An interview with Mattia
Mattia is a student on the Master's course in Visual Design at the University of Verona with a passion for fashion who has launched a line of products consisting of T-shirts to which a QR-Code is associated that allows the purchaser access to a virtual world.
How did you come up with the idea for this T-shirt and its QR-Code?
The idea came about during the 'virtual reality' course I was taking at University and from my passion for the world of fashion, which made me think of the possibility of combining the world of fashion with the online world in the sense of online interaction between people.
This intuition led me to integrate in a T-shirt a graphic linked to a qr-code so that the customer who wears the T-shirt can live a virtual experience by accessing a virtual world dedicated to the owners of this T-shirt.
What happens in this virtual world?
The user can interact with the surrounding virtual environment by becoming part of a community that identifies with this brand. In this virtual environment, it is possible to do activities such as renting a place to bring people to, connecting several people within these spaces so that a user can personalise the product from the fitting side and adapt the product to a pre-purchase view. It is possible to see before the purchase how a garment will be worn and make customisations to create something unique.
What is the added value of this proposition?
The fashion market is saturated and many companies in the sector have immediately realised the potential of the Metaverse to make shopping an even richer experience. The T-shirt with the QR-code is a step towards the so-called Metaverse with a product that aims to develop real merchandising that has marketing consistency, with a promotional campaign that conveys the same values it wants to communicate, to find continuity between the brand and the message it wants to convey.
Customer behaviour has changed due to the advent of digital and the attitude towards buying is different, relying less on actual shops and much more on websites and e-commerce. In the past, a piece of clothing was enough for a person to like it, whereas today clothing must also express one's identity.
In creating a virtual world dedicated to this product one can replace social networking, socialising in a virtual world with new people by connecting in a real way through shared elements such as the T-shirt. In this way, it is possible to shape reality according to the virtual life, e.g. visiting an area of New York, attending a fashion show or an event and transforming the shopping experience into an even richer experience together with someone on the other side of the world who has bought the same garment. Only a real person can scan the QR code and this makes the virtual experience a simple extension of the real world.
How did you manage to develop the virtual world dedicated to the T-shirt?
Nowadays, if a person wants to learn how to create virtual worlds or virtual objects, he can find all the tools he wants, but in the end he can't get by on his own. That's why I found a few collaborators, fellow university students, who enthusiastically welcomed the idea and provided specific technical expertise for the realisation of the virtual worlds. At the moment, the project is in the development phase, so many ideas are still in the embryonic phase or in the process of being realised.
What other ideas can be developed in these virtual worlds?
We are thinking about creating virtual meeting zones, co-working spaces, chill out areas, areas where you can socialise, have fun, meet new people.
How useful was your training in the development of this project?
Certainly training has been of fundamental importance, but the basis remains the ability and willingness to observe the world around us. Even in the training sector, schools should take an example from those who are involved in training in an innovative way so that they can bring it back into their own curricula.