Did Metaverse Fashion Week give us a glimpse of retail’s future? Potentially
By Max Vedel, Co-founder and Creative Director at Swipe Back
You may have heard that a fashion week took place last week. But not in one of Europe’s major cities. And instead of a backdrop of the Louvre, it was a canvas of pixels and futuristic architecture.
For Decentraland was hosting the inaugural Metaverse Fashion Week which meant that many retailers and brands were dipping their toes into the meta water for the first time.
Not everything was perfect by any means, but there were some cool sights on display, and this could be the start of something really exciting for the retail industry.
Digital retail theatre
One of the best received events was the Dolce & Gabbana x UNXD Catwalk Show. Despite other shows feeling “dead”, there was a buzz around this one and the brand took the opportunity to put on a real show.
They also understood that the metaverse isn’t about recreating real life but about pushing boundaries and being creative. For them, this meant digital models as cat avatars, leaving the catwalk and flying above our heads.
We also had an exclusive look at 20 digital wearables - exclusivity being a theme that ran throughout the week.
Meanwhile, headliners Selfridges and recent tenant of Decentraland, created an interactive experience featuring the Paco Rabanne + Victor Vasarely collection as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The retailer offered a digital recreation of its Birmingham store that served as a gallery and introduction to NFTs. Familiar surroundings for those who have visited it in the real world to ease them in perhaps?
It felt quieter than the real thing. Perhaps a lasting investment is needed from the retailer to really make an impact in the metaverse.
Tommy Hilfiger, on the other hand, went for a ‘phygital’ approach. The brand showcased its Spring 2022 collection virtually, followed by opening up its digital store so that shoppers could buy NFTs connected to the label.
They could then redeem these NFTs for their physical counterparts. While the metaverse is still in its infancy, retailers should consider this cross-over with the physical in order to attract their more “traditional” customers into this new, digital world.
What this means for retailers
If retailers are to attract their existing customers to a new space, then perhaps Dentraland won’t be the platform to do it. Feedback on the experience has been mixed.
We saw instances of people asking if shows had started (in fact they had finished!) and avatars wandering aimlessly or running into ‘solid’ digital walls.
We even saw one run off into a forest to never be seen again. A reporter for a British tabloid described how her avatar effectively drowned in her first adventure into the metaverse. Not a great welcome.
However, while the graphics feel outdated, the very fact that you can access such platforms through your desktop is a great leveller. And the space will improve as more people get involved.
The question for those retailers who participated will be what value they derived from the event. Is it a case of drawing in new customers and if so, how will they measure success? Attendees, post-event sales, social media discussions?
And what about data collection? Visitors have to link their digital wallets to the Decentraland platform in order to enter. Those wallets register activity such as purchases and attendance at specific events and therefore point to a rich seam of customer data to be mined in the future.
It is clear that we are on the cusp of something that is potentially very exciting. ‘Web3’ fashion and retail may still be in their infancy, but knowing how fast digital trends can catch on, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some of this metaverse experimentation cross over into the real world.
This is a huge new creative outlet for retailers and it's up to them to create the next ground breaking experience.
