Fashion Week Heads to the Metaverse. What Does It Mean for Marketers?

What is Metaverse Fashion Week? Held in Decentraland, a virtual-social world powered by the Ethereum blockchain, MVFW is a four-day virtual event with fashion shows, live music sessions and branded after-parties. 

While this isn’t the first event ever held in the metaverse, MVFW represents a step change in the future of digital, not only because of the sheer number of recognizable brands involved, but also because it is a critical bellwether for digital as a destination—a potentially very profitable one at that—not just a channel. 

In short, any brand or business that wants to stay ahead of the next wave of digital transformation should pay close attention this week—or you risk getting left behind. 

Puppets Made From Upcycled Clothes Strut the Runway in This Quirky Fashion Campaign

Digital as a destination, not a channel

Digital is a destination, the destination where culture, commerce and influence will be defined for decades to come, just like the physical runways. And luxury brands are paving the way with exciting innovations in the metaverse, like dystopian fashion shows where avatars walk through apocalyptic forests wearing fire-lit outfits.

As the digital colleague to New York Fashion Week, which holds an economic impact estimated at $887 million, MVFW may well pass its physical counterpart one day. Morgan Stanley estimates the virtual fashion market could be worth more than $55 billion by 2030.

Any luxury brand that wants to seize a share of that market must remain customer-centric, humanized, data-driven and offer complete customer journeys, including in the metaverse. 

As CEO and co-founder of Boson Protocol Justin Banon, an MVFW partner, has pointed out, we went from people asking what the metaverse is to it being an absolute must-have.

Indeed, the metaverse embodies a radical shift taking place that extends far beyond the fashion industry. While businesses have always paid close attention to the proliferation of online engagement, most have historically only considered digital as a channel—that is, a means to bridge the communications gap between brand and customer, rather than an actual place where their customers exist and where meaningful knowledge can be gathered about them.

But, as this week epitomizes, digital as just a channel is already a thing of the past. And as society moves ever closer to a fully realized digital world that exists beyond and beside the one we live in now, brands need to adjust their long-term strategy. 

Experiment audaciously, but with authenticity

Experimentation, audacity and authenticity are essential to reaping the digital dividends and defining your brand as a destination in the metaverse. Look to luxury for how to do it well.

As business guru, CNN host and NYU Professor Scott Galloway explained at a summit last year, in the presence of richness and beauty, our brain gets access to certain elevated emotions that it can’t get anywhere else. Luxury brands are offering truly rich, beautiful and even fantastical experiences in the metaverse, from flaming capes and billowing glass-blown dresses to cloud-like outerwear. 

At the same time, luxury brands are adhering to their core elements of authenticity like rarity, exclusivity and price. They are experimenting with VIP access points and requiring people to own Ethereum wallets to purchase NFTs. As for price, a digital Gucci bag was sold on Roblox for more than $4,100—exceeding the cost of the physical object. 

So even as digital is being rewired and audacious experimentation is at an all-time high, the very best brands are still holding true to their authenticity, ultimately ensuring brand loyalty and the highest possible returns.

Why all of this matters

Metaverse Fashion Week might be designed for a very small number of participants virtually, but it’s bound to define our culture, shape consumer behavior and act as a guide for how businesses capture ROI through digital transformation.

Wading into a new digital space can be daunting for any organization. But there’s also a risk in not engaging at all.

Gartner found that 66% of leaders have plans for digital business transformation, while only 11% have achieved it at scale. But getting farther along that journey is worth the effort: MIT found companies that substantially complete their digital transformations tend to enjoy margins 16% higher than their industry’s average. 

Perhaps one of the most crucial lessons for this moment is that, even as digital becomes a destination, there’s no end to the digital journey. From here on out, it’s about constantly seeking, defining and improving new places for the consumer. 

For brands and marketing leaders, trendsetting moments like MVFW are a critical chance to evaluate your digital strategy. What seems flashy and far away from the norm today might be a non-negotiable part of tomorrow’s customer experience.

As with any new digital technology, now’s the time to start experimenting. See you at the virtual runway.

How One Retailer Used NFTs to Challenge Luxury Fashion Norms