Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
UNREAL The £9k ‘designer clothes’ that are just digital images
EXCLUSIVE
BY
FASHION fans are forking out thousands on pounds… for clothes that only exist online.
The digital togs can be used to dress cartoon versions of participants in virtual worlds.
A £9,000 golf outfit is just one of the items available online, and a matching Tam O’Shanter hat will set you back another £2,300.
For £9,000, you can also get a tracksuit covered in the Decentraland Games logo, which can be worn in Decentraland – one of the most developed virtual worlds on the internet.
VALUABLE
Designer brands are also getting in on the mindboggling new trend, with Dolce & Gabbana, Nike and Adidas all producing clobber for the virtual world.
Each piece of clothing is sold as an NFT – or non-fungible token – which can be bought and sold in real-life like a painting or any other valuable item.
An industry source said: “Fashion in the real world might seem mad at times with some of the outfits that go for silly money, but this is a whole new realm.
“We are talking about people paying thousands for something that only exists as pixels on a screen. It is unbelievable.”
So far, D&G has auctioned off nine digital designer pieces for an eyewatering total of
£4.2million.
The lots included The
Glass Suit – a green and silver outfit which sold for £740,000, alongside a real-life version of the suit.
In March, the first virtual fashion week will be held – in the real world. And virtual sportswear is set to be big business too.
Nike has bought tech company RTFKT, recently valued at £25million, to help them create and sell virtual trainers.
And Adidas has teamed up with two companies to take their Originals range into cyberspace.
Tech consultant Grace Rachmany said: “Selling clothing in games is here to stay but I think the prices are out of proportion right now.
“A lot of people have money in cryptocurrencies that they won’t take out because they’ll have to pay tax so to them, it’s like play money.”
The surge of interest in NFTs comes after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the future of his company lay in the “metaverse” – a virtual 3D world.
There, users can play games, shop, interact with friends and even hold business meetings wearing virtual reality goggles, if they wish.
Decentraland, which has its own cryptocurrency, recently made headlines when a plot of “real estate” sold for £1.7million.
But real-life criminals are cashing in too. Todd Kramer, of New York’s Ross + Kramer Gallery, spent £1.6million on NFT cartoon apes from Bored Ape Yacht Club, only for them to be stolen by a hacker.