Written by: Nadim Kassymov
With the metaverse beginning to dominate digital spaces, more and more brands are developing their own infrastructure to get ahead of the race of the future way of living. Partnering with Dimension, Balenciaga once again proved themselves as an innovative pioneer by creating an immersive virtual reality (VR) adventure presenting their Fall 2021 collection entitled, Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow. Combining realistic avatars and game tech, this project has been described as “one of the most innovative volumetric projects ever undertaken”.
Balenciaga’s recent efforts in the metaverse come from recent revelations on how such a platform can benefit the company’s branding strategies, adding to revenue-generating activities of these luxury giants. For example, in 2020 Gucci launched a special garden-theme limited event on Roblox, where users could purchase rare designs for their avatars in the game. This event opened the fashion house to over 42 million global players and marked its entry into the metaverse.
Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow is not Balenciaga’s first experience with this digital universe either, as it collaborated with video game conglomerate, Epic Games to release exclusive Balenciaga merch for the avatars in Fortnite, as well as physical wear. The Kerling-owned brand is a part of a large push by the company-wide mission to put digital innovation at the forefront, as reported by TFL. Fellow Kerling sister brand, Yves Saint Laurent is also starting to venture out into this sphere, by recently seeking trademarks for connected clothing and smart clothing.
It is no surprise that Balenciaga and other luxury houses are creating new pathways into the future, as a study published by Grayscale Investments entitled, “The Metaverse: Web 3.0 Virtual Cloud Economies” discovered that the metaverse may be worth over $1 trillion in annual revenue, potentially competing with Web 2.0 companies who are have a market power of $15 trillion.
Introducing the Afterworld
The revolutionary game that intersected virtual reality, fashion, and gaming all at once was initially only open to a select group of people who used VR headsets instead of attending an in-person runway has opened to the public via Balenciaga’s website.
In this game, players are immersed into the creative world of Balenciaga, where you can explore and see avatars throughout these spaces presenting its Fall 2021 line, ranging from creased, oversized suits made from jersey ma
