According to the CEO of the British Fashion Council, Caroline Rush, 10%–15% of our wardrobe might become digital in the future.
While purchasing a digital dress might have seemed like a thing from a sci-fi movie ten years ago, with the new advents in technology and the so-called “metaverse,” this has the potential to become the latest trend in the fashion industry.
For instance, as of now, you can buy one of the dresses seen on the runway during Roksanda’s Autumn Winter 22 catwalk show; it’s available on their website as a 3D render for $32.96 (£25), or you can buy it for $6,591 (£5,000) as an NFT.
Consequently, this dress marks Roksanda’s entry into the metaverse. Though, the question remains — will other fashion brands follow suit?
They just might.
Namely, sales of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, reached $10.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021. This was more than eight times the sales from the previous quarter. In other words, there is a growing appetite for purchasing and owning digital assets. In fact, research shows 50% of consumers would like to own a digital asset.
Speaking of which, there’s already a place where people can use digital fashion (and could do so for years) — the gaming world. Generally, the players there use unique “fashion” items to express themselves and their personalities. For example, buying digital outfits for their avatars to wear.
All in all, this wasn’t the first time that games and fashion crossed paths. In 2019, Louis Vuitton even had a collaboration with the popular MOBA game, League of Legends, whereas in 2021 Gucci created a virtual space in Roblox.