Fashion in the Metaverse Needs to Learn From History

Vogue’s entry to the metaverse is absolutely awful. Did nobody tell them that Flash games died around 15 years ago? I dread to think how much they spunked on this trash fire.

Seriously, go play it — if you can. The interface is terrible, it takes an age to “initialise”, and I don’t even get the point of it in the first place. Someone convinced the CMO that making this was going to be a PR win and I need to shake their hand.

“We’re in the virtual world because we’re passionate about design — of products, places, and ideas.” — Herman Miller

“I get inspired by pushing boundaries and this is one of those opportunities to experiment and learn.” — Giorgio Armani

These were brands talking about fashion in the #metaverse some 15 years ago. The video itself below is Armani’s store in Second Life back in 2008. Despite the crap quality video, it looks a lot better than the mess Vogue just released this week.

Second Life back then was the choice for fashion icons like Adidas, Calvin Klein, Reebok, Lacoste, and Jean Paul Gaultier; high-end lifestyle brands like Herman Miller, BMW, and Mercedes; as well as companies like IBM, Intel, Dell and Coca-Cola.

Equally important were the brands that were been developed by the “residents” in Second Life like Shapes by Kira, TRUTH, Corrupted Innocence, MichaMi, Hucci,1 Prim Wonders, FAD, Kakaue Kreation, Venerare, Jimmy Chau, Simone, Dela, Persona, Adam n Eve, LeLutka, LDizzy and the list goes on.

This was the true meaning of the creator economy back then.

Second Life allowed you to open a store, develop your brand, and start selling your designs to other residents. We’re still waiting for this promise to be delivered with the current crop of platforms despite a lot of talk about how web3 and the metaverse will usher in this new era.

It is history starting to repeat but there’s an important distinction and critical success factor to consider especially for brands seeking their virtual presence — Second Life was the defacto (and possibly only real commercially viable) platform 15 years ago whereas now we have them springing up everywhere in all manner of shapes, sizes and functionality — and they’re all disconnected.

Brands abandoned Second Life pretty quickly once the hype died down and to be honest the patterns are already looking similar this time around — because of the reason stated above.

There is no coherent or connected strategy that spans all these virtual world and metaverse efforts which means it feels no different to driving to New York to pick up a new suit, then having to catch a flight to Indianapolis to buy a vase. To make matters worse brands are now spinning up their own efforts that are even more disconnected from the mainstream.

Flinging an NFT collection into the mix is not really going to cut it anymore.

And that novelty factor and experimentation is going to wane a lot faster than you think. User numbers are spread across disparate platforms all vying for your attention — all requiring their own signup process, all requiring a different way to navigate or enter, whether it be a downloadable client, VR interface, or browser for example.

The consumer only has so much patience before the metaverse will start to feel like an abandoned amusement park and all that will be left are the hardcore few huddled on someone’s parcel of virtual land hoping the server doesn’t get switched off.