NEW YORK, Sept 21 — Welcome to the metaverse! After NFTs, cryptocurrencies and other digital goods, get set for virtual muses, custom-made from their human counterparts. Brands are gradually calling on these next-generation ambassadors, some of whom are now even represented by real-world modelling agencies.
Could you identify with an avatar? The question is worth some thought at a time when virtual ambassadors are poised to take off in a major way. But what is a concept for some, is already a reality for some big fashion brands, as well as certain modelling agencies, which now have departments entirely dedicated to the metaverse. The goal is not to generate avatars by computer — not entirely, anyway — but to create them based on a flesh-and-blood personality from the real world.
Many talents have been put to work on this large-scale project, including digital designer Nina Hawkins of Lilium Labs, billed as an avatar incubator. The whole project relies on a host of new technologies, including artificial intelligence, necessary to perfectly reproduce the face and body of each model. As impressive as it is frightening, perhaps. And everything points to this concept having the potential to quickly go mainstream.
However, the concept is not so new, and virtual models have been around for some time. While the phenomenon is already booming in China, it was in the early 2010s that it really emerged. In 2011, the brand Forever 21 was already experimenting with hologram models. A few years later came the first digital supermodel, Shudu Gram, who now has 236,000 followers on Instagram.