How The Metaverse is Taking a New Stance on Luxury

A Thriving Physical Market
Already, revenue in the Luxury Goods market has amounted to $337,314 million in 2022. Expected to grow annually by 4.69% up until 2025, this incredibly popular market continues to attract consumers. Interestingly, the luxury items market’s largest segment is Luxury Fashion, sharing a market volume of $117,152 million in 2022.

Luxurious products, and specifically clothing have long been desired in our physical, material world. They’re shown to be at the forefront of popular culture, and worn by people who are generally admired by society. For the 2022 Winter Olympics, American designer fashion label Ralph Lauren became the official outfitter for Team USA. So of course, pieces from the collection are available to shop.

Designer Fashion Going Digital
Where there is an abundance of commerce in the physical world, it is likely that the digital world will follow. Soon, the Metaverse will go beyond its current status of being a technological enigma, to being a part of everyday life on the internet. It will not merely be a digital realm exclusively enjoyed by gamers and tech nerds, but rather, the metaverse aims to become a network of 3D spaces where people can interact with one another, pursue their interests, and even conduct business. Imagine visiting a Ralph Lauren store in a virtual reality where you are able to try on, swap and customize winter Olympic-themed outfits for your digital avatar. These outfits could then be worn in games, or simply when interacting with friends in the metaverse. Utility of this nature will soon become a reality of the Metaverse, and those that get ahead of this evolving market now can become its pioneers.

Big Luxury Brands Are Entering The Space
It’s happening quickly – Metaverse gaming giant Decentraland announced at the end of 2021 that they are to host four days of “catwalk shows and showcases, pop up shops, after parties, and immersive experiences” in March 2022. It’s the first ever “Meta Fashion Week”, and any companies wanting to become big players in luxury meta-fashion should take note of it. This epic virtual fashion event will take place between March 24 and 27, enabling participants to view runway shows, engage with other attendees and buy virtual clothing for their digital avatars.

The event will take place in conjunction with luxury digital marketplace UNXD, which was also the platform to host Dolce & Gabbana’s first NFT collection in 2021. One D&G NFT called the Glass Suit, designed by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, fetched just over $1 million at auction (351.384 ETH at the time). Alongside receiving their NFT, the new owner will also get a physical suit tailored to their specifications for that price.

The Sandbox has also acquired the attention of luxury brands. Gucci recently announced that they have bought virtual land on the metaverse platform and will begin construction of its own world there. The announcement reads,

“Gucci and The Sandbox will collaborate to create an interactive fashion experience based on Vault, Gucci’s conceptual space and meeting place inspired by childhood memories of the search for beauty”.

A Platform For Decentralized Luxury Fashion Items
One project who has already made significant steps in this direction is Faith Tribe. A Web3 brainchild of Parisian luxury fashion brand Faith Connexion, Faith Tribe have cultivated an unique NFT platform. Through a hybrid of blockchain tech and luxury fashion production tools, Faith Tribe’s platform allows its users to design, customize, mint and distribute their own digital and physical fashion assets. It’s intended to be the first fully decentralized and community-owned ecosystem for the collaborative creation of fashion items.

Faith Connexion have put themselves in a good position for the coming consumption of luxury items in the metaverse, and they intend to take further strides forward by participating in Decentraland’s upcoming Metaverse Fashion Week.

Having said this, Faith Tribe are not only focusing on the metaverse, but also fashion in the physical form. For instance, a unique utility of Faith Tribe is that once physical items of clothing are bought in $FTRB tokens, these tokens will be burnt, creating a deflationary effect on the circulation of tokens. This is an advantage to all members and collectors of the Faith Tribe token.

To keep up to date on Faith Tribe’s launch: Twitter | Telegram group.