According to a Portuguese missionary in the 16th century, Japanese people were so crafty that they may have three faces. His theory suggests that the first face we show to the world. The second face is reserved for family and friends, and the third face is reserved for ourselves alone. Perhaps, the latter is our truest self.
This idea is being further expounded when dressing our digital selves in the metaverse where we can present several versions of ourselves without limitations traditionally associated with the physical, social and cultural norms in the real world.
With the advent of the metaverse and wearables, a digital playground has opened up for the fashion industry that has always been intrinsically linked with our sense of culture, identity and stages of life.
We now live in a world where we can dress up digital versions of our many personalities all from the comfort of our own homes and without getting dressed at all in the real world.
As we tailor our digital wardrobes our personal style is unlimited. I can wear a colorful hat to a festival online and a different set of wings for different days of the week. The very notion of boring outfits that conform to societal norms is torn up. For those of us that are tired of office attire there is reason to celebrate the future of fashion. In the metaverse, you can choose to be human, animal, object, or whatever else your heart desires.
Expressing the new ‘you’s
Instagram may be criticized for its promotion of filters with celebrities manipulating their body images and deleting unwanted wrinkles. However, it also inspired a new way for people to consider their sense of identity. Societal norms have led many of us to conform to a set of standards when it comes to our choice of clothing but the metaverse is reshaping those norms.
For Kazbek Bektursunov of the Metaverse Fashion Council, a community of over 300 active business members, “Haute Couture fashion was never just physical. Otherwise, it wouldn’t cost that much.It is much more associated with our imagination and the lives we wish to lead.”
As we navigate the metaverse, our online identities are becoming increasingly multifaceted. Social media platforms have transformed our perception of self-presentation. For Andrea Siegal, Co-Founder of Mavion World, a global fashion and NFT marketplace, the metaverse is allowing us to experiment with new and diverse identities.
“Our avatars will become a part of our digital identities and transform the consumers experience of online shopping. Right now it’s basically just scrolling through a grid and when you think about the metaverse, you’re going to be able to create specific experiences dedicated to every type of consumer. Brands will be able to truly personalize that experience for individuals,” says Siegal.
This will provide new ways for the brand to engage with consumers.
“I think that allows greater connection with the brand, it engages a community that all is connected through this brand. And gives you more exciting experiences and opportunities to interact with digital assets,” continues Siegal.
From sleek cartoon avatars to AI-generated face morphing, the possibilities for self-expression are endless. While some may view this as a negative consequence of our increasingly digital lives, others see it as an opportunity to break free from the confines of the physical world and explore new facets of themselves.
“It allows more freedom to express yourself, and to represent who you are. Using your digital identity you can avoid bias or discrimination. There are no rules,” says Siegal.
The global digital clothing industry is estimated to reach 4.8 billion dollars by 2031, and the industry is fully mobilized and invested in digital fashion. However, making the public understand what digital fashion is and why it matters remains the first and biggest hurdle. With digital fashion on the rise, fashion will have multiple digital identities in the metaverse.
From D2C TO D2A: Direct-to-Consumer to Direct-to-Avatar
Everything from phygital experiences to virtual showrooms to metaverse fashion weeks are stemming out of this industry’s eagerness to push the boundaries and willingness to try out new innovative technologies that are giving life to some of the most mind blowing designs.
Siegal believes that we are quickly moving from Direct-to-Consumer to Direct-to-Avatar. “What does this mean for the fashion seller? It presents a vast new array of opportunities to create identities,” notes Siegal.
Ralph Lauren famously said “I don’t design, I design dreams.” The digital designers of today have new environments to play with, new methods of creation to work with and new ways to present their creations like never before.
With the metaverse, brands can position themselves alongside Gen Z and Gen Alpha who are already at the table when it comes to working with digital assets. Siegal describes the current online buying experience as scrolling through a grid.
“I think they also are looking at new Gen Z and Gen alpha where they are already working on digital assets as a part of their lives and as a part of their identity. So when we think about the future of these brands, and what that looks like, I don’t necessarily see retail disappearing, I actually look at the metaverse as another channel, side by side, in creating that future for this next generation of consumers.
“They’re also going to be able to gather data and data analysis through all of these experiences by following avatars in these metaverses and bring back information to create even more personalized experiences in the future,” says Siegal.
For Aileen Carville, Founder of Asset Haus, a Web3 portfolio management platform for fashion and creative professionals, experimenting with the customer journey through ‘reverse staging’ offers a new approach to the buyer journey.
“This gives the brand a different perspective of what an actual IRL store brand looks like as well. If you’ve got a younger Gen Z alpha, who is absorbed in this fortunate experience, as they mature, there is a physical entity that they can potentially visit also. So this is a reverse sort of staging from being inside the Metaverse to coming back outside the metaverse in the physical sense and going into this sort of correlation between the two and what that means for the customer’s environment,” says Carville.
With the influx of AI into existing platforms Carville believes that the way we currently dress avatars is going to change: “I think the early evolution of what the character and the avatar is going to change. When that changes, I think the silhouette and the chosen digital assets are going to change as well,” says Carville.
Now that there are new opportunities for brands to communicate with existing and potential audiences via digital environments, it becomes important to consider these new touch points for consumers that are active in all spaces. For Carville events still play a crucial role here and designers should consider how they want to develop the metaverse as a valuable new asset.
“Brands can extend their communication a lot. If you’ve got a fashion collection or a fashion show, and a presentation that lasts 15 minutes, even in a digital format, you can really break down that presentation into a multifaceted, mindful presentation that is tailored. From backstage casting to digital assets, you’re looking at all these things that really interest the buyer and also the customer” says Carville.
Upskilling younger generations in digital environments
The interactions between current fashion industry experts and those experimenting in the metaverse will lead to valuable learnings initially.
Bektursunov believes that although brands provide insights, the most knowledge will come from observation of the players. For Bekturganov, there is no skills gap yet as the public is only at the learning stage and it’s the
youngest children that will show everyone the path forward. Bektursunovhas committed to playing ROBLOX everyday with his 10 year old son and he allows his son to play with the in-game currency.
This gives him behavioral insights that are worth exploring.
“It’s more interesting to look at younger brains. We can open up to brands, but the younger creative designers will bring more value. I don’t mean just great, I mean, actual value. There are hundreds of young designers who already know what comes up in terms of trends. The question is just not when Dolce Gabbana will make another digital product here and make a PR with the legacy relationship with legacy, fashion magazines, Legacy shops and so on.
“The question is when the new young designers will have more sales than Dolce Gabbana?,” says Bektursunov.
Siegal agrees that the smaller brands play a pivotal role in the emerging world of digital fashion.
“I’ve presented to over 600 beauty brands just last year. The brands that want to come in through Mavion are the most innovative brands, the younger brands, the ones that are not as established and they also have a younger consumer as well,” notes Siegal.
She uses Yoga brand Alo as an example of a brand using NFTs to push the boundaries of creation and engagement with their customers.
“They are pushing the boundaries with their experiments. They are launching the Aspen collection physically and as you purchase that through Moonpay, you’re getting an NFT that then leads to other utilities.
“I think there’s different ways of starting to create those points of contact with your consumer to start bringing in these different experiences,” notes Siegal.
For Carville, the consumption of knowledge is rapidly iterating and will continue to change as we adopt emerging technologies. “Fashion doesn’t invest in upscaling its staff. It’s really up to the person working in that environment to decide to learn how to use the tools or to decide to learn how to get inspiration and understand what it’s about. So my generation, if you’re already interested, you tend to be self taught. And that doesn’t suit everybody. And I don’t think it suits this Gen Z alpha A,” says Carville.
She notes that the speed of technology is rapidly iterating how knowledge is consumed today and it will continue to change.
“There’s just so much flux right now. That we have to assume that information or knowledge is going to be better in the future. The real talent will start to show. It’s a discipline. There is a space for excellence and that excellence should be nurtured and there’s going to be space for different types of fashion,” says Carville.
With the rapid iterations of AI there will be low-code, no code options for creating metaverse designs. This will lead to unforeseen innovation in the world of fashion. However, Bektursunov believes that there is a responsibility to teach culture to this newer generation.
“Although the younger generations can teach us how to use tech, how to use AI, to be good in Crypto and blockchain and have more crypto than us, Iit is up to us to ensure that it is practical for them. It’s our responsibility to teach them culture. So they can look at cultural memories and learn from them. This is important for content creators. It doesn’t depend upon any generation or platform but rather whether anybody in the Metaverse, the universe or the physical world enjoys it,” says Bektursunov.
Conclusion
The potential of fashion in the metaverse for fashion designers is only just forming its roots. As consumers become familiar with the metaverse, the way we think about fashion is changing radically. Getting dressed in the morning isn’t about choosing what to wear, but deciding on the form you want to represent you. In the world of Web3 if you haven’t changed your twitter profile to that of a cartoon, avatar or NFT it is nearly frowned upon.
The full scope of digital fashion is evolving and the digital fashion that is available in the metaverse is going to accelerate and evolve into something better. However when it comes to implementation of future fashion in the metaverse there is a catch, the technology hasn’t quite caught up with our imaginations yet.
Platforms like The Sandbox and Decentraland are still using blocky graphics and staging that can appear straight out of an ’80s sci-fi movie. However, the dedication to innovation is present and it won’t be long before the visual expression most futurists are envisioning is a reality. Fashion is a means of self-expression and identity, and in the metaverse, you can take that to a whole new level.
