Leave it up to the creatives in our pandemic world to seamlessly fuse runways with PlayStations. With the video gaming industry at an all-time high, serving millions of gamers around the globe, the virtual space is an expanding medium for product marketing and brand awareness. The hyper-realistic nature of today’s games presents ample opportunity for creativity, which is attracting even the crème de la crème of brands.

The “Doggo” skin with both white/black and red/black graphic design.

Enter Balenciaga – one of the faces of Spanish luxury – to the digital scene. On Sept. 20, the designer brand launched a collaboration with Epic Games’ Fortnite into the virtual universe. Fortnite’s 350 million players across the globe can now choose from a selection of four Balenciaga-designed “skins,” or clothing, for their avatars.

This T-shirt, available on Balenciaga’s website, mimics the virtual skins available in Fortnite.

The extent of this collaboration is not limited to the virtual world, however. Balenciaga has launched a real-world line featuring its partnership with Fortnite. Pieces such as a graphic hoodie ($725) and T-shirts ($495) can be purchased on Balenciaga’s website. Despite these premium prices, the line’s demand is clearly quite high, as evidenced by the “sold out” status of many items and sizes. But Balenciaga is already hinting at the possibility of a future expansion of the collection.

Although this collaboration is certainly unique, a virtual designer line is not totally out of left field. In fact, some had even foreseen the potential of such a partnership.

“Fortnite is fashion,” Adam Sussman, president of Epic Games, told The Verge. “The entire experience of Fortnite is centered around self-expression, player agency and the ability to live out a fantasy of portraying characters and outfits that people want to wear.”

It’s not the first time high fashion and video games have experimented with one another. In 2019, League of Legends and Louis Vuitton released a joint clothing line, featuring, among other things, a $4,000 tracksuit. Last May, a whole runway show was staged on Nintendo’s popular Animal Crossing game. The Fortnite-Balenciaga collaboration stands out, though, since it encompasses both the virtual and real worlds.

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