Take a closer look at Gen Z’s avatar style preferences
You will miss our virtual panel “What’s next in metaverse fashion?” » Watch the recording here.
Before the huge potential of digital fashion caught the attention of media and brands, members of our community were designing, sharing and wearing their own avatar fashion creations. They’ve revolutionized digital identity and personal style for over a decade, but in the last few years we’ve seen incredible leaps in the evolution of self-expression on our platform.
Iconic fashion brands are building presences here on Roblox by partnering with our community of creators and launches Layered clothing – our new technology that powers hyper-realistic 3D clothing – has once again raised the bar for what our creators can do. While the opportunities for self-expression and personal style are fast approaching, we decided to take a moment to connect with our amazing community and better understand their digital fashion experience. We did a lot of research, drawing on our own platform and survey responses¹ of the thousand members of Generation Z who are active on Roblox and are familiar with digital fashion.
To provide an in-depth look at the digital trends we see, we partnered with one of the leading art and design education institutions, Parsons School of Designto launch our “2022 Metaverse Fashion Trends” report. Here are the top 5 trends.
2. The influence of fashion designer communities is growing
In 2022 only, more… than 11.5 million creators WAS more than 62 million virtual clothes and accessories in Roblox. These designers dress millions of people around the world and affect the way they express themselves in the digital and physical world.
To put it in context, there is at least 200 times more creators designing clothes and accessories on Roblox as the estimated number of fashion designers creating physical collections in the US².
In 2022 we see a huge influx of fashion and beauty brands in the world create digital fashion and immersive experiences for Roblox (or integrate with existing popular experiences on the platform) – including Gucci, Burberry, Carolina Herrera, Tommy Hilfiger, NURSE, Hello Yoga and model and entrepreneur Karlie Klossas well as metaverse-only fashion companies like ROBESX. Most of these brands tap into the vast expertise of Roblox community members who help create beautiful digital fashion and other interesting content on the platform.
2. Self-expression and inclusivity in digital fashion is the key to Generation Z
The majority of Gen Zers active on Roblox said in our survey that they customize their avatars, with half of them changing their avatar clothes at least weekly.
Just like in the physical world, people tend to connect with and react to others around them based on their appearance and clothing, which can have a significant impact on their self-esteem and relationships. Wearing their avatars allows consumers express their individuality (47%) and feel good about themselves (43%)but also to showcase their digital collection and feel more connected to their peers – both in the digital and physical worlds.
Indeed, 2 out of 5 respondents said that expressing themselves with clothes and accessories in the digital world is more important than expressing themselves in the physical world.
Various avatar customization options are important to most community members who can easily customize Roblox to be anyone they want. In our survey, they noted the importance of having a full range of skin tones (like 70%) and a full body size (64%), as well as a whole range of hair colors, textures and styles (70%).
seven out of ten consider inclusivity in digital apparel designs be “very” or “extremely” important. This challenge can be met with new technology such as Layered Clothing, a new feature embraced by creators and users in our community. By the year 2022, more than 157 million Roblox users already get free and paid items created by the Layered Clothing community.
3. Nearly 3 in 4 Gen Z say they spend money on digital fashion
People express themselves through their avatar style and fashion choices in Roblox the same way they do in the physical world, with more than half (53%) says that their style changes depending on their mood or feeling on a particular day, and 37% changing clothes depending on where they go in the metaverse and what they do. Many (42%) change clothes to immediately try a new purchase.
Of those who say they spend money on digital fashion, 31% of users said they usually spend up to $5 per month and another 30% says up to $10-$20 per month, while almost 12% spend between $50 and $100 per month. More than 1 in 4 say they spent between $20 and more than $100 on a virtual item.
4. IRL trends influence avatar trends (and vice versa)
In our survey, 70% of Gen Z said their avatars dress at least somewhat like their IRL style, with more (70%) says that they also take inspiration from the physical style of dressing their avatars.
Take the #Barbiecore trend, which started on social media as part of the excitement of the upcoming ‘Barbie’ movie, or year 2000 nostalgia: the Roblox community is quick to mirror these key trends. in fashion 2022, both in the creation of articles and in the style of their avatar.
The timely launch of Up to 21 x Barbie It allows shoppers to easily (and literally) prepare for their metaverse adventures, and the Y2K trend is leading Roblox, with total purchases of Y2K-tagged items in excess 188 million from January to September 2022.
5. The prestige of digital fashion is on the rise
Recent Industry Research Emphasizing the “enormous impact of Gen Z on culture and the economy”, since this group of consumers represents almost a quarter of the world’s population and has hundreds of billions of dollars in purchasing power in the United States. With this demographic spending more time in immersive social spaces like Roblox, the prestige and impact of digital fashion is on the rise.
More than half (58%) of the respondents consider a career as a digital fashion designer equally impressive, if not more impressive rather than the role of a physical fashion designer. This number increases significantly with people spending up to $100 per month in avatar mode, where 54% said that being a digital fashion designer is more impressive.
As we look forward to the near future, we expect the next generation of fashion designers and brands to be deeply immersed in digital fashion, wearing avatars, designing 3D digital versions of their collection and creation Exclusive to the Metaverse.
We couldn’t be more excited to partner with the thought leaders at Parsons School of Design to see, together with brands, designers, and our Roblox community, how we can further self-expression and empower our community to be whoever they want to be. will be – on our platform and beyond.
¹To get the latest consumer data, Roblox, together with the Parsons School of Design, commissioned a survey from Momentive (creators of the SurveyMonkey platform) conducted on September 19-21, 2022 between 1,000 adults 14 to 24 years old. , lives in the United States. The sample was sex-balanced using the The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to show the demographic makeup of the US population in this age range.