What if one day we found ourselves naked (or almost) in real life, but incredibly stylish in a virtual world? This is a question that could arise as the NFT, blockchain and metaverse revolutions have been sweeping the fashion industry in recent months. More and more brands are taking on virtual realities, forging partnerships with platforms or developing their own parallel spaces. Thus, in 2021, players of Fortnite saw the appearance of avatars bearing the Balenciaga logo, those of Roblox were able to acquire a pretty little Gucci handbag and the characters of The Sandbox wear Adidas sneakers. And that’s just the beginning.
The major groups are diving into metaverses one after the other, such as the Italian OTB (Maison Margiela, Diesel, etc.), which announced in the fall that it was launching a structure to develop virtual creations. Or even Kering (Gucci, Balenciaga) which will also dedicate a department to it, reported fashionetwork.com website early December. According to a study by the American bank Morgan Stanley relayed in particular by
Reuters, projects linked to metaverses could bring in 50 billion dollars to the luxury sector by 2030. The future of fashion will therefore be played in part in the world of virtuality. But to do what? And above all, in the long term, is there a risk of finding yourself naked in reality?
“A Multiplication of Experiences”
For the sociologist Frédéric Godart, author of fashion sociology (available at
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at Casterman in comics), this sector’s shift towards metaverse is not surprising, but the speed at which it is changing, yes: “In 2019, the pinnacle of technology was to make a parade on Instagram, or so with headphones virtual reality, he notes. But there was a clear acceleration in 2020-2021 where fashion was completely redesigned with the forced closure of physical sales outlets. And there is a multiplication of experiences. “For the moment, this mainly concerns the large luxury ready-to-wear groups “constantly in search of new challenges or new opportunities”, notes the sociologist. Brands also in search of the consumer of tomorrow. “In 10 years, they will be aimed at the generation that will have no problem buying virtual goods and collecting them,” he points out.
Haute couture is no exception. Evidenced by the work of Julien Fournie, one of the pioneers in this field. Creator, fan of gaming and cinema, he challenged himself to “make the link between realism, past, tradition and innovation”. In parallel with his work as a designer, Julien Fournier worked with Tencent, the Chinese digital and mobile giant, to create looks for the characters of a battle royale game at the end of last year.. On January 25, as part of fashion week, he will also unveil his brand new collection First Love in a film flirting between reality and the virtual (the creator has decided to cancel his show so as not to make his teams and actors in this sector take risks in the midst of a pandemic), as well as two silhouettes for the avatars of the game PUGB MOBILE. “Ultimately the house Julien Fournié will sell characters, looks and avatars in the metaverse, dresses, models and dresses in real life which will have a correlation with what exists in virtual and also graphic creations and illustrations in NFT,” he says.
For this designer, the bridge between these two worlds flows naturally. “When I design a haute couture collection, I create a universe that goes with it, we tell a story,” he says. The fact of being able to project all that in the metaverse and in this case in a video game, it makes sense because you can find your legend. My hashtag is #Findyourlegend. Women who buy high fashion are not buyers, they want to be characters in real life. But for those who will not be lucky enough to be able to afford these models in haute couture, they will be able to challenge themselves via the metaverse with the solutions and creations that I make within the virtual world”.
“Getting rid of references from the tangible world”
According to Sylvain Louradour, associate director of the Netexplo digital innovation observatory, the fashion and luxury sectors have every interest in embarking on metaverses to “take market share but also to take creativity shares. we have to position ourselves now”. Balenciaga has thus dressed Fortnite avatars and declined the universe of the game on t-shirts and hoodies on sale in our world. Brands like Burberry or Louis Vuitton have developed their own little video games to find their creations and their colors. Finally, more and more brands are also selling NFTs, designs like Julien Fournié does, but also accessories. As reported by AFP, the RTFKT studio (acquired by Nike in December), launched last February 621 pairs of virtual sneakers with their NFT, associated with real shoes that buyers could pick up several weeks later.
“What is interesting in these universes is to have experiences that are not modeled on reality,” says Sylvain Louradour. In fashion, it would be pointless to recreate a parade with 3D models wearing 3D dresses on a 3D catwalk”. For the experience to be truly unique, “we would above all have to succeed in getting rid of the references of the tangible world in order to be truly creative”. We can thus imagine the appearance of new materials, new shapes, but also evolving accessories and clothing, which would change according to the situation or the weather. A whole aesthetic is to be invented.
“At Netexplo, we are seeing more and more innovations that complement the cerebral approach with sensual approaches,” notes Sylvain Louradour. He thus mentions haptic gloves which make it possible to recreate the touch but also techniques with bare hands which, thanks to the pulsed air, make it possible to reproduce the sensation. Combined with hyper-sophisticated holograms, this could increase our reality. “You can’t tell if it’s a real object or a hologram,” enthuses the associate director of the digital innovation observatory.
Towards a hybrid world between real and virtual
But if creativity goes virtual, what is the future of fashion in our real world? Forced to cancel his haute couture show because of the Covid, Julien Fournié does not see himself giving it up. “The ultimate dream would be to do virtual and also parades. All that doesn’t work without each other and we know very well that a face-to-face fashion show remains an important climax because we can give people the chance to have their hearts beating in unison with a fashion house. “For the sociologist Frédéric Godart, on the other hand, “there are scenarios where there would be almost no more physical productions, just what is needed to protect oneself, where physical fashion becomes completely functional. But there may also be an anti-technological reaction and a return to the physical. We will probably be between the two, we can consider hybrid systems with clothes that can be basic in reality but increased from the moment there is an interaction”. A point of view shared by Sylvain Louradour: “We are moving towards a metaverse which would be a kind of hybridization between our tangible reality and the content that we inject into this reality”.
There is also the question of the possibilities opened up by these worlds. For Julien Fournié, “the metaverse will be a space of freedom. A very open social network with a universe where people will be able to find themselves challenging themselves, dreaming of themselves and being exactly what they want in virtual life”. Will we really be free to be whoever we want and dress as we please? For Sylvain Louradour, the metaverse has some advantages. “In the real world we generally have one look, it’s rare to be punk on Mondays, preppy on Tuesdays… Online we are split between multiple personalities and it’s tempting to express it in a universe like that “. “If you can have a panoply and if you can change the colors at will and do all the styles imaginable, that opens up almost infinite possibilities”, analyzes Frédéric Godart for his part.
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However, there is one detail that should not be forgotten: we are never really free in our choices and it is difficult to free ourselves from norms and injunctions, even in the metaverse. “Tastes are socially structured, recalls the sociologist. It is impossible to emancipate oneself from the moment there are social relations. There will be tendencies and groups, on the phenomena of imitation and distinction, there is no reason for that to change. The real question is rather the capital structure of the system: who sells what to whom? “. Added to this is the obstacle of interoperability, or how to make objects travel in dissociated worlds that belong to different digital giants. “It is not at all resolved, we imagine that it will go through partnerships. When you buy a piece of clothing in Meta, will you be able to wear it in the Apple metaverse or in a small metaverse created by a friend where there are thirty people? asks Sylvain Louradour.
We are still very far from a world at Ready Player One, where everyone will live and dress only in a much more fun and utopian parallel world. But what is certain is that in the very near future, your virtual double will most likely be much more stylish than you.