohen said of her project. Consumers can view Charli Cohen’s collection alongside the likes of Balenciaga, who recently collaborated with Fortnite to offer styles that individuals can wear in real-life or within the game. These campaigns are a testament to the transition of luxury fashion to the digital sphere.

Periods of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic have increased individuals’ desire to express their identities online. Many consider their digital identity an extension of themselves which they can use to curate their desired image. Insight from a Business of Fashion analysis supports this notion; 70% of US consumers now see their digital identity as important - a statistic that many luxury brands seemed to consider in their recent shifts of interest in marketing strategies.

While digital fashion campaigns aim to satiate our need to express a distinct online identity, their growing presence unveils the increasing overconsumption of luxury goods. Although luxury fashion is traditionally associated with craftsmanship, scarcity, and high quality, social media has increased its accessibility to young, digitally native consumers, namely Generation Z and Millennials, who now drive the industry. Social media has considerable influence on their buying behaviour, as they consider trending styles seen on the internet when curating their digital identity. “We have reached the generation

where people are buying things to post online”, said Ommy Akhe, a creative technologist specialising in fashion-based augmented reality. While this makes it easier for brands to track the interests of the target consumer, individuals’ immediate access to new items is also a double-edged sword, leading many to develop a ‘disposable’ attitude towards luxury items. “One in every ten social media users in the United States buys clothes just to show online”, Akhe said. “Longetivity does not matter as much anymore”.

One of the critical arguments for the transition of fashion to the digital world is that it is a remedy for the increasing overconsumption observed in fashion retail. On average, individuals are consuming over 60% more than a decade ago, and articles of clothing are worn only 7 times before disposal. The number is even lower in China, despite Chinese consumers accounting for a third of shares in the global luxury market. The impacts of overconsumption are apparent; in the United States, 62% of the 32 billion garments produced a year end up in landfills or incineration, according to a study by ThredUp. Social media spurs on overconsumption via continuous wardrobe updating to ‘keep up’ with trends and attitudes against outfit re-wearing.

While, at the moment, fashion’s presence in the metaverse mainly consists of dressing avatars, as seen in Electric/City, experts predict that technological developments will allow brands to push the boundaries further. We may soon be able to use AR immersive technology to purchase and wear garments that do not physically exist, meaning disposal of these styles can be relatively waste-free. “We imagine that everyone will walk around with AR glasses on... Then you’re walking down the street in a black hoodie and some black jeans, you’ve bought a digital fashion garment, and every single person that walks past you wearing AR glasses is gonna see you wearing that garment,” said James Joseph, founder of CYBR magazine.

Digital fashion is seemingly compatible with many consumers’ single-use mentality. Individuals can purchase an item relevant to a particular season that they can wear via AR camera filters to post online, without the drawbacks of physical overconsumption. With digital fashion, fewer materials go to waste, and industry figures predict decreased carbon emissions from reduced production and reduced transport of styles to consumers.

Consumer interest in digitalised luxury is high. Dolce & Gabbana sold a nine-piece digital NFT collection that can be superimposed on smartphone cameras and worn in augmented reality for the equivalent of 5.7 million USD in cryptocurrency (ETH) in their Alta Moda show in September. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are unique digital artefacts that consumers can transfer to AR and gaming platforms. They are one of the ways luxury brands are beginning to offer digital fashion. This year, Gucci collaborated with AR startup, Wanna, to release sneakers wearable in AR. “Gucci has proved that people are willing to spend money on virtual products and will uphold the same value of a virtual product as a physical one,” said Akhe. Additionally, Electric/ City generated so much public interest that the experience remained in Selfridges for a month longer than originally planned. It is clear that the future of luxury lies in the digital realm, which can allow brands to offer consumers an abundance of products without generating waste.

However, digital fashion will not end consumers’ overconsumption of physical products, as a world where fashion has moved entirely to the metaverse would be unrealistic. “The physical store and clothes are always going to be the centre of experience and connection for consumers,” Akhe said. While, in the future, digital styles may become a regular occurrence, there will always be the physical aspect to fashion. The overconsumption of goods is not rectifiable through digital fashion alone. The Ellen Macarthur foundation predicts that, if brands continue catering to attitudes of overconsumption, over 150 million tonnes of clothing waste will clog landfills by 2050. Luxury brands will soon have to face their impact on the planet, regardless of whether they offer digital products. To combat the effects of overconsumption, they must find ways to encourage and implement sustainable practises.

While luxury’s transition to the metaverse is seemingly inevitable, digital garments will never fully replace the physical aspect of luxury fashion. As industry leaders, it is time luxury brands recognise that, even if they offer digital fashion, catering to consumers’ overconsumption is unsustainable. As industry leaders, it is time luxury brands recognise that, even if they offer digital fashion, catering to consumers’ overconsumption is unsustainable.