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Maison Valentino is the latest luxury brand to create digital fashion looks for Meta’s avatars. Starting today, people can dress their avatars, which are available in Meta platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and Meta virtual reality experiences, with six full branded looks inspired by Valentino’s most recent collections. The designer pieces typically range in price from $2.99 to $8.99, and Meta shares revenue with the brand, although it has not disclosed what percentage is shared or the exact prices of Valentino’s pieces.
In a release, Valentino said that it is taking “a step forward toward commerce in the metaverse” by exploring the possibilities of digital clothing: “Encouraging individuality and building community is a constant conversation and exploration. Over the years, digital communities have strengthened this pursuit, building an even more powerful, open-to-all ethos.”
People will be able to buy digital fashion from a new Meta-created marketplace, and use it to dress their avatars on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. There are plans to expand this so that independent creators can sell their designs.
The avatar fashion marketplace was announced in June 2022, with inaugural looks from brands including Thom Browne, Prada and Balenciaga being offered for purchase alongside free avatar outfits created by Meta. At the time, Balenciaga CEO Cédric Charbit said that “we were instantly into it. Web3 and Meta are bringing unprecedented opportunities for Balenciaga, our audience and our products, opening up new territories for luxury.” The following July, DressX joined the Meta Avatars Store, offering digital-only fashion looks designed in house and from its network of partner designers.
Meta’s own commitment to Web3 fashion, which adds a blockchain layer to digital goods, has wavered. Notably, Instagram quickly launched, and then cancelled, its plans to incorporate NFTs, which it called digital collectibles. For a short-lived time, people could connect their crypto wallets to share NFT artwork on Instagram; many in the industry thought this paved the way for the types of digital fashion NFTs that are used on more nascent virtual real estate platforms Decentraland and The Sandbox, where Gucci and Adidas have developed real estate. However, after Meta’s reversal of this pilot in March of this year, it seems to have abandoned that approach, for now. Still, with digital fashion for avatars, it hopes that the next generation of users will pay to upgrade their digital appearance.
Available Valentino looks include the now-recognisable bright pink, the logoed “Toile Iconographe”, a panther print, Valentino Garavani Rockstud ballerina shoes and more simple “essentials”. A second drop is planned for later this year.
In February, Valentino partnered with Web3 fashion platform Unxd to help lead its metaverse and Web3 projects, with the intention to encompass virtual fashion, physical craftsmanship and curated community experiences. Unxd has also worked with Dolce Gabbana and Etro, and has been a partner during both years of Metaverse Fashion Week. Last month, Valentino partnered with Farfetch-owned augmented reality platform Wanna to offer clothing virtual try-on in the Wanna demo app.
Meta sees an opportunity in digital fashion and avatars as it builds what it hopes can be a dominant metaverse platform. TikTok, Snapchat and Apple already offer customisable avatars. While Meta is priming its users through reactive avatars on the likes of Instagram and Messenger, the long-term promise is that paid-for upgrades will become a new revenue stream on its virtual world, Horizons Worlds, in the vein of Roblox or Fortnite, where digital fashion has become a highly lucrative industry. Already, one in five of Roblox’s 220 million monthly active users update their avatars daily via its marketplace, which enables independent creators to monetise their designs.
Earlier this week, Meta announced that people can use their avatars on Instagram and Messenger video calls. Already, Meta employees take meetings in VR. Earlier this year, Meta shared that more than 1 billion avatars have been created across Meta platforms since they were introduced in 2019, and it upgraded avatars to be more realistic. Still, it is unclear how much traction avatar fashion has gained among Meta’s more than 3.7 billion global monthly active users.
Meta director of product management Amanda Jefson told Vogue Business that the more instances in which people are inspired to use their avatars, the more likely they will be eager to update them. “You get invested in your appearance, just like how you are in real life,” she said.
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