Karlie Kloss announces her metaverse debut with a Roblox fashion showcase

Karlie Kloss is a Roblox girl. The supermodel is teaming up with the gaming platform to showcase the works of five fashion designers and provide your virtual avatar with a runway-ready outfit. Not only will the project give the designers a chance at exposure in the metaverse, but Kloss says she also hopes it’ll also push the fashion industry to view virtual fashion as more than a temporary project.

Wear what clicks for you — The campaign, titled “Fashion Klosette Designer Showcase,” will allow each designer to display and list their designs in their own pop-up store. All five specialize in a range of aesthetics from Miami-inspired beachy looks to a grungy cyberpunk vibe. Users can visit the stores, test out the looks on their avatars, and purchase what they like. As an added bonus, each user will get six pieces for free and be able to purchase others for as little as $0.50 each.

A price like that wouldn’t get you much from a physical secondhand bin, but Roblox users can use their Robux ($1 is about 100 Robux dollars) to buy the collection’s clothes for anywhere between a few cents to a few dollars. Fast Company reported that 25 million virtual garments were created on Roblox last year and 20 percent of users change their avatar’s outfit daily. With nearly half of all Americans who play video games being women, the market has a lot of potential.

Rising to the challenge — Other designers have opted for Western wear, “futuristic gothic” aesthetics, and a collection inspired by Rococo architecture. Although digital and physical fashion differs in material and fabric, Samuel Jordan, the designer behind Builder Boy (one of the featured projects), explained that virtual clothes may be better at conveying feelings like anger, happiness, or loneliness than IRL pieces. The psychological benefits may be a plus, but the industry is still capable of excluding women and those who can’t afford digital fashion. But Kloss is no stranger to technology and fashion, and she plans on putting her expertise to good use.

The model was fueled by the lack of choices women had in the gaming industry, both as developers and players. In 2015, she launched “Kode with Klossy,” a nonprofit that teaches coding to young women. Kloss plans on expanding her philanthropic ventures into gaming by helping more underrepresented individuals become game designers. She also wants to ensure that virtual fashion is body inclusive, using Roblox’s “Layered Clothing” feature that allows pieces to fit any avatar’s body type.

The “Fashion Klossette Designer Showcase” will run from July 12 through July 25 on Roblox and garments can only be purchased during that window. As fashion steps fully into the metaverse, it was only a matter of time before its biggest models followed suit.