Blockchain Couture: Style in the Digital Age
How the fashion industry can leverage the Metaverse, tackling intellectual property, environmental impacts, and accessibility concerns.
In the digital age, the fashion industry stands at a crossroads where innovation meets imitation, and creativity contends with counterfeiting.
Since the launch of the Boston Computer Exchange in 1982, technology has reshaped eCommerce, with the fashion industry capitalising and pioneering movements such as ‘Cyber Monday’ in 2005. However, the rise of social media and heightened environmental awareness has created a challenge for the online fashion industry. Issues of counterfeiting, climate change and accessibility have created an urgent need for innovation in this sector.
The most recent and innovative technology that the fashion industry is using?
The Metaverse.
The Metaverse transcends conventional ‘online’ and offers a dynamic, interconnected, and immersive digital space. Going beyond 2D interactions, the Metaverse is accessed through a virtual reality headset, in which users interact with each other, digital objects, and their environment, mirroring real-world interactions.
This space has most recently been used during Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week in 2022, where users, represented by custom avatars, attended the fashion shows, and purchased virtual clothing.
For those of you still confused, linked below is a brief explanation of the Metaverse:
Let’s explore three issues the fashion industry faces, and how the Metaverse finds a solution for each.
Counterfeiting and Intellectual Property Concerns
The fashion industry has capitalised off social media to increase brand visibility, engagement, and interaction with consumers. However, challenges have emerged alongside this, notably counterfeiting and intellectual property.
Copycat designers leverage the speed of trends to replicate designs and bring them to market before original creators. Counterfeiting remains one of the biggest problems the fashion industry faces, undermining the intellectual property of designers.
In 2019, the counterfeiting industry was valued at around $500 billion. Until now, there has been no real preventative solution to this, other than the threat of legal action which many designers cannot afford.
The Metaverse offers a ground-breaking solution.
The blockchain (the database the Metaverse uses) fosters a transparent supply chain by keeping a record of origin, ownership, and transaction history: enforcing authenticity. Identifiers are added to items, like digital watermarks, allowing for easy distinction between authentic and counterfeit items. This can also be used to increase consumer trust or to bolster traceability of items. Finally, integrated into the metaverse is a formal virtual copyright registration process, complying to real-world standards- addressing the key issues and fostering a sense of ethical consumption.
Environmental Impacts
It’s not news that the fashion industry has hugely contributed to climate change. Responsible for 8–10% of global emissions, it’s vital the industry moves towards a sustainable future.
However, with the rise of micro trends: short-term changes in consumer behaviour preferences, often only lasting a few months or even weeks- global clothes sales could increase by 65% by 2030.
Currently, preventative efforts been poor. Brands like H&M and Zara launched ‘sustainable’ lines, but this comes with a larger price tag, no mention of combatting carbon emissions, and greenwashing accusations.
Greenwashing
A type of marketing that makes products or companies look more eco-friendly than they are.
So, how do we reduce this carbon footprint?
Virtual fashion in the Metaverse could significantly reduce physical consumption. As consumers engage with virtual clothing, money once spent on a physical designer item would instead be spent virtually.
This mitigates the environmental impact of textile production and waste. This may seem a stretch, but the trading volume for virtual fashion collections came to $15 million in Q1 2023. Even brands such as Nike, Louis Vuitton and Gucci have walked the digital runway, selling exclusive digital collectibles during Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week in 2022.
Accessibility and Inclusivity
The final issue to touch on is one that many fashion enthusiasts will resonate with- accessibility and inclusivity.
Traditionally, fashion events are incredibly exclusive, invite-only and limited to specific locations. This excludes a large portion of the global audience and makes the industry inaccessible, particularly with high fashion. Equally, for those with a physical disability, attending a fashion week just simply isn’t possible. Lack of elevators, endless stairs, and general logistical oversights leaves space for a new age of inclusivity.
The Metaverse provides a platform overcoming both accessibility issues. As previously seen in virtual fashion events such as the 2022 Metaverse Fashion Week, a broader global audience was able to attend, regardless of geographical or physical constraints. All that was needed was a laptop. As mentioned by Digital Society writer, Jacob Nelson, technology has already brought communication to disabled people. The Metaverse takes this two steps further.
In theory, this solution is ideal.
However, as the platform is new, individuals still required an invitation to attend and a laptop modern enough to be able to launch their complex software. Currently, there is still much room for improvement in this space, but the industry walls have begun to be broken down. It’s reasonable to anticipate a fashion week in the near future which is accessible to all who sign up.
Look, the Metaverse isn’t perfect.
There are still a few areas to consider regarding its sustainability. High resolution images, necessary for virtual reality, increases the need for energy and could increase carbon emissions by 9% by 2030.
Equally, as with all physical commerce, creating the technology to access the Metaverse means production of e-waste, leading to air, water, and soil pollution.
However, the platform had an update in 2023 which reduced the amount of energy used by 99.9%. It seems only reasonable to assume that these updates will continue to come thick and fast.
The development of the Metaverse may seem a bit too futuristic for some- but the future is here. Proving to be a potent solution to many of the issues the fashion industry is facing today, the Metaverse has emerged as a disruptor of the digital world as we know it.
No longer a simple 2D experience, the Metaverse allows for a reshape of the fashion industry and offers a glimpse into a future where fashion is characterised by accessible, sustainable, and ethical brands practises.
As we ride the Metaverse wave, it’s easy to imagine further applications of the platform, such as a workweek entirely within virtual reality.
In the words of William Gibson:
The future is already here- it’s just not very evenly distributed
