Since Roblox introduced layered clothing on the platform in April, creators and brands have taken advantage, growing their number of partnerships and focusing on the work of creators who are veterans on the platform.
Last week, fashion has been working ever more closely with creators on Roblox. Supermodel Karlie Kloss launched the “Fashion Klossette Designer Showcase,” a collection of five themed pop-up shops featuring collections created and built by well-known Roblox creators. Inspired by everything from cyberpunk to Miami art deco, the collections will be available to try-on and buy until July 25.
The focus of Kloss’s “Fashion Klossette Designer Showcase” is to bring players and fashion creators together to see the possibilities of fashion design on the platform. Kloss has been working with the creators for over a year to conceptualize the designs. The showcase is only the first step in her work with Robolox creators this year.
“Roblox and its community of digital designers are revolutionizing how people express themselves online, uninhibited by the limitations of the physical world,” Kloss said in a statement. “I truly believe that digital fashion will play a huge role in the evolution of the industry.”
“Listening to Karlie and the creators talk about the process of creation does sound very similar to some of the process that happens in the physical world with fashion designers,” said Christina Wootton, vp of global partnerships on Roblox.
Some of the creators involved — like Samuel Jordan, @builder_boy on Roblox — have been creating products and worlds on the platform for over 10 years. For his part, Jordan has worked with Stella McCartney, Forever 21 and Burberry.
“The biggest change in the last six months is the increasing competition for top talent,” he said. “Most experienced creators already run multiple profitable business ventures on the platform. Persuading them to work on your brand project is getting more competitive.”
Apart from the showcase, Jordan designed a line of digital Lola bags for Burberry last week. The focus was on textures and surfaces, like clouds and water, that would be impossible to recreate in the real world. Jordan has also been tapped as Forever 21’s Metaverse Fashion Consultant.
Similarly to in the web3 space, brands on Roblox are realizing they need to relinquish creative control to creators like Jordan to fully take advantage of the tools the platform has to offer.
“Designs coming from the metaverse and from Roblox can be taken so much further; there are no physical limitations. With the Klossette showcase and Burberry, there are elements of the layered clothing technology where you can create designs that push the creative boundaries,” said Wootton. Burberry has been focusing on Roblox and other Gen-Z-frequesnted channels in recent weeks. For example, it brand recently launched another TB Monogram tear effect on TikTok.
Anonymous UGC creator and game developer RynityRift, who has designed for both Tommy Hilfiger and the Klossette on Roblox, has seen that brands are focusing more on sophisticated projects on the platform that grab users’ attention.
“When brands first started appearing on the platform, they largely used the tools that had been available on the platform for a while, in order to make an experience that people would be used to,” RynityRift said. “Now, many brands are pushing forward ideas and features that push the limits of the platform, that will make their experience stand out from the rest [and] that set a new bar for what can be expected from branded experiences.”
The game developer also thinks that keeping users in-game for longer periods of time is becoming a priority that they communicate to the creators they work with. “There seems to be a growing desire to have experiences stay on the platform for an extended period of time, instead of the shorter runtime the Roblox events used to carry.” RynityRift, who has been designing for six years, said that keeping experiences on the platform updated and using new features in creative ways are keys to building the community that brands are often looking for.
