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The pandemic has sparked huge interest in shared virtual environments or the metaverse. This has led to a market for digital fashion or NFT wearables. Digital fashion has gone from an experimental to an emerging industry. As technology and knowledge improve, so does the data-backed understanding of what people want to buy and wear virtually. Virtual possessions generate real sales in the metaverse as the Metaverse style is taking shape.
Digital casualwear, Rainbow flames, and Fortnite fans are supreme fans compared to other gamers. Digital fashion is a key component to how people shape virtual identities while moving from niche to hyped products. Recently, The Screenwear Paper, released 'Virtue Worldwide', a report on working with the digital fashion marketplace. It sheds light on how people engage with personal style in virtual clothing.
People who buy digital fashion are not all gamers or crypto enthusiasts. Many are women, and many are interested in shopping in virtual stores. Fashion will become mainstream within five years and indicates that they expect that half their wardrobe could be digital.
We have a lot of predictions and ideas around where things are heading, and now we have the data to back it up," says Morten Grubak, global executive creative director of innovation at Virtue Worldwide, who created the sellout digital fashion collection for Norwegian fashion retailer Carlings in 2018. The project is regarded as one of the most influential early digital fashion collections, and in 2019, won the highest prize at Cannes Lions.
The survey of 3,000 people across the US, UK, Germany, Mexico, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and UAE global markets using Fashion. 82% have already purchased some kind of virtual item and one-third had already purchased Fashion. Of those interested in digital fashion 47% are not crypto users.
Young men are dominating Web 3.0 purchases, from e-commerce tech provider Scalefast, who found 61% of virtual goods or NFT purchasers in the US are male. More than half are between 18 and 34 years of age. Virtue's survey suggests 70% of people said they bought something to create or enhance a digital identity, to express themselves, or own something unique.
Online video games are still a key digital shopping environment. Sixty-two percent of US consumers surveyed have purchased a digital item, such as an accessory, skin, or garment, for their avatar in a video game. In the upcoming Metaverse Fashion Week, many brands will be selling both digital and physical versions of designs.
In the past few months, big fashion brands have invested in NFTs. One of them launched metaverse games where players can collect NFTs, while others sold wearables to gaming platforms.
Top-selling Roblox digital fashion items in 2021 were casualwear, like T-shirts and medical masks. DressX, a digital fashion platform, partnered with an NFT trading platform, allowing NFT collectors and enthusiasts to have their digital closet one that is not only fashionable but also exclusive.
Interested in branded metaverse worlds is high. 41 percent of Gen Z and 38 percent of millennials said they would be interested in exploring them, a survey shows. But for crypto enthusiasts, online fashion does not replace physical purchases. Sello, co-founders of the digital fashion start-up argued that the virtual garment concept could limit the waste by consumers buying clothes to wear on social media.
