Digital Fashion: The Next Trillion Opportunity in the Metaverse
Original author: Bixin Ventures, Songyu.eth, Jiacheng
In the fairy tale "The King's New Clothes" written by Andersen in 1837, it tells the story of an emperor who was fooled by two swindlers, put on an invisible new clothes that did not exist at all, and held a parade ceremony naked . The emperor also became the first Virtue Fashion victim. Let's fast forward to 2022, as long as you have a smartphone, you can not only see a piece of clothing that doesn't exist, but also wear it with AR technology.
What is Digital Fashion
Although you may not usually pay attention to the development of fashion trends, you are also likely to spend in Digital Fashion. If you have purchased skins in Glory of Kings or LOL, congratulations, you are also a fashionista!
Digital Fashion is not limited to Fashion Week in Paris, France, but has spread to every corner of the Metaverse. Digital Fashion is mainly divided into two categories:
- On Real Life(ORL): For people to wear.
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ORLs and URLs
2. Technological development and fashion
The evolution of fashion is always inseparable from the development of science and technology. Let us look back from the first crisis faced by human beings after the birth of computers.
In 1999, human beings faced a computer bug that spread all over the world - Y2K (Y2K). Y2K was a computer bug that caused systems to crash due to their inability to handle inter-century dates. Computers interpret the year 2000 as 1900, causing date confusion in electronic systems across industries. Human life at that time has greatly enjoyed the convenience brought by computers and the Internet. The unpredictable future makes people full of imagination and sense of crisis for the millennium, and Y2K aesthetics was born here.
Y2K, (Y-year,image description
Y2K Costumes in "Happy Odaily"
In 2018, Lil Miquela, a Brazilian-Spanish mixed-race girl with 3 million fans on Ins, became the new darling of the fashion circle. She holds the Ins account of the Prada AW18 show, has cooperated with many big names, and was also included in the "Time" annual list of the most influential people on the Internet together with Trump and Rihanna.
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Instagram: Lil Miquela
High technology often means high value, advanced and civilized, which attracts the attention of fashion brands.
3. Entry
In the past two years, due to the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, countless people have been forced to stay at home, and people spend time in the virtual world, which has accelerated the progress of fashion digitization. In October 2021, after Zuckerberg announced that he would change the company's name to Meta, many people heard of the Metaverse for the first time. Fashion immediately became a topic in the metaverse, and major manufacturers also entered the venue one after another.
On Meta's official Twitter, "Hey @Balenciaga, what's the dress code in the metaverse?"
Sports brand:
Nike entered Roblox, the world's largest multiplayer online creation game, and launched the virtual world "NikeLand". In "NikeLand", players can pack characters with special Nike products, such as classic shoes such as Air Force 1 and Nike Blazer. And spent 200 million yuan (estimated) to acquire the virtual sneaker company RTFKT in 2021. Since the announcement of the acquisition, the floor price of the NFT CLONE X series released by RTFKT has soared from 2 ETH to 16 ETH.
Adidas purchased a space consisting of 144 pieces of land in The Sandbox in November 2021. Users who have purchased the Adidas Originals series of NFTs can gain exclusive access to products, including virtual wearable devices that can be used, as well as physical products such as hoodies and sportswear.
On December 2, 2021, adidas announced the "Leap Forward" Metaverse, a collaboration with Bored Ape Yacht Club, gmoney NFT and PUNKS Comic. At the same time, Adidas released its first NFT series "into the Metaverse". This "new technological species" combines future concepts, art and trends. NFT is inspired by the fancy support dance "WOTAYI", mainly from the cooperation with IP and brands in the Heyuan universe, including the NFT pioneer Bored Ape Yacht Club, the team behind gmoney and PUNKS Comic. There are a total of 29,620 NFTs in this series, with The price of 0.2E sold out quickly, and the sales revenue was about 22 million US dollars.
Luxury giant:
As early as three or four years ago, Gucci has begun to lay out the virtual world, providing virtual clothing and accessories for The Sims and Pokémon Go. Gucci cooperated with the technology company Wanna in March 21 to sell virtual sneakers on the virtual APP. The sneakers, called the Gucci Virtual 25, cost just $12. In April, a 4-minute micro-movie "Aria" was traded on Christie's platform, and finally sold for 25,000 US dollars. Proceeds from the auction are also donated to the United Nations Foundation.
Kering, to which Gucci belongs, has begun to deploy blockchain in the past few years. Utilizing its technologies such as traceability and traceability in the whole process, it will continue to expand the new situation of the integration of luxury goods and technology. Kering has long used AR (augmented reality) for merchandise display and sales, including selling its famous $12 virtual shoes.
As a pioneer in the cooperation between the fashion industry and the metaverse, Balenciaga has cooperated with Fortnite in 21 years and launched several T-shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts, shirts, leather jackets and baseball caps in the game. Since then, Balenciaga has also cooperated with Epic Games to create the game Afterworld, presenting their autumn fashion show in the form of a game, and each character in the game is dressed in Balenciaga clothes.
In May 21, RIMOWA announced on the social platform Instagram that it will cooperate with NUOVA Design Studio to launch 4 pieces of NFT artworks, named "Blueprints from the Metaverse".
In August 21, Burberry cooperated with Mythical Games' popular blockchain game Blankos Block Party to add the image of a small shark wearing the Buberry TB pattern to the game
In August 21, Louis Vuitton launched a free mobile game "Louis The Game" to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of its founder Louis Vuitton. Encourage players to learn about the history of the brand through the game. LV put 30 NFTs in "Louis The Game", 10 of which were from digital artist Beeple. It is estimated that the value of these 30 NFTs is between 20,000 and 20 million US dollars. As for the acquisition method, LV said that during the player's play period, NFT works will be presented to winning players in a fixed-cycle lottery draw.
In October 21, the brand Jimmy Choo collaborated with artist Eric Haze and fashion designer Poggy to launch an NFT sneaker. It is also the first NFT released by the fashion brand.
GIVENCHY：
n In June, Givenchy launched NFT virtual works for the first time. The series, a collaboration between Givenchy, London gallery owner Amar Singh and artists from the Rewind Collective, features animated portraits. It is understood that the NFT series of virtual artworks will be released on the VeVe platform from June 21 to 26, with a limited number of 1952 pieces, and the proceeds will be used to support the LGBTQIA+ community.
n November, Givenchy creative director Matthew M.Williams and artist Chito jointly launched 15 NFT works. A lot of spray paint and images of dog heads are full of street style, and the income from all works will be used to protect the ecological cleanliness of the ocean. The "Chito x Givenchy NFT" series features a collection of cartoon characters and symbols, some of which are animated and others with the Givenchy logo. The collection will be released on NFT marketplace OpenSea on November 23rd. After a week, the highest bidder will receive their NFT.
l Valentino displayed four digital blockchain works by artist Matthew Stone at its Episode SoHo store in New York City. At the same time, Stone's NFT exhibition was held in a residence in Rome
l Dolce & Gabbana announced that it will launch its first NFT series. It is reported that the series of NFT is called"Collezione Genesi", which was inspired by the city of Venice. It is also reported that the works of the Collezione Genesi series will appear in D&G's three activities in the future, namely Alta Moda (that is, high fashion or advanced customization), Alta Sartoria (that is, high-end formal wear), and Alta Gioielleria (that is, high-end / fine jewelry) series, held in Venice on August 28, August 29 and August 30, respectively. The Collezione Genesi will be available on September 1st.
4. People-oriented
"These big factories don't understand the Metaverse at all, they are just FOMO. The clothes have no other use except to look at them."
"Currently, the metaverse is still in its early stages. We need to do construction first, and then make clothing."
"Fashion is a subdivided track, and the current daily activities of the Metaverse platform are too low."
It is easy for you to have the triple question above. These three questions need to be answered from the perspective of Digital Fashion users and designers (producers).
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Snapchat's AR Tryout
Virtual fashion has officially entered the real world, wearing the Buba dress designed by Tribute Brand, which is full of characteristics of the digital age.
There are two main groups of users of Digital Fashion:
-Fashion blogger/UP master: someone who can make money through traffic.
Digital Fashion provides these fashion KOLs with new display tools, and also saves these KOLs costs. Compared with buying clothes, bags, and jewelry at home and unpacking them, and then displaying them to fans, Digital Fashion allows them to save the cost of producing content and reduce production costs. It is also possible to let KOL promote the product through Digital Fashion before the new product is officially released.
- Pinduoduo Ladies: Want to buy brands but can’t afford the high prices
I want to carry a Hermès bag and go out to take pictures, but I can’t afford to spend 50,000 yuan. Instead of putting together a bag with others or buying an A product on Weishang, I’m sending a little red book anyway. Why not choose a Digital what about version? Afraid of hitting the bag? It’s okay, you can fight to buy a 1/1 NFT with high rarity.
Digital Fashion gives designers:
- Achieve mass production
On the catwalk at Fashion Week, catwalks are most people's impression of fashion. We always see clothes at these fashion weeks that are very avant-garde, daring and unsuitable for the daily commute. In fact, only 10% of the clothes shown in a fashion week will be produced, because the vast majority of these clothes are designed for the fashion week show. But whether it is ORL or URL, these designs can now be "worn" on the body, and can be mass-produced (ERC-1155) and reach consumers.
-Copyright protection of clothing works
It is extremely difficult for clothing creators to protect the copyright of their works. Most of the clothing can be easily copied, but it is difficult and costly to investigate every infringement, which seriously discourages the enthusiasm of creators. The NFT generated based on blockchain technology can provide the only reliable "ID card" for the product, allowing designers to protect their own rights and interests.
- No waste, no postage; any size, any gender
NFT allows fashion designers to no longer be bound by fabrics, craftsmanship, and functionality. They can make numbers serve creativity and create more free, bold, and imaginative creations. At the same time, for brands, creating NFT can not only reduce environmental pollution during production, but also reduce the problem of overcapacity to a certain extent.
From the perspective of the use of Digital Fashion, Fashion is not a segmented track in the Metaverse. Clothing products under the ORL category do not rely on a metaverse platform to provide services to users. In the future, there may be a lot of NFTs in your Meitu Xiuxiu, which will provide you with the convenience of changing clothes at any time when you take pictures.
In addition, according to Vice's survey of 3,000 respondents, it was found that 47% of those interested in Digital Fashion were non-currency users. 70% of people say they buy something to enhance their digital identity, express themselves or own something unique, just like in the real world. Digital Fashion can create more equitable spaces and experiences for plus-size consumers, people with disabilities and the LGBTQI+ community, enabling people to explore new modes of identity unconstrained by traditional roles, expectations and constraints.
Currently, gaming is the main consumption place for Digital Fashion, with 62% of surveyed US consumers having purchased virtual items. The best-selling Digital Fashion products in Roblox are casual wear, such as T-shirts and masks. According to Roblox's VP Wootton, "Some people choose to reflect their everyday looks and clothing in real life, while others want to experiment with bold looks and styles that they wouldn't wear in the real world." And the rainbow flame halo top , also ranked in the top ten of last year's best-selling list.
In 2021, the consumption of NFT will reach $41 billion. As people’s recognition of the value of digital identities continues to increase, it is expected that in the next 5 years, you, you in games, you in Zoom, and you in social platforms will wear Digital Fashion. Digital Fashion can reach the same $1 trillion scale as the current global apparel market.
5. Last FOMO (related financing information)
RTFKT：Acquired by Nike in 2021 with an estimated price of $20M. This is not much to introduce.
Space Runner：Metaverse wearable fashion brand, products can be worn in the metaverse and reality. Space Runners launched its first NBA Champions Sneaker Collection last December with former NBA champions Kyle Kuzma and Nick Young March 2022 Space Runners announced the completion of a $10 million seed round led by Polychain and Pantera Capital, Accel, Jump Crypto, Yat Siu, executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands, and Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch, participated in the investment.
UNXD：UNXD is a metaverse fashion company, currently building a B2B2C platform, and will also independently create NFT collections and NFT markets. In March 2022, it was jointly invested by Animoca Brands, Polygon Studios, and Red DAO, and the seed round financing was $4 million.
DressX：DressX is an American virtual fashion platform. Founded in August 2020, it has cooperated with many designers and brands, allowing them to create and trade various virtual fashion products on their own platform. In July and September 2021, $3 million in seed round financing was completed.
Red DAO：Focus on investing in Digital Fashion's DAO. A total of 3700E was raised, which was about $12M at the time.
SandStorm: SandStorm provides construction services to the world's top brands and brings builders together. The seed round of financing will be completed in March 2022, with a financing amount of $2.5M. The main investors include The Sandbox, Sanctor Capital, and Fenbushi Capital; angel investors include Sebastien Borget, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox, etc.
6. What’s Next:
Follow next week for Decentraland Metaverse Fashion Week
