The terms Metaverse and NFT are increasingly becoming part of corporate business strategies.
The new virtual space, in which millions of avatars move, is attracting the attention of brands and companies that are considering entering the Metaverse in order to achieve visibility in this space and attract a cross-generational audience of all age groups.
Today, many Fashion brands are entering this new parallel world. A change that might seem senseless to many, given Fashion is considered more as a physical experience.
Luxury brands such as Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, fast Fashion chains such as Zara, H&M, Benetton, Mango and sportswear brands such as Adidas, Diesel, have not missed the opportunity to open their own flagship store in the Metaverse Fashion District to create a truly immersive experience for their clients.
As in the physical world, in the Metaverse, brands can choose the area in which to purchase or rent “Virtual lands” to build and develop their businesses. In March 2021, the Fashion Decentraland district hosted “Metaverse Fashion Week”, the world’s largest all-digital fashion week with a programme full of shows, events, parties. The event was a springboard for more than 60 major brands, designers and artists such as Dolce&Gabbana, Tommy Hilfiger, Hogan and many others.
NFTs, “Non Fungible Tokens”, are essential to be used for “trading” in the Metaverse. Different brands have different approaches to NFTs: some use NFTs to retain new customers, generate additional revenue streams or raise funds for legitimate causes. Others use them to change or improve their image, tell a story or reach new audiences.
In the fashion industry, NFTs are mainly used to authenticate products and identify collectors’ items.
SOME EXAMPLES OF BRANDS IN THE METAVERSE
GucciGucci confirms itself as one of the most active Fashion houses in the Metaverse and one of the first luxury brands to enter it. The House inaugurated an entire virtual district created on Roblox, one of the most popular platforms in the Metaverse. “Gucci Town” is an interactive digital space with a range of constantly evolving activities where, for example, visitors can go to creative corners to admire the works of artists or create their own artworks.
In the heart of the city is the Vault Plaza, inspired by the “Gucci Vault”, NFT’s new experimental concept store whose virtual shelves house a careful selection of rare vintage Gucci items, as well as exclusive capsule collections, limited edition models and other items from various brands. Nearby is the unmissable Gucci Shop, the boutique where visitors can purchase digital items, to collect or for their avatars to wear.
Gucci Town is the perfect place to get people introduced to the founding values of the luxury brand. It is not only a virtual space, but also an immersive experience that brings visitors closer to the brand’s values and builds their loyalty through interesting rewards: by trying various activities, users can, in fact, earn virtual currencies to use within the town.
DOLCE&GABBANA
Dolce&Gabbana was among the first to participate in Metaverse Fashion Week.
The brand, whose creations celebrate the Italian spirit, presented in partnership with UNXD, the leading luxury NFT platform, a collection of twenty complete outlooks that could be worn in the Metaverse and conceived by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana to celebrate the new dimensions of creativity and innovation of the event. At the end of the show, the collection was the protagonist of an exclusive Dolce&Gabbana pop-up at the Luxury Fashion District in Decentraland.
In addition to the collection, the brand officially launched “DGFamily”, an exclusive NFT community in collaboration with digital culture and luxury marketplace UNXD. An ecosystem full of benefits for owners in both the physical universe and the metaverse, including access to physical and digital events and collaborations.The launch of the community follows Dolce&Gabbana’s debut into the NFT world with the “Genesis Collection”, the first luxury NFT collection to feature both digital and physical artworks.
BENETTON
Right during Milan Fashion Week, Benetton launched its first shop in the Metaverse from its physical shop in Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Milan.
“Anyone entering our shop in Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Milan will be able to immerse themselves in an intersection of physical reality and digital connection, all in an explosion of creativity, colour and sound,” said Massimo Renon, CEO of Benetton Group.
With the same look and feel as the flagship shop in Corso Vittorio Emanuele, refined and covered in the colour pink on all its surfaces, the virtual United Colors of Benetton shop, however, is a place where visitors will not buy clothes, but will be able to participate in gaming experiences that will allow them to accumulate QR codes to make purchases in the physical store.
A combination of physical reality and digital connection has allowed United Colors of Benetton to merge the experience of the physical and virtual worlds through an engaging and interactive brand initiative close to the end consumer, especially the younger one.
FUTURE SCENARIOS
The fashion world is changing, the post-pandemic landscape has transformed priorities and brands are thinking more digitally than in the past.
The metaverse represents an opportunity for all sectors: it offers brands innovative solutions to increase their visibility, build alternatives to classic shopping for an increasingly immersive engagement and reach out to new generations speaking their own digital language.
Despite being an open and democratic space, where anyone can express their ideas and creativity, the Metaverse still remains a reality to be discovered and fully understood, and no one really knows how it will evolve in the future. Above all, how and when even small to medium-sized companies will be able to afford to invest in the Metaverse.
AR Market has developed a transition path to the Metaverse accessible to all companies that are looking for a “quick & easy” solution that can represent an “entry point” also aimed at educating their customers. We are talking about our 360° Virtual Spaces, interactive and navigable, enriched with immersive content easy to customize by the company itself and usable from any device (desktops, mobile or headsets).
If you are interested in learning how AR Market’s Virtual Spaces 36o° can innovate and make your business unique, contact us!
