Drivers: what’s happening
With more time spent working, playing and socialising online, how we present and identify ourselves in virtual realms will naturally reflect our values and beliefs.
Now, how we dress in digital spaces is becoming more purposeful. Wunderman Thompson reports that UK gamers place almost equal importance on looking good in-game (61%) as they do on looking good in real life (65%). In turn, the Proteus Effect is a phenomenon that suggests a person's virtual world behaviours are influenced by the characteristics of their avatar.
This is fuelling the emergence of cross-game avatars like Wolf3D’s Ready Player Me, which allows people to have a universal virtual identity across different metaverses. Thus, with many netizens no longer distinguishing between their real-world and virtual selves, brands can explore how to use digital dress to communicate beliefs. As fashion designer Charli Cohen notes: ‘There is no longer a line between the physical and digital ‘us’.'
Market shifts: what’s new
Inclusive identities
Social and gaming platforms are being tasked to offer more diverse representation when it comes to avatars' digital characteristics. Bitmoji, the Snapchat-owned sticker platform, recently worked with its user community and disability rights adviser to launch Bitmoji stickers for wheelchair users. Elsewhere, game maker AM Darke is working to improve and democratise representation of Black hair in video games by creating the Open Source Afro Hair Library. Calling for submissions of 3D models with Black hair textures and styles, Darke explains: '[The library] is a free, user-friendly, highly curated 3D model database of Black hairstyles and textures. It is a feminist, anti-racist resource for digital artists and 3D content creators.'
Empathy assets
Where Activism Gaming strategies allow people to be a part of virtual worlds that reflect their beliefs, there is also a growing market for digital fashion and assets that communicate a user’s social or civic standpoints. Exploring this is Enjoy Being in Transition (EBIT), a creative collective who designed a virtual mental health experience, Yellow Trip Road, where visitors could purchase charitable NFT sweatshirts, designed to communicate empathy and solidarity with mental health concerns. Called Bumper Jumpers, the limited-edition merchandise was described by EBIT founder and fashion executive Simon Whitehouse as 'a symbol of safety as we evolve through this tricky new world'.
