Balenciaga will present its next collection with a video game

In the age of increasingly digitally oriented fashion it was only a matter of time before someone decided to use a video game to present a collection. Obviously the idea could not have come to Demna Gvasalia, who after the success of the last Paris Fashion Week decided to take Balenciaga into the world of video games with Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow. Only last October the brand presented the Summer 21 collection with a video shot at night on the streets of Paris, inaugurating with Sunglasses at Night a trend recently taken up also by Gucci with its web series shot by Gus Van Sant.

Set in the year 2031, the game will see "the protagonist's avatar advance in different areas in search of new objectives and interactions", as the brand itself said. "The theme of Balenciaga's fall 2021 collection is the destiny of man, seen through an interactive journey and in the form of a game. At first the world may seem decadent, but it is far from a dystopian vision, showing instead the slow return of a balance between nature and industry."

While he is well known for his exaggerated presentations, on the other Gvasalia has expressed the desire to want to get out of the mechanism of seasonal runaway shows. “Fashion has become a to-do list. I feel the need to try to do it differently." The union between fashion and video games is certainly not new, but it represents a partnership that finds a new expression in the idea of Balenciaga. In the past, Louis Vuitton has used the video game medium as a means to expand its market, while Gucci has often used video games as a divertissement for its fans. And if under the lockdown Animal Crossing: New Horizon had represented a digital outlet for creatives, there has never been a lack of collaboration and capsules that have united the two worlds: last in chronological order the one between Palm Angels and NBA 2K21.

The Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow videogame will be available on December 6.