High Fashion Meets Virtual Fantasy In H&M’s Metaverse Design Story
HM partners up with Journee to create The Metaverse Design Story, a collection of pieces that showcases a combination of high-fashion and virtual reality in a novel yet hyper-realistic way via its immersive Metaverse platform. HM's move towards the metaverse emphasizes the importance of creating innovative touchpoints in the future of eCommerce, linking virtual and physical worlds and engaging customers in memorable, playful encounters that convert to real-world sales.
Connecting the virtual and physical worlds
In H&M’s latest launch as part of its ‘Innovation Story’ initiative, the fashion brand partnered together with Journee to create the ‘The Metaverse Design Story’. Visitors to the platform were able to view a ready-to-wear collection, which took its cues from the nature of the Metaverse itself; a place where the rules can be re-written. The result? A combination of high fashion, fantasy worlds and virtual reality, where fashion could be explored beyond the laws of gravity or societal expectations.
The collection smartly bridged the virtual and physical worlds, connecting consumers with the physical version of the collection via H&M’s online and bricks and mortar stores.
Hyper-realism captures imagination
To launch the collection, a set of digital Haute Couture pieces were designed by Institute of Digital Fashion via Snap Inc filters. Journee’s role was to enable the collection via its Metaverse infrastructure platform for immersive web applications. Hyper-realism played a huge part in the quality of the execution; futuristic jewelry appeared like liquid metal, casually winding around necks and wrists in the form of chokers, bracelet cuffs and ear cuffs — a novel sight for consumers accustomed to the comparatively ‘flat’ world of online shopping.
"We wanted to present our customers with an explosive collection that captured the excitement we all feel at the dawning of the metaverse, but also the fascination we have with the natural world. The resulting collection is extraordinarily tactile, with hand-beaded and intricately constructed garments, but also explores the endless possibilities of the digital sphere and of H&M’s circular mindset,”
— Ella Soccorsi, Concept Designer, H&M
From URL to IRL: connecting the Metaverse with Commerce in the Immersive Web.
Due to the highly competitive nature of the clothing industry, forerunners in the field need to establish a way to set themselves apart. That’s what H&M were able to achieve via the Metaverse; by engaging consumers in a playful, memorable encounter with the digital collection, they were given an extra reason to close the loop and buy an item from the fashion line in the real world.
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Create innovative touchpoints
Technological innovation will be the heart and future of eCommerce, and creating innovative touch points will be key to converting sales and opening up whole new streams of revenue. The virtual realm helps make this possible, where augmented reality and virtual reality unlocks whole new avenues to creativity and engagement - instead of simply replicating physical reality in a virtual space, the Metaverse allows you to present branded environments far, far beyond what your customers have seen before. And that could well be the difference you need to get ahead of your competitors.