Recent experiments offer clues to what to expect from the fashion-tech arena in the year ahead with the prominence of digital spaces, digital fashion and NFTs that engage and reward consumers who value personalisation, co-creation and exclusivity. Here’s what’s top-of-mind as we head into 2022.
Digital influencing, PFPs and avatars
This year, digital-first creatives will make up a new generation of influencers, brands will ramp up metaverse partnerships that emphasise co-creation and digital-first designs will influence physical goods.
Some brands have gotten in early. Tommy Hilfiger tapped eight native Roblox designers to create 30 digital fashion items based on the brands own pieces. Forever 21, working with metaverse creation agency Virtual Brand Group, opened a “Shop City” in which Roblox influencers create and manage their own stores, competing against each other. As new merchandise lands in the physical world, the same pieces will become available virtually.
Profile pictures, or PFPs, will become membership badges, and brands will dress them or create their own, piggy-backing on existing loyalty communities in the way that Adidas tapped the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Avatars as influencers, both human-driven and totally virtual, will become more prominent. Already, Warner Music Group’s metaverse casting call invited people who bought avatars from modelling and talent agency Guardians of Fashion to illustrate their social media capabilities to be considered for future projects.
Inclusivity and diversity will be top-of-mind. “Acting in considerate and truly inclusive ways will be key for anyone taking part in this digital world to ensure a genuinely purposeful human experience,” advises Tamara Hoogeweegen, strategist at the Future Laboratory, which also notes that branded virtual environments will become customisable with user-generated products, as seen with Forever 21, Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren’s Roblox world, which was influenced by user behaviour.
Mapping unreal real estate
The metaverse real estate market is hot. Brands and brokers will build out, buy and rent digital real estate for virtual events and stores, where people can meet (the avatars of) celebrities and designers. Expect both “pop-ups,” as tested by Gucci, and permanent worlds, such as Nikeland, both on Roblox.
Al Dente, a new creative agency helping luxury brands enter the metaverse, just bought an estate in the Sandbox, which just raised $93 million, and 3D asset creation startup Threedium just purchased digital land to create virtual stores. Digital fashion marketplace DressX just partnered with the Metaverse Travel Agency on a collection of wearables for Decentraland and the Sandbox, also wearable via augmented reality. The pieces give access to events and spaces, and the partnership launched with an event in Decentraland.
Additional platforms to watch include the aforementioned Decentraland and The Sandbox, in addition to games such as Fortnite and game-like platforms such as Zepeto and Roblox. According to Instagram’s first-ever trend report, games are the new mall, and “non-gamer” gamers are accessing gaming through fashion; one in five young people expect to see more brand name clothing for their digital avatars, Instagram reports.
AR and smart glasses look ahead
Both Meta and Snap are both heavily investing in augmented reality to bolster uses in fashion and retail. The long-term goal is that their smart glasses, called Ray-Ban Stories, and Spectacles, respectively, will become must-have hardware and software. Already, fashion and beauty are buying in. “Beauty brands have been some of the earliest — and most successful — adopters of AR try-on,” says Meta VP of product Yulie Kwon Kim, who’s leading commerce efforts across the Facebook app. “As the buzz around the shift to the metaverse continues, we expect beauty and fashion brands to continue to be early innovators.” Kim says that in addition to AR, live shopping offers an “early glimmer” into the metaverse.
Expect more updates to smart glasses in 2022; incoming Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth already teased updates to Ray-Ban Stories. While Kim says that immersive, interactive overlays are “a long way off”, she expects more companies — tech, optical or fashion — “might be more compelled to join the wearables market. Hardware is going to be a key pillar of the metaverse”.
Personalisation’s onward march
Personalised recommendations, experiences and products continue to promise loyalty and exclusivity, but technology and implementation are challenging.
On-demand manufacturing and made-to-measure garments are perhaps the most ambitious, and development has taken a backseat to more accessible measures. Gonçalo Cruz, co-founder and CEO of PlatformE, which helps brands including Gucci, Dior and Farfetch to implement these technologies, expects to see an acceleration in inventory-less and on demand fashion. “Brands and retailers have started to embrace 3D and digital twins for product creation and showcasing, and this is the first building block that opens other opportunities such as starting to explore on-demand processes,” Cruz says. He adds that tech and operational players are getting more sophisticated and facilitating pilots, tests and first runs.
Store technology isn’t stagnating
Stores are still relevant, and they’re becoming more personalised through features that blend e-commerce-style perks, such as access to real-time reviews, AR try-on and more. As “digital holdouts” convert to online behaviours, they will expect to see digital features embedded into offline experiences, Forrester predicts.
Fred Segal, the iconic Los Angeles boutique, took this concept and ran: Working with metaverse experience creation agency Subnation, it just debuted Artcade, a store featuring an NFT gallery, virtual goods and streaming studio both on the Sunset Strip and in the metaverse; items in store can be purchased with cryptocurrency via in-store QR codes.
NFTs, loyalty and legalities
NFTs will have staying power as long-term loyalty or membership cards that bring exclusive perks, and unique digital items that convey exclusivity and status. More product purchases will include both digital and physical items, with interoperability — still fledgling at best — being a key conversation. Both brands and consumers are primed for the unexpected. “Consumers are more willing to try out unconventional brands, alternative ways to buy, and innovative systems of value like NFTs than they have been at any point in the past 20 years,” Forrester reports.
Brands will need to be mindful of legal and ethical oversteps, and form metaverse teams to address trademark and copyright concerns, and future projects, in this new frontier. Already, Hermès has decided to break its previous silence regarding NFT artwork inspired by its Birkin bag. Another NFT snafu — either from a brand or an entity in conflict with a brand — is likely, given the nascence of the space. The pace of technological change frequently outpaces the ability of laws to adapt, says Gina Bibby, head of the global fashion tech practice at the law firm Withers. For intellectual property owners, she adds, the metaverse presents in enforcing IP rights, because appropriate licensing and distribution agreements are not in place and the ubiquitous nature of the metaverse makes tracking infringers more difficult.
Marketing strategies will be highly affected, parting because brands are still adapting from the iOS update that made Facebook and Instagram spend less successful. “The next year will be an opportunity for brands to reset and invest in loyalty,” says Jason Bornstein, principal at VC firm Forerunner Ventures. He points to customer data platforms and cash-back payment methods as other incentivising technologies.
Expect limited-access events online and off, with NFTs or other tokens to grant entry.
“Luxury is rooted in exclusivity. As luxury goods become more ubiquitous and easier to access, people are turning toward unique, non-reproducible experiences to fulfill a desire for the exclusive,” says Scott Clarke, VP of consumer products industry lead at digital consultancy Publicis Sapient. “For luxury brands to gain an advantage, it will be important to look beyond what has historically characterised these brands as ‘luxury’.”
To become a Vogue Business Member and receive the Technology Edit newsletter, click here.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
What influencer marketing looks like in the metaverse
The 'Baby Birkin' NFT and the legal scrutiny on digital fashion
Ray-Ban and Facebook pitch smart glasses amid metaverse boom
