“Fashion will draw big profits from its digital garments“, word of Morgan Stanley. And how to blame the large American investment bank if one virtual Gucci purse has it already been sold to an avatar at a higher cost than a real one? And if the auction of a digital work of art recently fetched a higher price than a Francisco Goya painting?
Welcome to the present, that of generations Z (born after 1995) and Alpha (born after 2010) and in that of many large companies which, during the pandemic, while most of us were learning how to make pizza and dreamed of going out for a walk, they studied the market of the new world, that Metaverse, where the inventor of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, also aspires to arrive, who has renamed his group with the name of Meta. It seems that the Eldorado of the third millennium in fact it will not be beyond the horizon of the sea or even in deep space, but in our house, in the algorithms of a computer, in a pair of super glasses. It will be a place of shared virtual environments, which people will be able to access via the internet by being represented by their own 3D avatar. If we have a living room, however, we will have to buy it, as well as a car or a dress, a bag or a work of art, or maybe a beautiful window with a view of Orion.
The image will be important to qualify our status and, before others, luxury brands they are gearing up to project us to the top. On the other hand, the ephemeral moves the world and America was discovered looking for a shorter route to India from which to import precious gems, silks and spices.
A foretaste of this metafuture (about which, timidly, one can even harbor some doubts) is already being offered to us today bysocial gaming (online games and concerts featuring avatars of real people) and give them Nft (non-fungible tokens), which are digital objects equipped with a certificate of authenticity and uniqueness, guaranteed by a technology called blockchain (literally "chain of blocks", a digital register).
The Nft in essence are our exclusive asset, the unique dress, the author's painting, the super car of our avatar that we should be able to have on any platform. Unlike cryptocurrencies, which imitate money and are therefore fungible assets (you exchange money for something else), NFTs are non-fungible assets.
According to Gucci it is "only a matter of time" before the major fashion houses become part of the NFT world and other aspects of the digital fashion. As reported by some specialized magazines, during the fashion month that ended in October, it was seen that many brands are in fact already working with the NFTs to insert virtual garments within their productions.
Gucci, but also Burberry and Nike are proposing original collections for avatars of video games and garments can cost up to $9.500.
Consider that skins (which are the aesthetic additions that personalize the look of video game characters) are one of the most sought-after elements by gamers from all over the world and their market, according to the Wired site, is worth around 40 billion a year.
Nobody, it seems, wants to send his avatar to a virtual concert without making him wear something appropriate, which represents him adequately.
Going back to the economic estimates, in the Morgan Stanley report, we read that the digital demand for fashion and luxury brands should grow from the current lows, up to $50 billion in extra sales by 2030. “Digital media revenue streams for luxury brands are small today,” they write, but “we believe this is about to change.”
Analysts of the American bank warn that "Metaverse" will in all likelihood require many years of development, but that NFTs and social gaming already have two short-term opportunity for big brands.
The direct market of luxury brands could thus expand by more than 10% in 8 years, and lead to a 25% earnings growth gross of interest and rates across the sector.
To make these assessments Morgan Stanley takes its cue from Roblox video game where one in five participants updates their avatar daily. A different look every day, a truly remarkable frenzy of change, which makes the coffers jingle, whatever noise the cryptocurrencies make.
MS evaluations are confirmed by the fact that Gucci opened, in May, on Roblox the Gucci Garden, a virtual space that allowed players to explore a series of themed rooms, where a Queen Bee Dionysus Bag, initially sold for the equivalent of 6 dollars but only available for one hour, quickly climbed the resell steps arriving costing 350,000 Robux, the equivalent of $4115, or $800 more than the physical bag you would buy in-store. And it wasn't even an NFT that could be transferred to other platforms.
Already in the 2019 Louis Vuitton he had created skins for League of Legends, but Valentino and Marc Jacobs had also experimented with digital versions of some of their Animal Crossing garments.
The English brand auroboros designed by Paula Sello and Alissa Aulbekova recently debuted with the first digital prêt-à-porter collection on Drest, an app for video games: fourteen pieces inspired by science fiction films, including Ex Machina and Avatar.
Balenciaga today he collaborates with Fortnite (video game produced by Epic Games), where there is the possibility of attending concerts of the most famous rap stars or participating in a fashion show. The fashion house will make skins to be used in battle, bags, dresses and backpacks that can also be purchased in special shops located within the digital environment.
Finally, Morgan Stanley in its report mentions the sale by dthe Dolce and Gabbana of 9 Nft for 5,7 million dollars, which, although "small", demonstrates the enormous potential of virtual and hybrid goods in the coming years.
“We expect the entire industry to draw benefit from the advent of Metaverse, but we believe that “soft-luxury” brands (pret-a-porter, leather goods, shoes) are particularly well positioned compared to “hard-luxury” brands (jewelry and watches)” concludes the report.
If this is the appetizer we can't even imagine the meal of the Mataverse of which we are only smelling for now. One question, however, arises, at least for those of generation X or worse still for the baby boomers: but with our digital clothes will we have the same problems of wardrobe capacity that we have today in real life?
