Meta will launch its online store in the metaverse to enable fashion brands to sell their products to virtual avatars. For this, Balenciaga, Prada and Thom Browne have already lined up to do business in the metaverse that Meta is building.
Founder and CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, spoke about the upcoming avatar store in a live video stream with Instagram’s head of fashion Eva Chen on 17 June.
Here are all the details about Meta’s online fashion store for avatars
What Zuckerberg and Chen said
“Basically it’s a clothing store for your Meta avatar. We already have a bunch of different free clothing … but we also wanted to create this marketplace,” Zuckerberg said, adding, “A huge part of how people express themselves is through what they wear and fashion.”
The billionaire entrepreneur added that it is “really cool” to see the kind of work Meta is doing on the fashion front.
“A lot of the dream here is to make it accessible to anyone,” he pointed out.
On her part, Chen, who called it a “passion project,” spoke about the brands that will join Meta’s digital fashion marketplace. Chen added that she is excited to see “a lot of brands that don’t exist physically exist in the metaverse.”
Brands for the online store
During the live video, Chen also showed print-outs of the possible new looks designed by the brands rendered on an avatar of Zuckerberg.
Among them were Balenciaga’s motocross leather look and Prada’s white Linea Rossa nylon ensemble.
“Digital goods will be an important way to express yourself in the metaverse and a big driver of the creative economy. I’m excited to add more brands and bring this to VR soon too,” Zuckerberg said in a separate Facebook post while sharing a GIF of the designs.
On the other hand, Balenciaga CEO Cédric Charbit said in a statement, “Web3 and Meta are bringing unprecedented opportunities for Balenciaga, our audience and our products, opening up new territories for luxury.”
Charbit also referred to a tweet posted by Meta in 2021, soon after Facebook’s rebranding.
“Hey @Balenciaga, what’s the dress code in the metaverse?” the tweet read.
Hey @Balenciaga, what’s the dress code in the metaverse?
— Meta (@Meta) October 29, 2021
Where and when will the store be available?
Meta Platforms Inc. owns social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The online store will be launched next week in the US, Canada, Mexico and Thailand. It will initially be available for use on Facebook, its Messenger service, as well as Instagram.
According to Reuters, a Meta spokesperson said that the designs by the acclaimed fashion brands would be priced between USD 2.99 and USD 8.99.
(Main image: Meta Newsroom/@MetaNewsroom/Twitter; Featured image: Eva Chen/@evachen212/Instagram)
