While last week Milan Fashion Week was living its virtual transposition thanks to a parallel event on Animal Crossing New Horizons, Fortnite – battle royale video game developed by Epic Games using the Unreal Engine platform – announced its new collaboration with fashion house Balenciaga, releasing a collection of in-game and limited edition physical clothes. The digital clothes thus repurpose the fall-winter 2021 medieval collection, armour-style pieces, as well as shredded jeans with suit lining, and an animal-striped look from its spring 2020 collection. But fashion culture, and streetwear, in particular, is not new to the gaming universe, and it certainly doesn’t escape the allure of the metaverse. Just think of recent examples such as Gucci Virtual 25, the virtual sneakers that can be purchased for a tenner, and “worn” thanks to a smartphone filter.

According to a report by the consulting firm Accenture, the global video game industry is worth over 300 billion dollars. Not only, therefore, products in their own right, but also real estate that other brands can use to advertise their non-digital merchandise. There are many signs of contamination, from Moschino within the universe of The Sims, to the collaboration between Louis Vuitton and the League of Legends video game. Balenciaga itself had presented its fall-winter 2021 collection with Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow, a game that accompanied a digital catwalk and made by the same Unreal Engine platform.