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Fashion is proudly innovative, but the industry has been slow compared to others when it comes to digitalization. Its key demographic—young adults—is digitally savvy and has been for some time. To stay relevant, fashion needs to keep up. Some in the industry have woken up to this, and momentous change is in the air.

Companies like Balenciaga are at the vanguard of fashion’s digital evolution. The French label wowed the world last year when it unveiled Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow, a video game built to showcase the company’s Fall 2021 collection.

Travis Scott Fortnite Concert

Balenciaga Afterworld

How does this translate back in to real life?

Fashion in a digital world

Balenciaga has become the first high fashion label to drop in Fortnite. From this month, players can buy digital outfits inspired by real-life Balenciaga pieces in a virtual version of a bricks-and-mortar Balenciaga boutique and the game’s Item Shop. A real-life Fortnite x Balenciaga series will also be available in select Balenciaga stores and at Balenciaga.com. Fans who purchase the real-life apparel will unlock the Balenciaga outfits in Fortnite.

Balenciaga’s Fortnite characters and outfits were also used to create real-world immersive 3D billboard experiences in London (see video above), New York, Tokyo, and Seoul. In a further twist, that same real-life billboard has been replicated digitally in the virtual store hosted in Balenciaga’s Creative Hub.

The game also launched a Fortography campaign, allowing users to showcase their images on in-game billboards in the Strange Times hub. Gamers who want to participate in the new feature can share their images by using both the #Fortography and #StrangeTimes hashtags on Twitter or the Strange Times post flair on r/FortNiteBR.

‘Our partnership with Epic didn’t start with Fortnite, actually,’ said Demna Gvasalia, artistic director at Balenciaga in a statement. ‘It started with our own first video game, Afterworld, which we built using Unreal Engine to debut our Fall 2021 collection. From there, we have continued to be inspired by the creativity of Unreal and Fortnite communities. It made total sense, to me, that we collaborate further by creating these authentic Balenciaga looks for Fortnite and a new physical Fortnite clothing series for our stores.’

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