Paris - One day, advocates of digital fashion predict,
people will be able to stroll through huge virtual warehouses, pick out clothes
in impossible colors or designs, instantly buy and dress them, throw them away,
and start over. bacobolts.yictic
A dream for fans, but perhaps a nightmare for manufacturers.
Digital fashion is a ghost that haunts the catwalks of
Parisian Fashion Week, a challenge evoked with great caution by Haute Couture
houses, but that is boiling on social networks and among the youngest.
The Covid-19 pandemic meant the influx of broadcasts of
collections without an audience, even virtual fashion, with clothes that moved
in a vacuum, to replace the magic of the live catwalk.
Paris Fashion Week, which ends on Tuesday, confirmed that
this hybrid trend is here to stay. construction-bolts.tockhop
But the global confinement brought another phenomenon that
threatens to totally disrupt the luxury sector: creations exclusively to be
worn on the networks or in video games.
Futuristic clothing, commissioned from very young creators,
from full-length photos. With prices fluctuating from a few tens of euros,
dollars or bitcoins, up to thousands, if the client wants worldwide
exclusivity, to save in a digital wallet, thanks to the NFTs, the
"non-fungible tokens". techqueer
And in the case of the most daring, clothes to wear the
"skin" (skin) of your favorite avatar, without having to reveal their
identity.
A world populated by synthetic images, of people equipped
with thick dark glasses, who move or gesticulate depending on what arises in
that parallel "metaverse", as narrated by director Steven Spielberg
in his film "Ready One Player" (2018 ).
A garment of light
"We absolutely believe in the absence of physicality.
And fashion is above all an experience. We do not necessarily need to
physically experience the emotion of wearing fabulous clothes," Michaela
Larosse, press officer of the firm, explained to AFP via Zoom Dutch digital The
Fabricant. tc-bolts.dyifo
With a score of graphic artists and designers, The Fabricant
began creating digital clothing in 2018. But it was with the pandemic and confinement
that its turnover "went through the roof," says Larosse.
The Fabricant has relationships with well-known brands such
as Puma or Tommy Hilfiger. They design their clothes in three dimensions, which
helps reduce production costs.
But the proposal of this newly born firm goes much further,
and goes through the "metaverse", which is "a collection of
virtual universes", says Larosse.
Equipped with their virtual identity and their glasses, the
client will be able to speak with dependents who will also be virtual. Buy or
resell your clothing, your NFT, to another consumer, instantly.
All this without the need to use raw materials, or to
manufacture anything, or to emit CO2, the great obsession for some young
people, Larosse recalls.
"If you think of it as an expression of identity, we
are all going to do it in some way. And if you choose to go naked, then there
is no problem," he explains with a smile.
"Or maybe you choose a light garment, or wear a smoke
hat," he adds.
That imperiously implies having a digital identity.
"People under the age of 20 do not remember a non-digital world,"
warns Larosse.
Silence from the big brands
But for the large luxury brands, which base their identity
on craftsmanship, the extreme care of raw materials, this challenge implies a
radical change. bolts.answerhop
Three big luxury brands that proudly returned to the Paris
catwalks this week refused to explain their plans in the "metaverse"
to questions from AFP.
However, those plans exist. Like Balenciaga, who completed a
foray into the prevalent video game Fortnite, proposing clothes and sneakers to
more than 250 million players.
Frenchman Jean-Paul Gaultier, who broke the mold in fashion,
acknowledged to AFP that he is no longer interested.
"I'm very happy with my adventure, I'm very tactile.
Creating virtual clothing is another job, after all. It's almost like making a
movie. And I'm not interested in video games," he explained.
What price is a purchaser willing to pay for digital
clothing from a major brand? The market is too recent to have an answer,
pioneers acknowledge.
DressX, founded just a year ago in San Francisco, chose to
adopt the line of companies like Spotify or Netflix.
Through their app, for a price of less than ten dollars a
month, they propose hundreds of dresses, digital jewelry, works of art,
explained one of the two founders, Daria Shapovalova, to AFP in a
videoconference.
There are problems to be solved, acknowledges his partner,
Natalia Modenova.
"There are compatibility issues. When you're in the
real world you can go everywhere with your clothes, but not in the
metaverse," he explains.
