Clothing designers are always thinking outside the box. Whether it be making clothing out of recycled materials, food waste, or even growing clothing from bacteria, designers are pushing boundaries and challenging limitations. The pandemic and these unprecedented times have sparked even greater divergent thinking in the design world. Designers are bringing clothing into uncharted territory, virtual reality.
Gucci recently released Gucci Virtual 25, a neon pair of digital sneakers that a digital avatar can wear in augmented reality or photographs for social media. The chunky in ‘80s-inspired green and pink non-physical shoes are sold on the Gucci app between $9 and $12. The Gucci Virtual 25 is a low-top, high-top hybrid with a florescent green body. The brand’s signature double G motif is on the chunky blue sold and on the dial, which holds the show together instead of traditional laces. Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele collaborated with an AR fashion platform Wanna, a Belarusian fashion-tech studio and brand specializing in innovative AR technology for marketing that makes digital yet realistic clothing experiences.
These bold virtual shoes raise the question, is virtual fashion the new black?
The surprising answer to this question is yes. Recently, NFTs have boomed in popularity and are the most vigorous growing subsection of the digital collectibles market. To clarify, NFT stands for a non-fungible token. NFTs are a way of selling and buying anything digital, including art, that’s supported by cryptocurrency. An NFT does not mean you own the art itself; it means that you are buying metadata that gives you ‘bragging rights’ or the opportunity to sell the NFT for even more money. The digital art and the NFT market generate vast sums of money for digital artists and online collectors. A digital artist, Beeple, sold his piece The First 5000 days for $69 million at a Christie’s auction. And a digital ‘mars house’ sold for $500,000.
For most people, the thought of wearing virtual Gucci shoes seems ridiculous, but Gucci is getting in on the next wave of commerce. However, the Gucci Virtual 25 shoes are different from most NFTs because they are not just a token representing ownership. They have a purpose online; they add to a character’s virtual style as they roam through games or visit friends in other virtual reality or augmented reality spaces.
Other companies are following Gucci’s footsteps. Nike recently announced that they will tokenize the ownership of exclusive shoes, ‘Cyrptokick.’ When purchased, the owner is allowed a certain amount of control and can customize shoes that can be manufactured to a tangible product.
Since we live in a world where technology controls our lives, it is no surprise that companies are expanding into virtual fashion. It is also not surprising that people are investing in virtual clothing. Given the global situation, the desire to escape is at an all-time high. People can use digital fashion as a way to embrace their clothing fantasies. Virtual fashion allows people to be more expressive; it also allows people to avoid waste and pollution. Virtual fashion solves many of the environmental issues that are persuasive in the fashion industry. Since the shoes were produced online and can only be worn through technology, there is no textile waste, carbon emissions, chemical pollution, etc.
Even though virtual fashion may seem like an abstract concept for some demographics, many companies see this market’s potential to go mainstream. Companies understand how millennials and Gen Z kids constantly want to update their online presence, so digital fashion is a viable solution to keep up with the changing trends.
It is too early to get excited or judge this trend. Still, as more people crave to update their digital presence on social media or on a VR or AR platform, it is certainly something to keep in mind as we go into the future.
While you may say it is still too early to judge where this will go and if it will stick around, I would argue the answer is already clear. It is a resounding yes. All you have to do is look at the absurdity of NBA Top Shot and the amount of money that virtual trading cards are selling for to see that this is the future of collectables. The easy argument between the two is, “Well, you interact with fashion and show it off. It is different from a playing card because it has utility,” I would argue the same can be said for trading cards. Nothing makes a gucci shirt better than a knock off gucci shirt, it…
This was an interesting post because it is the first that I hear about the capitalization of virtual fashion or the topic in general. As we attempt to be more considerate of climate change, virtual fashion would help us decrease the amount of pollution that fast fashion contributes because there would be no more production sites that release CO2 into the atmosphere. Additionally, companies won’t need to rely on the cheap labor of underpaid workers to produce their fashion products because they will save production costs of physical items. People will also not buy an item and never wear it again if we move towards a future where virtual fashion slowly becomes more normalized in the 21st century. While I…
Hi Carolyn,
I really enjoyed your writing because it seems as though these industries are on the path to developing the next biggest movement for the fashion and art worlds. Allowing for digital trading of designs and works of art will open up an entirely new field for artists and major fashion houses. Not only this, but virtual fashion is obviously significantly more sustainable than older models of the fast fashion industry. It will be super cool to see if other clothing companies follow in the footsteps of Gucci and allow for the purchase of digital clothing and designs. Thanks for sharing!
I find it so delightful that the clothes and furniture we’ll use one day in the metaverse are arriving first. It makes sense because this is all that technology allows for now. I think that by the time the metaverse is running worldwide, these early clothing items will be sought after collectibles and considered something adjacent to vintage. In the meantime, I’m excited for the day digital clothes look ultra-realistic because I love fashion but I dislike multiple things about physical clothing. In the real world, and even more so online, it’s difficult to find well-fitting clothing with interesting silhouettes, and altering is such a pain. Digital clothes solve this problem in an innovative way.