9 minute read
“Digital Fashion Is the Fast Fashion of the Future”
Sallyann Houghton is witnessing the collaboration of gaming platforms with the fashion industry live and close-up. In her role as liaison for entertainment, media, and fashion at Epic Games, she watched the topic reach mega hype levels during the pandemic. Epic Games set new standards when it launched Fortnite. And the consumer goods industry has finally recognised the game’s enormous potential. Epic Games’ main asset is technology expertise from which many industries will benefit by presenting products to Gen Z as a phygital experience.
Interview: Stephan Huber. Text: Isabel Faiss. Photos: Epic Games T o jump right in , and for the
understanding of my readers: How would you explain the world of Epic Games in a few words?
The term “games” is in the company name, but fundamentally Epic Games has two sides. One is the games side, a nd the other is the non-games side – but the boundaries are blurred now. Unreal Engine is the software that powers almost everything that we do at Epic Games. With Fortnite, we have become more well-known both in – and outside the traditional gaming community. On the non-games side, we use this game engine technology across a number of industries. We continue to invest in Unreal Engine tools and content libraries to help creators in architecture, media, entertainment, automotive, marketing, and simulation. We are constantly showcasing great examples of how creators in these industries are using real-time technology, helping people understand how game engine technology can be used out in the virtual ecosystem, and how they can get started.
During the pandemic, the fashion industry was forced to bring their digital offers to a new stage of tech and market readiness simultaneously. What did this change?
The fashion industry is now adopting new technologies like never before. In the last 24 months, the industry has changed more than it has in the last 100 years. This is a real moment of discovery. And I believe that the main reason that the fashion industry has and will continue to gravitate towards this technology is because the tools are now ready for them, with high-quality aesthetics.
You said that fashion has discovered gaming, but is that not also true the other way around?
Fashion is just an expression of your identity and creativity. Gamers have been doing that without the help of the fashion industry for a long time. Customising characters and acquiring skins in games has been a popular form of expression for many years. It has been a really powerful way for gamers to create an identity and express themselves within their communities. The fashion industry is a very important part of the wider landscape of expression that we are all very much attuned to. Games and fashion can now come together because platforms are developing into much broader landscapes that harbour a huge number of people. The perception of gamers has evolved from being teenage boys in bedrooms. Everyone is a gamer today. The average age lies between 33 and 38 years across the board, and there are billions of them out there.
I recently saw a denim jacket with two brands on it: Fortnite and Balenciaga. Fortnite was significantly more prominent. Can you see that as an analogy to the current and, above all, future power of gaming in the fashion business?
Historically, games have been very unfamiliar territory for fashion. They could not see the strategic value of them. But I think all of that has changed now. The world of games is not just for playing anymore; it is also for enjoying social experiences with friends. The fashion industry can now see the value of virtual platforms, and these platforms are coming of age. The deeper understanding of data will enable the fashion industry to know much more about their product before they even start producing it.
The one thing fashion was lacking completely over the last decades was a purpose. The focus was on numbers and efficiency. But ultimately, fun should be just as important. Will this liaison with gaming platforms bring back a certain element of fun for fashion shoppers?
Let’s be honest, most of us actually do not like shopping. We enjoy finding and purchasing. Shopping is only the preamble to the treasures that you find at the end of the process. In my opinion, that is how you lose consumers in retail. If you remove all the barriers like tightness, travel, coldness, and laziness and offer shopping as an experience in this fun-enhancing immersive space where you can freely try on different outfits and choose different ways of self-expression, then it becomes much more exciting. In the real world, we are a little more controlled. We are more strategic about what we buy. In digital worlds and ultimately the Metaverse, there are infinite choices. At any given moment, you can change your style and accentuate any element of your personality. Digital fashion will become fast fashion.
And there are no boundaries of diversity, you can leave every cliché behind.
“In the Metaverse, you do not sell products, you sell experiences.” That is one of the reasons why Sallyann Houghton demands a deeper understanding of the power of collaborations between the consumer goods industry and gaming platforms. Pictured: The Fortnite x Balenciaga collaboration.
The Metaverse allows for true personal expression. You can be anything or anyone at any time. It allows you to play with physics. We talk a lot about how the existing fashion industry can leverage the digital domain, but one of the most exciting things of this space is that we can now revolutionise the landscape and have a new stream of fashion labels that have never existed in the real world. They can throw away physics and all the rules of materials, shapes, and sizes.
The Metaverse really is a game changer for fashion. But even virtual fashion is still fashion. It is still a product meant to surprise and excite people. At the end of the day, virtual fashion is merely fashion on a different channel. It has more options, more freedom, but there are still some rules that apply, such as people have to actually like your world.
I generally think that Gen Z is not concerned about this movement towards a digital world. For them, it has always been there. It is the technology that needs to catch up with their acceptance. For them, the Metaverse is a no-brainer, and as a result they will be the most incredible builders within the Metaverse. Because of how they embrace the digital world – it is inevitable, in my opinion. They thus turn their attention to supporting communities and creating products or experiences people want to engage with. It is about transferring those very human behaviour patterns to a virtual space. We are all on a journey towards the Metaverse, this virtual persistent space that we all can enter and exit as we like. But it does not have to be a fully virtual environment. As much as there are immersive digital worlds, there will also be areas where the Metaverse and the real world seamlessly overlap, spaces where you benefit from all the value the Metaverse offers: its creativity, the connection, the access to information, and more. At the moment, the internet resembles many different information hubs that do not speak to each other, at least not yet. The journey to the Metaverse will bring with it many benefits to the real world and will bring a balance and interoperability that we simply do not yet have today across our screens. In short, the Metaverse is a concept built on the bridging of barriers. In the future, the next generation of the internet will be a platform for people to come together in unimaginable numbers, featuring robust economies, entertainment options, and true interoperability.
In my opinion, the open-source philosophy is the most interesting aspect of gaming. Sharing economy is another buzzword of the fashion industry. So, is the Metaverse the perfect platform to combine strengths and improve?
Fortnite has already embraced connected gameplay. For years, we have been working with partners to remove some of the key barriers that have historically been in place to enable cross-plat-
Sallyann Houghton, Epic Games
form gameplay and cross-progression. It was a very important step forward in gaming to allow all players – wherever they are, no matter how they are playing (whatever console or platform) – to connect in Fortnite. Now we need to continue working with partners to embrace solutions to overcome some of the remaining barriers. In a perfect world, the Metaverse must be an endless array of experiences, an endless array of interactions. Therefore, no single company will build the Metaverse. It needs to be built by a massive diverse cross-section of creators. That is why creative mode in Fortnite is so important; it is an autonomous, creator-driven space. We share accessible tools for players and creators to build their own experiences. The goal is to develop and release tools that allow the community to build, exchange, and enjoy bespoke experiences. Those are the types of open and collaborative conditions that will enable the Metaverse to emerge organically.
This philosophy could pose a huge challenge for the fashion industry.
At the moment, the fashion industry values the power of collaboration. In the last 18 months, we have seen so many fashion collaborations, more than ever. People are coming together in new constellations. If you would have suggested two years ago that we would see the types of collaborations we have witnessed recently, everyone would have said you are crazy. In Fortnite, for the first time ever, we had DC characters and Marvel characters playing together. These two IPs have never been seen together before. This interactive, evolving space allows for IPs to come together and move around like on a high street. Suddenly, IPs feel much more comfortable, and they see the power of rubbing shoulders and giving their community a fresh look at them as a brand. Digital spaces are not about selling products anymore, they are about sharing your brand through experiences. The Balenciaga cooperation was very much about sharing the attitude, the personality, and the aesthetic. This whole idea was an embodiment of the brand. In virtual spaces, the brand experience is more important than individual products. In the Metaverse, a plain white t-shirt has no purpose, because you never feel cold.
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