Fashion is an organic presence on platforms like Fortnite, where the kinds of boundary-pushing looks Hackl describes are already part of the experience. Typically, brands ignore customers outside their highly prescribed comfort zone until they are unable to-until, in other words, it’s convenient and profitable to engage with new potential customers. The fashion industry is also nervous about neglecting a community of future consumers. I think it’s part of embracing that rebellion: how are they expressing themselves in these virtual spaces?” Young people will always test boundaries in the physical world, she says, “but they’re also going to test those in the virtual spaces and see, what can I do? What can I build? How can I outfit my avatar, or what creator’s fashion am I going to buy that’s going to allow me to push the limits of how I express myself?” RTFKT’s cofounders even suggested that users have started making changes to their physical wardrobes and appearances to better reflect their digital avatars. Three different people I spoke to brought up the possibility of walking around engulfed, either partially or completely, in flames.) “Younger generations have always pushed limits. (Anecdotally, immolation seems to be a popular dream. “It’s about unleashing creativity, pushing limits, right?” says Hackl.

The freedom from “standard-ass crap” is the reason someone like Hackl says, “I haven’t felt this excitement about fashion and technology ever.” Forget wearing a slightly different hoodie-the appeal of the metaverse, its proselytes say, is the way an avatar releases a user from physical realities. It’s not one technology and it’s not one company.” And while the metaverse can be experienced in virtual spaces, as what’s typically called “virtual reality,” that’s not the only way we’ll experience it. “And these people, spaces, and assets can be, sometimes, in a fully virtual synthetic environment.” She’s careful to clarify that the metaverse isn’t something that is owned by or exists on one particular platform-rather, it “is enabled by many different technologies. Now, Hackl explains, “We’re at the evolution of Web 2.0, we’re heading into web 3.0,” which will connect people, locations, and things. “What we’re really talking about is the future of the internet,” says Cathy Hackl, the CEO (and Chief Metaverse Officer) of the consultancy Futures Intelligence Group, whom peers often call the “godmother of the metaverse.” She tells me that the first era of the internet-Web 1.0-facilitated the transmission of information, while Web 2.0 connected people, creating the sharing economy dominated by companies like Spotify and Facebook. What’s more, Silicon Valley has also been quick to embrace fashion as a cornerstone of its flashy new development: much ado was made of Mark Zuckerberg’s avatar swapping through wardrobe possibilities in the metaverse demo video that his company released in late October to announce their rebrand as “Meta.” All of which is turning two industries that have struggled to connect in a genuine way into unusually zealous collaborators.īut first (and don’t be embarrassed that you have to ask): what is the metaverse? No one can really say yet, because no one knows exactly how it will play out. From Balenciaga to the witty emerging British upstart Stefan Cooke, it seems every fashion house wants to (literally) enter the space. This scenario is one possible vision of the metaverse, the nebulous new digital frontier that Silicon Valley can’t stop talking about-and that the fashion world seems equally obsessed by. Because, when you yank those goggles off, you see that your friend is wearing no more than a T-shirt and sweatpants.

And while their Balenciaga couture cape is aflame, they seem totally relaxed about it. “Fire outfit!” you say, because your friend’s outfit is literally on fire. You’re walking around Manhattan-provided it’s still above water-wearing a pair of glasses that share data about the people, places, and things around you.

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