Brands are charging real money for virtual clothing. Are they really worth it?
In the real world, you would check out your purchases and then wait for them to arrive. Now, imagine purchasing a dress in the digital world only to receive a photo of you wearing it. Kind of weird, huh?
Something like this seems unlikely. However, brands today are actually working designs, that only exist in the virtual world and are not tangible. (And people are actually buying it). The first in line to buy such products were the influencers who actually tested this trend and approved it.
So, what is actually digital fashion/clothing?
Julia Blanc is a Digital fashion designer and NFT artist who designs 3D clothes. She runs an Instagram page called, BlancDeBlanc.co which has more than 66,000 followers. While speaking to dailyO, she explains what she things digital fashion is.
For digital clothing, there is no fabric or other tangible material used. Instead of using textiles, the clothing is created using computer technology and 3D software. In other words, you'll never actually wear any piece of clothing. However, you can post pictures of yourself wearing them on social media.
- You can either send a picture of yourself to the company (from whom you are buying) and they will digitally add you into the dress.
- The second is to use the website's AR technology and add costumes as you add filters on Snapchat.
Depending upon the retailer and the process you have selected (one or two), you can either wait two or three days for the picture or you can get photos instantly after you have selected the "dress filter."
Digital clothes are available from various brands today. In recent years, DressX has emerged as one of the biggest names in digital fashion. Big brands like, Metaverse, Vogue, Banter, Pacson all have collaborated with DressX to make their own digital versions of dresses.
The brands involved all have their sense of taste and each piece of clothing do represent the style and overall fashion of the brands. With more high brands coming in, it has resulted in a more push towards people wanting to buy clothes and other items like accessories or shoes for the metaverse or sharing online.
A Dutch startup, The Fabricant, and yet another organisation that deals with virtual dresses, made headlines when they sold a digital dress, 'Iridescence', for $9,500 (7,68,478.75 Indian Rupee) on the blockchain.
What do these brands say? For us, it is completely weird to wear a dress that is sold just online and we won't get to wear it. But brands like this do have a reason as to why they are selling clothes like this:
- Unlike the traditional fashion industry, digital clothing is environment friendly.
- For those who require an "outfit of the day," digital clothing is in line with current usage.
- It came in handy during pandemic situations when people don't go out as much and instead flaunt their looks on social media, digital clothing is important.
- There is a similarity between digital clothing and video game avatars which also pushes gamers to buy them.
- It lets you experiment with various types of clothes and other items, which you may not want in real life.
Some fashion intellectuals and influencers do compare this to cryptocurrency as the creators 'tailor' it for you based on a photo, and its nature as a blockchain asset both makes it unique and gives it value like cryptocurrency.
Recently, there has been a surge of brands in virtual worlds. The award-winning creator of experiential events, Nolcha Shows, hosted a virtual-reality and in-person fashion event at the World Trade Centre for New York Fashion Week.