Headline, February 17 2022/ ''' '' THE -IMMORTALITY-DRESS- TAP '' '''

''' '' THE -IMMORTALITY-

DRESS- TAP '' '''

FOR STUDENTS PLAYING DRESS-UP IN THE METAVERSE : styling for a virtual world will be both liberating and potentially very, very messy.

That is the promise of a virtual world that you can get to be anybody you want, unhampered by flesh, gravity, environment, expectations and economics - or maybe just the record you have created. That you get to play with the transformative power of the fashion raised to the nth degree.

You can be braver, more gorgeous, more aggressive, more green; change gender, age, race, profession [ even species ]; look richer, thinner, more athletic; gain access to the inaccessible, be it a designer gown, the coolest hoodie or a dress that blooms and grows around you like a vine.

THERE'S ALREADY AN ENTIRE FASHION-TECHNOLOGY industrial complex springing up to  cater to whatever dressing needs avatars will have now and in the future.

There are digital-only fashion brands - more than 100, for example, on DressXalone, a virtual fashion boutique opened in 2019 by Daria Shapovalova and Natalia Modeonova.

Digital styling games like Drest, owned by Farfetch, the digital market-place-turned-conglomerate, which offers the ability to play with hundreds of digital outfits, many also available IRL [in real life].

There is also a growing number of ready-to-wear brands testing virtual versions of their collections on various virtual platforms and creating metaverse business units staffed by fashion school graduates trained in virtual design.

Gucci created a virtual Gucci garden by Roblox, and Ralph Lauren RL ski store. The British Fashion Council hosted '' The Fashion Awards Experience '' on the platform, complete with an award for metaverse design. Balmain teamed up with the gaming platform AItava to offer its own limited collection.

Balenciaga created special skins for Fortnite [ so did Louis Vuitton ] after making its own game, '' Afterworld : The Age of Tomorrow,'' featuring its ready-to-wear collection, and has announced its own metaverse division. So has Gucci and so has OTB, the parent company of Maison Margiela and Diesel, christening it ''Brave Virtual Xperience.''

Last December Nike bought RTKFT, the virtual sneaker company. Practically every week seems to bring the announcements of another brand making NFTs, including Givenchy, JW Anderson and Adidas.

In March, a metaverse fashion week will take place courtesy of Decentraland and UNXD [ the digital marketplace that hosted Dolce & Gabana's $6 million NFT couture suction ].

You can buy a strappy asymmetrical blush pink top and quilted pants with detachable green organza sleeves that look like a cross between orbital rings and lily pads from the digital brand Placebo's Meta-Genesis collection; a light up '' halo hat '' by Clara Deguin; or an '' immortality dress '' by Alejandro Delgado, a mini that looks as if it were made from fuchsia sunpases.

The digital fashion house Auroboros offers a physics-defying creation that grows around you, making your body resemble a living landscape, and The Fabricant has flaming shoes. You can opt for streetwear or high priestess-wear or knightly armor.

All the moment the only real limits to wearing whatever you want are what is available on what platform - generally each uses its own technology, though most digital fashion designers hope that, at some point, clothing files  will be shared across platforms - and for what price.

[ Also, potential legal issues : Hermes is suing Mason Rothschild, the creator of MetaBirkin, series of NFTs. for trademark infringement ].

On DressX, pieces range from $30 to more than $1,000; still cheaper than high-end fashion or couture, though not exactly negligible. 

[In the virtual world, the closest thing to ''couture'' maybe an NFT, a look backed on the blockchain and owned by a single person; the mass market equivalent is off-chain items that can be endlessly reproduced.]

This may be why so many fashion brands are thinking of metaverse dressing as the technological equivalent of a lipstick : an entry level product that can hook future consumers.

But the social strictures that often govern fashion choices in real life really hold sway in virtual life. All of which means what?

Clothing, as Amber Jae Slooten, a co-founder of The Fabricant, said ''affects how you feel about yourself.'' Even in the virtual world. And that Mr, Mr. Rogers said, may have ''implications we haven't even begun to grasp yet.''

''How do you separate your corporeal self from your pseudonymous self?'' he asked. '' Can you? ''   

The Honour and Serving of Latest Global Operational Research on Fashioning The Future, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Vanessa Friedman.

With most respectful dedication to the Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society - for every subject in the world : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - E-!WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

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