To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here.
Ahead of Marni’s Spring/Summer 2022 show in Milan, creative director Francesco Risso and his team conducted fittings for hundreds of guests. While models were dressed in the new collection, the show’s performers and attendees were given upcycled, hand-painted pieces. The show, it turns out, was an in-person teaser for what would come next: a digitised version of the collection, the models, performers, muses and friends of the house, all part of a new virtual Marni world titled WearWeAre that launches 14 April.
In Marni’s virtual world, people can view selected pieces from the SS22 collection worn by digital avatars of the show’s models and performers, who have been 3D scanned and digitally transposed. The backdrop of blue skies, a glistening lake and rolling hills set a picturesque scene, and the avatars have the ability to appear in the user’s space via augmented reality. Guests can also view the collection via a 3D lookbook and add pieces to their wishlist, which is saved on Marni’s e-commerce site. However, they aren’t able to virtually try pieces on, or buy them immediately in the virtual experience.
While creativity in the metaverse is limitless, Risso wanted Marni’s world to be rooted in reality. “There is something curious about entering the virtual world without detaching from reality,” he says. “Everyday at Marni we’re fighting for the importance of the studio, handiwork, tradition and humanity. I am curious to explore how we can engage with these new realms, but you’re not going to see aliens or anything like that [in our metaverse]. It was important that this was still grounded in the identity of who we are and the people we work with.”
Designed and created by Future Corp, a digital creative studio, and powered by AnamXR, a multiverse platform, WearWeAre enables users to be immersed, navigate and shop 3D products online — a creative new way to experience the Marni brand. “The ability to immediately act on inspiration and shop looks from within the experience gives viewers the agency to become part of the Marni world, while AR enables them to bring Marni into their own world,” wrote Future Corp founding partners Tino Schaedler and David Stamatis via email. “What we wanted to capture most was the possibility of a new state of being: one in which the digital and physical experiences are not just connected, but enhanced by the other to create one transformative whole.”