The Swedish pop group ABBA does it. So does the Indian President Narendra Modi, and if Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has his way, having recently given his company the somewhat loaded name “Meta”, everyone will have to do it before long: “it” being wearing digital clothing if we keep spending more time in the metaverse, the new term for the wide-ranging digital sphere.

Fans will get to see what fashion the Swedish pop group ABBA is wearing next May, when the four musicians appear as three-dimensional avatars at the purpose-built arena in London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. By contrast, supporters got to see President Modi of India in his trademark brick-coloured knee-length, collarless shirt, or korta, five years ago, when his avatar, projected as a hologram, wore it in 750 locations simultaneously.

To date, URL and IRL – the digital sphere and real life – have rarely overlapped. However, self-portrayal in the digital world, through the use of avatars in computer games or photos and videos of themselves that individuals manipulate to great effect on social media, has long been the norm. These days, fashion labels such as Gucci launch their own digital collections that can be worn only in the metaverse, while fashion shows are held online and are now accessible to everyone rather than just the fashion elite. Is this the end of fashion as we know it? We take a close look at the new pixel fashion.

Avatars never go naked

It's interesting that it took the pandemic and a bunch of cute animals to make the fashion industry realise that digital fashion represents a whole new sphere, indeed a whole new market. After all, computer games have had their own unwritten dress code for years. Take any game, such as “The Sims” from 2000, “Second Life” from 2003, “World of Warcraft” from 2004 or, more recently, “Fortnite” from 2017, and you’ll never see a naked avatar in play. Instead, a personalised look is the done thing. Nevertheless, it’s the enchanting little animals in the equally enchanting world of the real-time game “Animal Crossing” that eventually showed just how good fashion looks in the gaming sphere. In this Nintendo game, users can make their characters’ clothing themselves, and quite a few have used it to pay homage to their favourite brands, especially when they had lots of time on their hands during lockdown. When the coronavirus pandemic caused havoc with supply chains and closed borders in 2020, leaving brands such as Marc Jacobs, Valentino, Prada and Maison Margiela at a loss as to how to present their latest collections worldwide, the self-made Supreme sweaters and Gucci caps of the characters in Animal Crossings were a sort of sign from above, as they showed what a huge role fashion also plays in the digital sphere: as a distinguishing factor and a means of representation. In next to no time, digital fashion shows and choice looks from the latest collections of Prada and co found their way into “Animal Crossings”.

“Are we heading for a normality in which we wear anonymous, comfortable home-working clothes and only show who we really are or want to be in the digital world?”

Alex Bohn

Identity and status in the metaverse

Digital fashion is now becoming a genre in itself. That’s hardly surprising: according to a study by industry service The Business of Fashion, 70% of Americans aged 18 to 30 regard their digital identity as important. 65% believe that digital copyrights are essential, and 50% plan to spend money on a digital garment, a digital accessory, an avatar or an NFT (non-fungible token, a digital certificate of authenticity based on blockchain technology) in the next twelve months. Newly established brands that specialise in digital fashion, such as the Dutch company The Dematerialized and the British RTFKT Studios, are taking fashion in new directions. The same applies to the digital trainer collection from the Italian label Gucci (available for just EUR 10 per pair, a real snip compared with the physical products) and the video game “Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow” released by the French label Balenciaga, which unveiled its last spring collection within the game. Are we now heading for a normality in which we wear anonymous, comfortable home-working clothes and only show who we really are or want to be in the digital world? James Joseph, founder of the first NFT magazine “CYBR”, certainly thinks so: “We predict that in four years’ time, everyone will be wearing AR (augmented reality) glasses,” he says. “Millions of people will then be able to see the digital world as an extension of the physical world. People will walk the streets in black jeans and a black hoodie, but those who wear AR glasses will see the digital fashion that others are wearing in real time.”

Textile-free pixels are not a clean solution (yet)

If everyone needs just three jeans and hoodie combinations because the true fashion spectacle is on display in the digital sphere, some might see that as cause for celebration. After all, reduced production of physical fashion means less exploitation of nature and human beings, less depletion of resources, less harm to the environment from toxic chemicals, and a decrease in adverse working conditions. However, it won’t be as smooth as that. DRESSX, another brand that solely produces digital fashion, has calculated the follow-up costs of producing a digital garment and a physical one: at first glance, the digital garment seems much more environmentally sound by comparison. It saves 3,300 litres of water and causes 97% less CO2. This calculation takes into account creation and the sending of images of the garment to the customer, but excludes archiving of the data in the cloud. The costs of sale and authentication are not factored in, either. And both of these tip the balance against digital fashion. Digital fashion is traded via cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Etherum, both of which are blockchain-based, and the respective garment is authenticated via blockchain technology by means of a non-fungible token (NFT). The currency has a catch: according to DRESSX, just one transaction uses as much energy as an average American household does in 4.38 days. So the fashion industry cannot be getting more environmentally sound, especially if the production and sale of digital fashion are on the rise. There is one silver lining, though: work on less energy-intensive solutions is under way.

In the meantime, what is also a good rule of thumb in the real world applies: less is more, and new combinations of looks from past seasons still look up to date. The pop group ABBA could act as a role model here: the template for their show next summer is their look from 1979. And that’s been around for a while.