Gaming and fashion may appear to be unlikely bedfellows, but what our avatars wear — whether skydiving into a battle in Fortnite or having a dinner date in The Sims — has been of interest since video game characters could first change their clothes.
And more recently, luxury labels have been keen to enter the space. Balenciaga, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger and Valentino have all dabbled over the past three years, hosting runway shows in the village-building game Animal Crossing; collaborating on clothing and outfits, often called “skins,” in titles like League of Legends and Fortnite; or creating shoppable gaming environments in Roblox.
And while the appetite for digital garments has taken off outside of games in recent years, alongside the advent of collectible NFTs — see Dolce & Gabbana’s record-setting $6 million collection, or a pair of Nike and RTFKT sneakers selling for $133,000 — gamers laid the groundwork for the current boom in virtual fashion.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the gaming community helped to establish a thriving environment for independent designers creating custom fashion in video games like The Sims as well as a lucrative system for selling digital goods from EverQuest and World of Warcraft on eBay, years before game developers and clothing brands began to monetize skins for wider audiences.
When The Sims first debuted in 2000, offering a world like our own instead of the fantasy titles dominating the industry, the creative pool for virtual fashion exploded. Like many game titles, The Sims could be modified or “modded” with aesthetic changes, like hairstyles or clothes, imported from programs outside of the game.
