The world’s biggest luxury brands have been dipping their toes into the world of digital fashion.
The early evidence suggests there are eager buyers willing to pay premium prices for virtual products, like a a virtual Gucci purse that cost more than its real-life equivalent and one-of-a-kind electronic Dolce & Gabbana tiara that fetched over $300,000 at auction.
The digital luxury market is in its very early days, analysts say. But if companies figure out how to engage a new generation of consumers, annual digital sales could eventually come to as much as 50 billion euros, equivalent to about $55.2 billion, by 2030, according to Morgan Stanley. That would represent a 10th of all projected luxury revenues for the industry by then.
Last year, Gucci made 400 digital versions of its Dionysus bags available in gaming world Roblox for the equivalent of around $6 each. That sparked frenzied trading among Roblox players eager to customize their avatars with Gucci accessories. One paid the equivalent of over $4,000—more than the bag’s real-life equivalent—to secure one.
Dolce & Gabbana produced the Genesis Collection, comprising nine digital creations, five of which came with physical versions of its haute couture outfits and jewelry collections. They sold collectively for $5.7 million on luxury NFT auction site UNXD, mainly to NFT investors. While the items with both physical and digital versions commanded the highest prices, the purely virtual pieces also attracted sizable bids, according to UNXD. The Impossible Tiara—a virtual crown festooned with twinkling digital jewels—sold for 99.9 ethereum, the equivalent of more than $300,000.
