The permanent space features a cafe, exhibition spaces and a gaming zone, organised around a piazza shaped like the brand’s logo
Gucci is putting down real roots in the metaverse.
After installing a number of temporary experiences in Roblox, the global gaming platform, Gucci has unveiled Gucci Town, a permanent destination that brings some of the brand’s IRL offerings to its growing virtual audience.
Visitors to the town can access a range of activities and shopping experiences. The town, organised around a central piazza in the shape of Gucci’s double G logo, features everything from a digital boutique to a cafe where fans of the Italian brand can connect and hang out.
To help those connections happen, Gucci broadened the town’s activities beyond shopping. A portal in the town will transport you to an area called Mini Game Heights, where you can compete in a variety of challenges including Tile Takeover and Rising tides to keep the experience fun and upbeat. The virtual neighborhood also houses a Creative Corner where you make your own virtual artworks using special patterns, colours and shapes. If that’s not your scene, the Vault Plaza—inspired by the label’s new online Vault concept store—nearby houses an exhibition space where you can check out some of Gucci’s latest product drops and collabs instead.
The Gucci Shop, located just around the bend from the Vault Plaza, will offer digital items that you can collect or use to dress your avatar. You’ll find the fashion pieces in the virtual space to be extremely detailed as they make the most of Roblox’s “Layered Clothing” tech for a hyper-realistic effect designed to suit all avatar body types.
Finally, the Power-Up Place café is a laid-back space where you can take a break from activities and connect with other users. The more you immerse yourself into the community, the more of its digital currency—GG Gems—you’ll be rewarded with. You can use these to buy power-ups and virtual items.
“Gucci Town is dedicated to those seeking the unexpected by an immersive space that translates Alessandro Michele’s vision into a lived and played narrative,” the brand says in a statement. Each of the spaces in Gucci Town will be updated regularly with new content inspired by conversations on the fashion house’s future in the metaverse.
Gucci Town follows an ongoing list of virtual communities recently introduced by other high-end fashion labels. Ralph Lauren, for example, launched a similar concept on Roblox last year that gave users access to an entire winter-themed collection of sportswear pieces. Balenciaga and Fornite’s collaboration made headlines for offering some merchandise in the game and in the real world. Which is fitting, considering the line between our real and virtual lives is getting blurrier every day.
This story was first published on Robb Report USA
