Expanding the ‘Digital Closet’: Warner Music Group Invests in DressX
Warner Music Group (WMG) partners with and invests in digital fashion retailer DressX, to provide a platform for select WMG artists to design their own virtual fashion lines. These artists will work directly with DressX to design and launch virtual 3D and AR clothing that their fans can collect across Instagram, Snapchat and other platform partners.
“The representation of our future digital selves will be just as important, and if you measure by the sheer volume of interactions, perhaps more important than how we physically represent ourselves,” said Oana Ruxandra, CDO and EVP of Business Development at WMG. statement. “With its leadership in wearables and sustainability, DressX is exactly the type of partner we need to sprint with us as we build for the future.”
“Digital fashion is a visual language for communicating and creating bonds online, and at DressX we use technology to provide the utility for digital wearables using augmented reality, machine learning and blockchain,” said DressX co-founders Daria Shapovalova and Natalia Modenova said in a statement. “Musician digital merchandise and swag will definitely be a part of fans’ digital wardrobes, and it’s great to see more and more stakeholders believing in this new domain that is already changing the fashion industry at scale.”
DressX launched in August 2020, and Meta added the company to its portfolio of virtual clothing designers in July 2022. The DressX library contains more than 3000 digital items, and other partners include Roblox, Google, Coca-Cola and Farfetch.
The company is committed to sustainable fashion, promoting the digital garment marketplace as a way for consumers to showcase their style digitally. DressX has developed a carbon accounting methodology for digital fashion and proposed a patent validated by The Carbon Accounting Company. DressX has been working with Flowcarbon since June 2021 to offset carbon emissions from all its operations, with the aim of making itself carbon neutral.
High-profile partnerships with famous musicians is another way companies raise the profile of the metaverse, as most consumers remain unaware of Web3 developments despite the funds and resources companies pour into the metaverse and NFTs. A number of retail and CPG brands have already made the jump: Forever 21 recently debuted its F21 Metaverse Collection – IRL fashions inspired by designs seen in the metaverse. In addition brands including Ralph Lauren, Visa, Maybelline and Claire’s has rolled out metaverse integrations and activations in recent months.
