In a blog post, L’OFFICIEL stated that its future is in the metaverse, and the shift will be aided by its recent acquisition by Hong Kong-based financial services company AMTD International. The metaverse entry will see AMTD International unveil its land with L’OFFICIEL in the virtual gaming land The Sandbox under a project dubbed Fashion Skin. The project will entail a collection of virtual clothing designed through leveraging artificial intelligence linked to L’OFFICIEL’s database. According to the magazine, it has over 100,000 exclusive images from its over a century circulation. Following the acquisition, AMTD plans to expand L’OFFICIEL’s presence in Hong Kong, Macau, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. L’OFFICIEL notes that the advance into the metaverse is natural based on the platform’s reputation of virtually taking part in the fashion world. The virtual magazine presence began with the launch of the digital museum, dubbed The House of Dreams. The museum hosted non-fungible tokens (NFT) exhibition from L’OFFICIEL’s archives, celebrating its 100 years in existence.
Fashion brand entering the metaverse
Furthermore, the museum offers virtual experiences in partnerships with Dior Tiffany & Co., among other brands. L’OFFICIEL now joins other major fashion brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, leveraging the blockchain to make inroads in the metaverse and the growing NFT space. Prada is the latest entity to release its NFT after a partnership with Adidas. The collectable is a crowd-sourced digital artwork in a Beeple-style collage, becoming the luxury fashion brand iteration in the metaverse. The project that will run on the Polygon network will allow fans to contribute their own designs.