The rise of the Metaverse has had a significant impact on the fashion industry, whether it’s the release of digital collections by big-name brands or the launch of the newly-launched Metaverse Fashion Week (MVFW), which took place in March.
Even as fashion invades the virtual sphere, trends, especially color trends, remain important to brands, and the growth in digitization offers new opportunities for those looking to jump into augmented reality fashion.
“As the gamut of colors we can see on screen is nearly unlimited compared to what we can consistently reproduce in the physical world, the digitization of fashion opens up a world of possibilities for the future of color in the industry.” , Laura Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute, told FashionUnited.
In the interview, Pressman discusses the future of color analysis, Pantone’s place in the metaverse, and the opportunities for both designers and color in the digital landscape.
Metaverse Fashion Week as a new form of commentary
The online world is new territory for many brands, which offers numerous opportunities that have yet to be discovered and tried out. While the MVFW was a highly anticipated event and allowed many to take their first steps into this new territory, the end result also had its pitfalls and highlighted areas where further optimization is needed if it ever becomes a true annual or seasonal fashion event comparable to real-world fashion weeks.
However, despite the poor graphical quality and often lacking technical structure, MVFW has attracted a new fashion audience to the Decentraland platform, many of whom are discovering the Metaverse for the first time. A number of designers, including Tommy Hilfiger and Philip Plein, also used the online stage to explore the virtual world.
“The Metaverse, but MVFW in particular, is a brand new space where designers and brands are trying to forge their own path and determine how they want to be represented,” Pressman said. “Is it better to copy the same look for the digital world, or should you take this opportunity to create a whole new collection?”
This question was an important part of the event, where designers and brands presented approaches on how to tackle the metaverse. While Etro took inspiration from last season’s collection, Dolce & Gabbana opted for an entirely new line that pushed the boundaries of the real world.
“At a high level, one saw designs that presented the same elements that brands had used for their physical collections, while others showed entirely new lines using colors whose brightness and vibrancy were very well suited to the digital environment,” according to Pressman. “Right now we’re still in the experimental phase, so an approach a designer took on the very first MVFW may change over time.”
When asked if she thinks MVFW will become a bigger part of the industry in the years to come, Pressman said, “We believe this fashion digital event will have a place in the future of the industry, but that’s going to take a long time take. It’s too early to say if it will be as impactful – or in a different way – as today’s real-world fashion shows.”
Pantone’s place in the Metaverse
Pantone itself has also taken its first steps into the metaverse by launching an NFT collection inspired by its 2022 color of the year, Very Peri, which in turn has been influenced by the online world. The digital artwork, created in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Polygon1993, similarly explores the use of color on the web and uses new technologies to create various effects, such as the illusion of movement.
The limited NFTs, distributed in partnership with blockchain network Tezos, were given out to interested parties for free.
Speaking of the release, Pressman said, “With the trends in gaming, the growing popularity of the Metaverse, and the growing artistic community in the digital space, Pantone 17-3938 Very Peri allowed us to create NFTs to share with our audience to promote the.” To illustrate the fusion of modern life and how color trends in the digital world manifest themselves in the physical world and vice versa.”
When asked if Pantone is expanding its digital analytics for the Metaverse, Pressman said, “Digital fashion is a very new concept and we are currently exploring our role in it and various ways to best guide our global audience into this new environment. This could include introducing relevant color palettes that are unique to this space, showing colors with textures, finishes or gradients that lend themselves to this space, or highlighting color trends for the Metaverse, as we have done for the design in the physical world.”
The possibilities of digital color analysis
Pantone’s Fashion Color Trend Reports have long since become an integral part of the fashion industry. They each show the expected color combinations to look out for – a feature that could potentially be introduced for future Metaverse events. “As we explore our role in the digital world, a report dedicated to color trends in the Metaverse is something we’re considering,” Pressman said.
Numerous possibilities could be integrated into such a report. While many designers could use similar colors in both the digital and physical spaces, there are numerous uses for a Metaverse color trend report. One example Pressman spoke of is finding inspiration. “From there,” Pressman continues, “designers can decide whether to boost the brightness of a color, add a metallic finish, introduce a gradient, or add an iridescence to the colors shown.”
While the possibilities in the digital space seem endless, there are still obstacles to creating a unified analysis for digital color. “First and foremost, colors in the digital environment are not represented consistently across different screens. For example, what looks blue on my screen may be a shade of purple on another screen,” Pressman says.
The expert also raised the question of whether a garment’s finish is something else to consider. “Colors in the digital space often appear more saturated, with lighting playing an important role,” she said. “These are all things that need to be considered when analyzing color in digital space.”
This article was previously published on FashionUnited.uk. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ