inside roblox college fashion class

At a recent presentation in New York, students from the Parsons School of Design showcased the costumes they created over the course of one semester. The look features a pale pink mock neck top and pant set with deep sea-themed patterns, a strapless mini dress made of shimmering gold feathers, and a patterned gown with gravity-defying water droplets that swirl in their orbit . But none of the cloth is made by humans. They don’t even exist in the physical world.

Nine looks created by students in Parsons’ class were created in roblox, the vast online gaming universe that millions of parents can’t stop talking to their kids about. Those same kids will soon be able to buy and wear Parsons designs — or at least their digital counterparts can.

The final presentation is the culmination of a semester-long course offered by Parsons in collaboration with Roblox for the first time this year. It was seen as a way to give students hands-on experience with tools that may become increasingly relevant in their future careers, says Kyle LeeAssistant Professor of Communication Design and Technology who taught the course.

“We wanted to work on this project as a university because we want to learn what skills students need to succeed on this platform,” Lee says. “[Roblox is]also interested in shifting its audience from 12 and under to 17 to 24. And I thought, ‘We have the perfect sample to test all those things.'”

Although some of the students who applied and were accepted for the course came from traditional fashion textile manufacturing backgrounds, the class had many experiences ranging from game design to architecture.

yoshe lee (no relation to Kyle Lee) never played roblox before taking the course, but compares digital clothing to choosing an outfit in the game animal CrossingWhere getting dressed up digitally is more clearly an extension of self-expression.

“It’s funny that when it rains, we go home and change into raincoats,” Lee says of playing animal Crossing. “It’s very similar to when I was playing roblox With your friends. we went This game scene, and we changed clothes to match that game scene. and we go He One, and then we have to like change for that.

zhenyu yang, a Parsons student with a fashion background, says he was impressed by how easy it was to create clothes digitally and how many options the medium opened up. For one project, he digitally recreated a physical garment he had made in the past. Only this time, she didn’t have to run around in New York’s Garment District looking for a boning that was just the right size. The weight of the clothing doesn’t matter, either—there’s no need for physical wearability to make up for it.

“Working in digital gives you so much freedom in terms of the structures you want,” says Yang. For another project, he and a partner created a silver and green cyborg costume with separate chest, leg and shoulder armor inspired by the anime he grew up with. “(Cyborg armor) wouldn’t work in real life. (It could be made) out of metals or other stuff – it’s not possible for people to wear it.

But digital fashion has its limits. Lee Melendez is part of a team that created an asymmetric jacket that looks like it’s made of dilated and condensed disco balls, as well as a black bodysuit with a corkscrew coil down one leg. Melendez’s outfit, with its many reflective sides on each side of the jacket, was initially too elaborate to run. robloxwhich has its own set Requirements For items for sale in the market. Melendez and his partner had to cut down on the level of 3D detail of the digital design.

Although Roblox collaborated with Parsons on this course, digital fashion exists beyond games. Fortnite Players have an ever-rotating selection of limited edition in-game skins to purchase and apply to their avatars, which include or resemble celebrities. star wars Pot. When Meta launched a store with clothing and accessories for its avatars, designer hoodies and suits were the first items on sale. The promise of the so-called metaverse is that people in the digital space will be able to take their items with them wherever they go. but for distant, like platform roblox There are core ecosystems these goods are being built and used in – and one of the few audiences that is willing to pay money for them.

Yang was the only student in a class of about 20 who had roblox account before taking the course, and he rarely played, he says. even coach lee didn’t play roblox before the course begins. His younger son, on the other hand, completes tasks in exchange for money to buy Robux, the in-game currency used to buy clothing items and other digital goods. Yang imagines the audience for his Cyborg suit to be kids who like the same things he did when he was younger.

it’s one of the major tensions that exist roblox – No matter how you slice it, its demographic is youth. The company has worked to appeal to slightly older users by introducing features such as age-restricted games, advertising revenue sharing, and fewer language restrictions (older kids can use curse words!). Last week, roblox Founder and CEO David Baszucki hinted that more mature experiences such as dating, movie screenings or news could be the platform’s future. Parsons Curriculum Extends roblox Trying to prove that it is a viable and valid tool for adult life.

The second reality for Parsons’ students in the classroom is roblox Not a gaming platform first and foremost because hardly any of them use it as such. This is a potential way to earn money from their work and a place where jobs may develop in the future. Digital garments can be wildly profitable for companies like roblox- Epic Games, for example, earned around $50 million On a set of NFL in-game skins purchased by players.

Roblox needs developers like Parsons students for its platform. For the most part, the company does not make its own games or “experiences”, instead relying on a sea of ​​developers to create content from novice players, including children, to more established studios with employees on staff. Roblox representatives joined the class for guest lectures and discussions and provided technical support and troubleshooting for students as they created their digital designs. clothes off coursein the process of being uploaded for sale in roblox, 70 to 100 Robux, or about 88 cents to $1.25 (roblox The Marketplace takes a cut of the sale for the purchase).

For developers, the promise of roblox It has been that they too can hit it big and make a living from the sport, but success is far from guaranteed. be there Criticism how in the past roblox Can be exploitative to young kids who believe they will be able to make money on the platform but will never turn a profit. last fall, roblox said that most of the people making money on the platform were over the age of 18 and the top 1,000th developer was earning around $32,000 a year.

“There’s a lot of competition, and people are forgetful,” says Lee, the instructor. “If you stop creating content, people will forget you after a month or two.”

Schools like Parsons are hoping that can close the gap between what students do in the classroom and what jobs look like post-graduation. And although tech companies like Epic Games, Roblox, and Meta are pouring resources into fashion events and creating space in the Metaverse, it’s hard not to realize that brands are still building for limited audiences, not the lives of most people. everyday part of.

in meta horizon worldSome users who hang out in the digital realm are angry at how the company is handling creator concerns — and even before that, many aren’t using it Horizon in the first place. At the second annual Decenterland Metaverse Fashion Week in April, for example, big-name brands like Coach, the trend, and Balenciaga gathered in the virtual space to showcase (and sell) digital goods. Attendees, however, were few, and performances ranged from dreamy to sloppy and boring. What’s the point of walking around a dead digital mall when you can do the same in person Pick up a soft pretzel while you’re at it?

The students I spoke with said they intended to use the technical skills they learned in the classroom — some simply as a creative outlet for fun, others to incorporate elements of digital clothing into their existing work. For. Yoshe Lee, who is also a singer-songwriter, envisions a project collaborating with other artists that recreates digital versions of their most iconic looks. Could the skills developed in the course lead him to make money this way?

“I hope the answer is yes,” she says. For now, Lee is happy to create for fun and for free.