Korean fashion mixes high-tech and VR technologies for broader outreach

[Source: Castelbajac Co.]

South Korea’s fashion industry has put on high-tech, employing new technologies such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and metaverse for marketing to appeal to younger and international customers.

Castelbajac Co., a golf wear label of South Korea’s Fashion Group Hyungji Co., as the first golf brand hosted the world’s first extended reality (XR) fashion show on Nov.12.

Models dressed in Castelbajac walked down the runway in front of the Eiffel Tower in France set up in a three-dimensional virtual space. The show was a huge success, drawing 21,000 viewers for the live stream and sales of a goose-down jumper showcased at the show increased 120 percent compared to the same period last year despite its high price tag.

Sports fashion brand FILA held an XR fashion show “FILA’s Smart Factory Live” in October to mark the 110th anniversary of the brand’s founding. As many as 70,000 viewers tuned in to watch and sales of products featured at the show tripled compared to other items.

[Source: Zara]

Global fast-fashion giant Zara went onboard Naver’s metaverse platform Zepeto to launch its collaborative project with Korean label Ader Error. Users can purchase digital versions of the clothes from the collaborative collection for their avatars.

Kolon Sports has embraced NFTs to launch limited edition products. The local sportswear brand issued digital certificates for the original red colored lines of its flagship Antarctica padded jackets through Kakao’s NFT-powered crypto wallet Klip.

Metaverse has lately become big among global fashion houses.

Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana sold digital luxury couture items of its first NFT collection named Genesis Collection at a total of $5.6 million through auction. Sportswear giant Nike has built a virtual world “Nike Land” at online digital platform Roblox. Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele presented an award in avatar form at this year’s Fashion Awards.

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