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| How to wear big names in the Metaverse? |
Well, that's all.
In October last year, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his vision for the new Meta (formerly Facebook) and the exciting future that Web 3.0 holds, and at the same time, since he let a virtual avatar that looks like himself wears every day to do so. These messages, and thus being ridiculed by the crowd (in a world full of infinite possibilities, just wear this!), Meta noticed the problem and launched some kind of challenge.
"Hi Balenciaga," the company tweeted . "How do I dress in the Metaverse?"
Balenciaga, Prada and Tom Brown responded this week with Meta's new avatar boutique. Meta's avatar fashion store is already available to users in the US, Canada, Thailand and Mexico. It's the first time the company has paid a celebrity designer to style its avatar, though the social media company has been offering a variety of free (and underwhelming) outfits for its avatars on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.
The answer is...a red hoodie with the Balenciaga logo on it.
There were also ripped jeans and plaid shirts, a motorcycle coverall, a black slip dress, and low-rise jeans paired with a logoed crop top and logoed briefs (four outfits in all). In other words, for anyone who pays attention to Balenciaga, these are the brand's classic looks. The same goes for Tom Brown's offerings: a three-piece gray "shrunk" suit, a gray plaid skirt and shorts are all Tom Brown classics. So did at least one of Prada's four looks: a white tank with the brand's triangular logo and pleated skirt that looked like they could have stepped straight out of the latest fashion show (although they also Evergreen sweatshirts with branded logo available).
But it still makes people feel, is this all?
Balenciaga's Demner, Prada's Miuccia Prada and Ralph Simon, and Brown are four of the most creative and prestigious fashion designers working today. Their designs grapple at the most fundamental level with the way social and political forces shape identity; climate change, gender, war, capitalism, issues of value and influencer themes are reflected in the work. When designing clothes for a space not bound by gravity and without any physical constraints, all they (or their digital, merchandising and marketing teams) can come up with are cartoon versions of the most familiar looks from existing styles ?
When asked why he made this choice, Brown said in an email, "It took me two seconds, not one, to know what it should look like. I think the gray suit needs to be part of this." come into the world."
What this means is that by simply making these clothes that would otherwise cost tens of thousands of dollars and reach a wider audience (they cost $2.99 to $8.99 in the Meta store), they It's democratizing what was otherwise unattainable. Commercially speaking, this is true, and basically makes these Meta looks a new generation of "lipstick", the most basic product to spread the coverage of luxury brands, and basically eliminate access because the total price is not high. barrier.
The tech world has been shying away from fashion since its failed attempt to make wearables trendy. It realizes that if it really wants to get involved, it's better to call in the experts. While that's a good thing, these special launches seem to be created based on the lowest general expectations we have for ourselves in virtual worlds.
The point of fashion like Demner and others is that it's not just about business, it's about showing us who we are, or what we want to be, at a given moment, in ways we don't know until we see it. become like.
They're the kind of creative minds you'd expect to be able to envision how a paradigm shift would be.
In real-world fashion shows , Brown is already doing that. Not long ago, he designed a giant cable top that looked like a cross between a tennis ball and a tortoise shell, and turned a woman into a toy soldier. Demner takes everyday objects (terry bathrobes, IKEA shopping bags) and makes them extraordinary in ways that defy all expectations. You'd think jumping into the metaverse would be a no-brainer for them.
But the "clothes" that the Big Three created for the Meta store show seemed largely just an opportunity to demonstrate brand loyalty and leverage the design archive in the most literal way possible. The implication of this is that users in digital spaces want to dress as they do in physical space (or at least in the same clothes they aspire to wear), not something entirely new.
In a conversation on Instagram Live , Instagram Fashion Partners director Yihua Chen introduced the new store by showing people quick sketches of Zuckerberg's avatar in different outfits and asking for his reaction. “To wear Prada from head to toe, you do have to have a certain level of confidence,” Zuckerberg said, suggesting that he doesn’t have that kind of confidence in the real world, but might have it in the Metaverse.
But this is a fundamental misunderstanding of fashion, and the very concept of self-expression. After all, who would only wear one designer piece head-to-toe in real life? Only celebrities who get brand sponsorship for their public appearances, fashion victims, and models for magazine shoots - where brands only do so if their clothes don't mix with other designers lend.
Zuckerberg also posted about the boutique on Facebook, saying Meta wanted to create an avatar fashion product because "digital merchandise will be an important way for you to express yourself in the Metaverse and a big driver of the creative economy." ". But self-expression isn't about swallowing a certain designer look whole. Self-expression is using the tools created by designers to make something personal.
Wearing a certain designer's collocation from head to toe does not require confidence, or even thinking, just the desire to become a brand advertising vehicle, and this is what Meta is currently promoting. Maybe this is indeed the direction users want (maybe it was always a fantasy), but this will not expand the world as we know it now, it will only form more divisions.
Especially since avatars are not cross-platform creations. So if you want your virtual self to wear Prada (or Balenciaga, or Tom Browne), you can only do so on the Meta platform. If you want your virtual self to wear Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren or Gucci, you have to go to Roblox.
To be fair, maybe that will change as technology changes, just as the ability to dress your avatar might change. Now, when you choose clothes in the Meta closet, you can only choose a whole set of pre-made looks, instead of matching them one by one. Perhaps in the future, a Balenciaga hoodie might be paired with a Prada skirt and off-brand shoes.
Zuckerberg has said that at some point, Meta will open the store to digital-only fashion brands and other new innovations — designers/inventors who already sell their wares on the digital marketplace DressX. On DressX, what you see is basically a really alternative interpretation of "clothes."
If so, dressing your avatar in the morning might feel less like playing with a paper doll and more like a unique signal of value and a form of experimentation that might seem like icing on the cake rather than just a parody. But now is not the time.
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