Are you familiar with the term "metaverse"? It was first brought up by author Neal Stephenson in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash, but it peaked among internet searches in April 2021, according to Google Trends, and seems to have held a high rating ever since. But why is everyone in the fashion industry suddenly interested in the Metaverse?
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Blockchain, NFT, Metaverse.. New concepts are entering our lives every day, and let's face it, these words may sound futuristic at first. In fact, much of our initial denial stems from the fact that many nascent technologies are not well suited for use in our current lifestyles and patterns. However, most of the time, these technologies develop over time and become an indispensable part of our lives. Cell phone, skype calls, e-commerce were all developments that were proof of the same thing.
For today, there is an array of technologies surrounding us, such as blockchains, cryptocurrencies, virtual goods, and more. And even though these developments are still in their infancy, they are bringing us closer to the "Meta universe" that will fundamentally change the way we live on Earth and how we interact with one another.
The metadata warehouse or alternative digital space, the next mega-phase of the web, is a combination of AR and VR (Virtual Reality) in the real world, revolutionizing the way we connect, work, dress, and live. Although the word Metaverse is not new, it has attracted attention thanks to both Facebook and fashion companies.
According to the Wall Street Journal, people in the metaverse will live in immersive, shared virtual environments in a vast online universe. In the Metaverse, people can try out products in stores or attend concerts using avatars, just as they would physically. They will be able to bring data and experiences from the Metaverse into the real world, essentially placing them in our environment. The metaverse is, at its core, a parallel universe in which we can work, relate, and communicate. The Metaverse is what completely changed the internet as we know it today.
So what's changing in the fashion industry?
The Metaverse is about the digital representation of ourselves; and when this digitally projected world becomes our place of social interaction, work, and development, it becomes another projection of ourselves. Just like in the physical world, fashion plays an important role in our self-expression and is therefore crucial to the representation of our digital avatars. Virtual fashion companies and designers now have the opportunity to enter an entirely new private digital clothing industry.
With the advent of digital fashion, the conversation about metadata storage and immutable tokens in fashion is more than ever. Digital fashion has the potential to be a multi-million dollar industry, and innovation is a capital-backed technology. Fashion companies like Dress X, Fabricator, and RTFKT are key players involved in building fashion brands in the metaverse. Even big and established fashion retailers like Ralph Lauren have entered the influx of immersive digital products in the metaverse. Web 3.0 ushered in a new era in which top designers and small companies leveraged to establish themselves in the fashion industry's new hope.
In the metadatabase, online shopping is done. But this is not the type of online shopping we know today. Today, most people think that online shopping is limited to browsing e-commerce sites, choosing the clothes they like, adding them to a virtual cart, and having them delivered. Some may even go as far as trying on the garment digitally before ordering the physical garment. However, in the metadatabase, your digital avatar's 'skin' or clothing will have its own monetary value. Fashion Companies will need to collaborate with tech giants and create digital brands for people of varying wealth. People who invest a lot of money in metadata can have their own digital businesses and properties, so they can collaborate with companies that don't exist in the real world.
Status symbols like the virtual home you own, virtual designer clothes, cosmetics, and jewelry you wear will become as important as real-world purchases and items.
No one knows for sure, but most experts consider the Metaverse to be an inevitable stage in the convergence of humanity and technology, as well as an evolutionary fusion of reality and virtual space. Companies and organizations that build the future will increasingly spend and invest in the development of the metaverse, and the fashion industry will not be left behind. A new version of the Internet is being developed and it will have far-reaching consequences. Professionals in different fields, from law to marketing, communications to design, will face new challenges as well as new possibilities. This new era of metaverse will unleash incredible creativity and open new spaces and possibilities for brands and companies.
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