Into the Metaverse We Go!

Going into 2022, there was a bit of metaverse mania. The fashion industry had a major push toward Web3 and digital fashion; Nike bought RTFKT Studios; Decentraland hosted the first Metaverse Fashion Week; luxury brands like Gucci and Louis Vuitton started entering the metaverse. Facebook even rebranded as Meta.

Our client SwatchOn created a new company, VMOD, quickly entering into the world of digital fashion, metaverse wearables, NFTs, AR, and virtual experiences. How could we ensure a splashy launch for VMOD in this totally new, noisy space?

The fashion industry tends to be a slow adopter to new tech; and digital fashion was still a very new idea for most: We needed a brand strategy to bridge this gap. Since SwatchOn already had 17,000 designers on its platform, we knew we could leverage the built-in brand trust by connecting SwatchOn to VMOD – and really resonate with fashion designers.

Time to spark their interest; to make digital fashion captivating; to connect real and virtual worlds in an approachable way. We created a launch campaign with select designers from the SwatchOn platform, and worked directly with them to make a wide range of content for the VMOD website, social media channels, and press.

First up was Annaiss Yucra from Peru. As an indigenous, 3rd generation textile manufacturer, she incorporates her heritage directly into her designs, from Incan symbolism, to her use of vibrant colors and patterns. She approaches her work as “Artivism” – doing activism through art, often highlighting issues in regard to women's rights in her country.

To tell her story, we filmed her in Lima - capturing details of her family history, the artisans she works with, symbolism in her designs. Now, to bring it all virtual: VMOD created digital twins to match her real-life fashion looks, and incorporated details from the videos into the digital experience – like symbols coming to life in AR, or a story of activism.

Another designer selected for the launch was San Kim from South Korea. Given the Korean border was closed due to the pandemic, we directed his video shoot from San Francisco, working with a Korean production team on-site.

First, San’s designs were totally surprising – odd, humorous…made from plastic grocery bags. In speaking with him, we were totally entranced by his ideas and inspiration. Not only was he linking the paranoia and isolation in COVID-times to that of the Atomic Age, he also was actively questioning what really makes “fashion” Fashion.

We took all of this, outlined how we could capture this in the video, and then selected locations throughout Seoul to bring his concept to life. To highlight the uncanny feeling of his work and perspective, we showed him as an observer in his surroundings, witnessing his characters appear throughout Seoul.

For San’s AR experience, VMOD needed a smart way to connect his digital look to a physical version – as it’d be difficult for him to reproduce his one-off plastic bag “characters” in full-size for buyers. So we went mini – having VMOD produce little “action heroes” for buyers to scan, activating San Kim’s AR.

Connecting the dots from IRL to URL for the VMOD launch, we had fun watching people test out the AR for each designer’s looks, trying on virtual fashion for the first time and sharing it across socials.