“Basically, it’s a clothing store for your Meta avatar,” said Zuckerberg. “We already have a bunch of different free clothing … but we also wanted to create this marketplace.”
The move to launch a digital fashion marketplace is part of Meta’s effort to build a centralized metaverse experience. It will allow users to purchase high-end clothing items for their avatars and better express themselves and connect with others.
“A huge part of how people express themselves is through what they wear and fashion,” Zuckerberg continued.
To showcase the offering, Meta used Zuckerberg’s avatar to model different collections from the three brands.
Clothing purchased from the digital fashion marketplace can be worn by avatars across all Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, as well as Messenger.
The director of fashion partnerships at Instagram, Eva Chen, shared her excitement as Meta looked to invite luxury designers to create collections in the metaverse and what that could mean for “brands that don’t exist physically exist in the metaverse.”
“To see the fashion work we’re doing in the metaverse with that kind of high-quality stuff is really cool,” said Zuckerberg regarding partnerships. Zuckerberg also noted that he hopes a digital fashion marketplace would help inspire more designers to create garments they may not have been able to materialize in the physical world.
The Meta Avatars Store will start rolling out next week in the U.S., Canada, Thailand, and Mexico.
Aside from Balenciaga, Prada, and Thom Browne, Meta plans to add more brands to its store soon.