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Today, Gucci opens the virtual doors of Gucci Cosmos Land, an immersive digital experience in blockchain-based metaverse world The Sandbox. It offers a digital interpretation of the physical Gucci Cosmos exhibit currently open in London, and both serve as a journey through the brand’s 102-year history.
This approach — mirroring popular physical experiences with digital counterparts to expand access and offer digital-only perks — has become a key strategy of Gucci’s ‘Dream Big Team’, which oversees the brand’s metaverse and Web3 strategy.
The fantastical elements of the physical Gucci Cosmos exhibit lend themselves nicely to a digital counterpart. Gucci’s horsebit motif is accented with digital galloping horses, and archival luggage rotates on a moving conveyor belt mimicking baggage claim. An all-white, Flora-themed room includes larger-than-life insects, and an interactive corridor reveals archival illustrations, lookbooks and ad campaigns. It’s almost as if artist and stage designer Es Devlin, who designed the exhibit, and curator Maria Luisa Frisa were influenced by the otherworldly opportunities of virtual worlds.
The virtual version is set in a digital London and is open for two weeks. It invites avatars to “parkour” through various themed worlds while completing metaverse-style quests. It, too, starts with a red and gold hallway that illustrates the story of founder Guccio Gucci’s start as a porter in London’s Savoy Hotel. Further on, a cavernous blue room highlights multiple digital bags, while the arches of the all-white Flora room look out to the sky beyond. Crucially, in both versions, an all-red ‘Ancora’ room highlights the aesthetic from new creative director Sabato De Sarno, who showed his debut collection in September.
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