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Crypto may be struggling to make it out of winter, but models at Decentraland’s second annual fashion week are unloading digital swag and making the night look like it’s 2021.
as if Maria Gracia Santillana Linares And Nina BambishevaForbes staff
Sfight Next to the X-shaped runway at Decentraland’s second annual four-day fashion week, a crowd with a head as big as a taco is partially obstructing the view of Norwegian designer Peter Dundas, Beyoncé’s latest ready-to-wear creation, recalling the grace of a fictional fashion model, Jones sprinting across the runway and occasionally leaping into flight. To hit a spot.
No problem, just walk Through Mr. Taco, and another avatar wearing pink neon “zzzz” glasses with a giant marijuana leaf behind him and another in a traditional Korean hanbok to get an unobstructed front view of the stage. Instead of ogling celebrities, the biggest challenge of attending a runway show in this ethereum blockchain-based meta version of a real fashion week in Paris or Milan is trying not to get distracted by the creative and sometimes outlandish outfits. Worn by partners.
Fashion week in Decentraland’s metaverse is a colorful hodgepodge of corporate branding, NFT collecting and virtual networking set in a sometimes flashy video game environment. Wandering between tents and teleporting to a digital joint like House of Fuego, or perhaps a sweat-free yoga session after a runway show hosted by Alo, is where your avatar can “kill” the night away at virtual raves. Different time zones, from Berlin to LA.
The 2023 event, held at the end of March, featured 63 different fashion houses, both established and “neo” including Adidas, Coach, Dickinson, Barth, Tommy Hilfiger, Julia Blanc, Xiaoling Ji and Dolce & Gabbana. Branding is the name of the game and so-called digital wearables are taking off everywhere. For example, Dundas is selling 10 “looks” from Paris Fashion Week, like a limited edition NFT double-breasted navy blue “Jones coat” that can be shipped to your Metamask wallet for 0.033 ETH, or around $60.
The long-standing digital-fashion in video games is estimated to reach $498 million by 2021. But as consumers flock to Metaverse, so do retailers and fashion houses. According to Allied Market Research, the industry is predicted to grow to a $4.8 billion market by 2031.
“We saw a lot of designers messing around in this space, and we really started experimenting,” says Daniel Drake, assistant professor of strategic design and fashion communication at Parsons School of Design. But is that a big profit opportunity for those brands? I say no.”
Adidas is giving away 5,000 red Wallrunner jackets for free each day of the Metaverse Fashion Week show. Digital-only jackets have previously sold for more than $100.
Adidas
Organizers Decentraland and immersive culture platform UNXD say the event is an online extravaganza not just for apparel companies and crypto geeks chasing new 3D sneakers and sunglasses, but an opportunity to ponder the future of digital wearables and fashion in general.
“Fashion can work in the same way in the real world, we feel empowered if we wear amazing clothes, dresses or shirts,” Drake said. “A lot of it is done online as well.”
Additionally, the overall luxury shopping experience becomes less intimidating when the stakes are limited. Can’t afford Gucci? “Go into an alternate platform and engage with the brand in a different way,” he says.
Decentraland uses Ethereum to record the ownership and transactions of those goods, but presence and other information in the virtual world is not stored on the blockchain. The event took place in the two District 39 districts when users clicked on the Fashion Week map and visited the event or teleported it.
“We decided to have a theme this year. [called Future Heritage] To lead the conversation not only to a place of play and fun, but to a place where they provoke,” says Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro, Head of Metaverse Fashion Week (MVFW) in Centralland. “The legacy of fashion is key to seeing the future, so we’re giving space to different generations to discuss what’s coming next.”
Interactions between the multiple platforms of the metaverse are an important part of that discourse. At this year’s show, Decentraland partnered with 3-D MetaVest Spatial and augmented reality Metaverse Over to enable users to view and transmit digital wearables across platforms.
But for fashion week companies, it’s ultimately about financial opportunities. “Anything you do in virtual spaces has to be connected in some way or have a return on investment for products in the physical world,” says Casimiro.
For the Of the 63 companies that applied and were granted the right to showcase their digital apparel at Decentraland Fashion Week 2023, attendance was disappointing – roughly 50,000 fewer users visited the event than 70 brands and 108,000 visitors a year ago. The crypto winter means tough times in the nascent metaverse. Meta Reality Lab It has reportedly cut its Horizon Worlds division after losing $13.7 billion by 2022, and Disney laid off all its employees in its latest round of cuts earlier this month. Moreover, virtual worlds experienced a significant decline in digital land transaction volume last year, falling from $688 million in the first quarter of 2023 to $311 million in Q1 2022, according to industry tracker Dapradar.
Additionally, NFT trading volume for fashion collections was only $15 million in Q1 2023, an 88% decrease from the same quarter last year, which was dominated by Nike and Adidas with a combined 85% of sales. The target audience, the tech-savvy Gen Xers, may be sensitive to changes in the cryptocurrency sphere, recent high-profile bankruptcies, and widespread regulatory action against digital assets in the US, such as Decentraland’s Mana and Sandbox’s Metaverse tokens. Sand decreased by more than 70% last year.
Attendees gathered on the main runway for a morning of meditation and yoga hosted by Alo, practicing breath work and even some downward dogs without breaking a sweat. But overall fashion week attendance is down significantly from 2022.
The Decentraland Foundation
If the macro environment isn’t challenging enough, there are also vexing technical issues. An afternoon at Decentraland’s Fashion Week is a far cry from a trip to Milan’s Villa Carlotta during Italy’s real fashion week. Gradual processing can be the biggest concern. Look very closely and you can see the pixelated brand names on every exhibit floor. Go too fast through a stage and you risk overloading the server, leading to skipped frames and randomly appearing buildings that make you feel stressed. Scroll too fast and the browser will freeze as it experiences overload, forcing you to reload your browser and restart the welcome screen.
Casimiro says Decentraland has tried to solve technical issues and introduced new features such as credit card payments, tools to create clothes and brands that allow you to rent virtual land for a limited time instead of buying it.
Deven if With challenges facing brands in diverse areas such as Decentraland’s Fashion Week, retailers and fashion are determined to invest in this new marketing frontier.
Adidas has a collection of 30,000 digital wearables built on Ethereum, with a turnover of $138.6 million in primary and secondary sales since its launch in December 2021. At Disneyland Fashion Week, the sportswear giant created a 16-piece collection of fantasy hoodies with prices. Launched in collaboration with Bored Up Yacht Club, several green eyes cover a pink-fur hood, mimicking Adidas stripes, for a pink hoodie that ranges from $35 to more than $8,000.
“There are people who are collectors of culture, and they recognize that this is really a lightning rod in time, this is a paradigm shift. That’s how I think about who our owners are and who we’ve created it for,” says Erica Wykes-Sney, adidas Three Stripes Studio VP.
Italian luxury fashion house Dolce & Gabbana hosted its “Future Rewind” contest during the week, revealing winning designs for DGFamily NFTs, virtual pieces available only to owners of the series’ loyalty pieces. The American classic Tommy Hilfiger hosted a competition with artificial intelligence. Winning previews created by Irina Ryku and Aleksandra Serban were produced as digital fashion collections by the digital fashion house Dress X.
Fashion statements weren’t limited to the terraces, as Decentraland’s denizens donned party-best digital wearables.
Decentralized
Peter Dundas’ designs have graced some of the most iconic stages in pop culture – the Grammys stage, two Super Bowls and countless red carpets. Known for its shiny embellishments, metallic fabrics and flowing skirts with deep cuts, the relatively new fashion brand is a departure from the Adidas and Hilfiger sportswear in Decentraland.
“Because we’re not part of these huge productions, we allow ourselves the space and time to do the things we love,” says Dundas founder and director of photography, Evangelo Busis.
In partnership with Dress X, Dundas brought the special occasion wear to the metaverse, and by the end of the event, nine of the 45 digital wearables were sold, worth an estimated $666.
But it’s not just digital wearables on sale, some like yoga wearer Allo, which joined this year’s Metaverse Fashion Week roster as a legitimate health partner, encouraged visitors to buy real-life bucket hats and sweatpants for prices on its site. From 58 to 138 dollars. At the start of the event, 72 million user avatars were already engaged in yoga meditation and breathing exercises, said Angelique Vendette, head of global marketing.
“People lean into their digital selves by showing and showing that they have a healthy, thoughtful movement at heart by wearing Alone” in both style and real life. Allo sold its bucket hats and unisex sweatwear pieces in stores and attributed the increase in sales to dynamic marketing.
“It’s a really interesting relationship to see,” Vendette said.
Dundas, on the other hand, only records real-world sales that result from dynamic efforts. According to Busis, the director of the image, field search is still mostly a marketing expense because the brand has a “very small” budget to collect in revenue sharing contracts with partners.
In the year During Metaverse Fashion Week 2022, he added that the brand only sold three or four real-world garments, priced between $800 and $900.
It’s a long game. “We believe that in five to 10 years, people will have all digital wardrobes,” Busis said.
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