The metaverse is definitely the tech buzz word of 2021. If you’re not yet onboard with the latest innovation and the news surrounding it—perhaps due to its intimidating stance or confusing jargon—don’t worry as that world has yet to exist. But in general terms, the metaverse is “the convergence of two ideas that have been around for many years: virtual reality and a digital second life,” according to The New York Times.
Tech publication Wired takes its definition a step further to include virtual economies. “It also translates to a digital economy, where users can create, buy, and sell goods,” the magazine states in an article. “And, in the more idealistic visions of the metaverse, it's interoperable, allowing you to take virtual items like clothes or cars from one platform to another. Right now, most platforms have virtual identities, avatars, and inventories that are tied to just one platform, but a metaverse might allow you to create a persona that you can take everywhere as easily as you can copy your profile picture from one social network to another.”
For lifestyle pursuits, we are already in the early stages of its existence with cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and virtual playgrounds. With the ongoing pandemic, digital transformations around the world have accelerated and have given birth to virtual experiences.
Today, we are constantly using some form of online payment or digital systems with virtual wallets like GCash, Paymaya, and GrabPay, to name a few. Ethereum and Bitcoin are being used to purchase trendy NFTs, accelerating its clout on the growing market.
In fashion alone, industry leaders are advancing to a new era where virtual influencers, digital-only fashion shows, and merchandise that exclusively exist on the grid are becoming the norm.
Italian fashion house Gucci launched its immersive multimedia experience with Roblox, making the luxury brand more accessible to millions of people through virtual territories. Coming after its own success with Afterworld, Balenciaga continued its foray into the gaming world with its partnership with Epic Games’ Fortnite where it launched digital outfits, accessories, and even weaponry for its characters.
Influential collector and avid NFT proponent Gmoney recently attended Prada’s fall-winter 2022 fashion show as a pseudonymous character only to be identified with a punk ape digital artwork. With this, Gmoney presented his digital avatar in real life, leading the way for more seamless integrations of the physical world and digital landscapes in the future.
Noonoouri and Lil Miquela, Shudu Gram models, and Guggimon and Janky from Superplastics are just some of the AI influencers taking the fashion industry by storm with mainstream brand deals and highly publicized campaigns.
In K-Pop, one of the biggest girl groups of 2021 is Aespa, hailing from SM Entertainment company, which is responsible for successful acts like EXO, NCT, Red Velvet, Girls Generation, TVXQ, to name a few. What’s special about the debut of Aespa is that its members were launched together with AI counterparts, a move not seen before in the Korean music industry. From then on, other companies have followed suit. One has launched a girl group named Eternity, composed of eleven members completely developed from deepfake virtual imaging technology.
Come March 2022, Decentraland, the first-ever virtual world owned by users, will host a digital fashion show wherein people can view and purchase outfits for their online avatars.
Even if we are just scratching the surface of the metaverse today, these experiences are actually enabling users to move into the right direction when it comes to virtual realities. So when the time comes and the metaverse finally arrives, one is prepared with the building blocks of experience.