The digital fashion revolution
High-luxury brands break into video games: are they a smash hit or a total miss?
Fashion, at its most fundamental, is about expression and identity. It’s about feeling something when you wear a garment, whether it’s a sense of power, comfort, or beauty. The fabrics, the textures, the little details: everything, when it comes to fashion, is an overwhelming sensory experience. But what happens when you have to deal with something you can’t touch? When the most beautiful pieces you own are, at the same time, just a metaphor of something you will never really have in your hands.
The concept of virtual wardrobes has gained significant attraction recently, blurring the lines between fashion, gaming, and digital identity. Players are now dressing up their avatars in designer digital clothing, turning in-game skins into luxury status symbols.
I can’t help but question the value of an avatar in a video game or virtual world wearing an expensive, limited-edition Gucci outfit. Is it really about style? Or is it just a way for brands to capitalize on a growing market, preying on our desire for exclusivity, even in a digital space? Even in the virtual world, the concept of ‘having’ seems more important than ‘being.’
The illusion of status is still the driving force behind these digital purchases.
Games like The Sims, Fortnite, and Animal Crossing have developed virtual marketplaces where players can buy and wear high-end virtual clothing. For instance, The Sims 4 offers downloadable content that allows players to dress their virtual characters in outfits from real-world designers, effectively bringing fashion brands into the game; while Fortnite, known for its crossover events with famous fashion brands and pop culture phenomena, let players purchase and wear virtual outfits from artists like Travis Scott or designers like Balenciaga, offering in-game skins that mirror their streetwear designs.
Louis Vuitton’s collaboration with League of Legends is another example. Sure, it’s exciting for fans of the game to dress their characters in digital garments created by one of the world’s most prestigious fashion houses, but to me, it feels more like a corporate trick than a meaningful crossover between two creative worlds.
Louis Vuitton x League of Legends Campaign
Technically, this collaboration should make sense: the gaming world is vast, and high-end brands are always looking for new ways to engage with younger, digitally native audiences. But here’s the catch: why are luxury brands so desperate to be in a space that isn’t even rooted in real-life fashion? What’s the endgame here?
Maybe, the real thing is that, as with physical fashion, virtual fashion is becoming a status symbol. In these virtual worlds, having access to high-end fashion is a way to demonstrate wealth and exclusivity. Just as in real life, some people use these digital garments as a form of self-expression and status, investing in virtual fashion the same way they might invest in designer clothes or accessories for themselves.
And brands are taking notes. According to GEEIQ’s latest report, by the end of 2024, more brands than ever are investing in gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, with collaborations rapidly increasing and some companies spending up to $1.5 million to engage players.
However, the harsh truth it’s they’re just pixels on a screen, no different than any other aspect of digital life. As a matter of fact, fashion is physical. It’s something you wear, something you feel, something you embody. Digital fashion, by contrast, is utterly intangible: in a way, it feels empty, disconnected from the core reasons why fashion has always mattered.
Unfortunately, the more this trend grows, the worse it gets. The increasing popularity of virtual wardrobes has led to the rise of virtual fashion shows, where designers and brands debut their collections in digital spaces rather than physical runways. These shows can include digital-only clothing or collaborations with gaming platforms where avatars modelthe collections in virtual environment. For example, the Balenciaga x Fortnite collection showcased through a special in-game event, combining both gaming and fashion in a completely new way. The models were not human but avatars within the game, allowing the collection to be experienced by players in real-time.
Balenciaga x Fortnite
Moreover, some argue that digital fashion could solve the fashion industry’s massive environmental problems. After all, no physical garments need to be produced, no raw materials are wasted, and no carbon emissions are generated. On paper, that sounds great, but let’s be real: the environmental costs of virtual fashion are just shifting the burden elsewhere. Sure, there’s no water being used to grow cotton, but the energy consumption required to keep the servers running, the power used by the blockchain networks, and the carbon footprint of gaming and digital platforms all have their own environmental impact. Digital fashion doesn’t solve the sustainability issue, it just hides it behind a digital veil. A limited-edition pair of virtual sneakers might be considered a “sustainable” alternative totheir physical counterparts, but the fact that people are still paying thousands of euros for something that exists only in a virtual world feels a little misguided. Digital fashion, in this sense, is a luxury without substance, an illusion of exclusivity without the ethical or environmental benefits it claims to offer.
While I see the potential in digital fashion for brands to explore new ways of connecting with consumers, the trend feels more like a corporate experiment than a true cultural movement. And I wonder if this rush into the virtual world will leave us questioning what fashion truly means in the future. Will we trade the tangible, sensory experience of clothing for fleeting digital aesthetics?
For now, I remain skeptical. While some might argue that digital fashion represents a bright future for the industry, I can’t shake the feeling that it’s all a bit ill-conceived because we might be losing sight of what fashion is truly about: the relation between clothing and the physical world, the personal experience it offers, and the way it shapes our identities. It’s just another layer in the ever-expanding digital matrix.
Balenciaga x Fortnite
Virtual or not, fashion is about connection. Without it, is it even fashion?