How Roblox Is Powering Digital Fashion Design at Top Schools
With more people connecting via gaming and 3D experiences, creating their virtual identities, and dressing avatars, we’ve seen a recent rise in demand for digital fashion. In fact, more than half of the Gen Z users in our research shared that styling their avatars is more important to them than their style in the physical world. This growth in consumer interest is creating urgency to train people in the skills required to design fashionable avatar looks.
One market where fashion and tastemakers have an outsized influence is Japan, which has a long tradition of blending high design with street fashion and modern styles. This is a place where digital fashion design is a perfect evolution of the craft. Today, students at Tokyo’s famous Bunka Fashion College are continuing that trend during their graduation showcase by displaying both physical garments and dozens of virtual fashion items and accessories they designed on Roblox.
These innovative digital fashion looks are now available for millions of Roblox community members globally to explore in a new immersive exhibit. Visitors can try on the looks, vote for their favorites, and even purchase and dress their avatars in the new digital fashions.
The students in the showcase are the inaugural graduates of Bunka’s Digital Fashion Program, which the school created in collaboration with Roblox and Dentsu Group. They’re following the lead of the trailblazing students at Parsons School of Design who in 2023 took the first digital fashion course on Roblox. As part of that program, Parsons students created and published a variety of items and accessories on the Roblox Marketplace.
The focus of both programs is to equip the next generation of fashion designers with the creation and technology skills they’ll need to thrive in a rapidly expanding digital fashion market. Success in this field requires understanding how to meet the needs of consumers who have grown up in the digital world. These people want more and more ways to express themselves in the online spaces where they spend time connecting with their communities every day.
This dynamic is reflected in our research: Gen Z users already consider digital fashion design to be at least as, or even more, impressive a profession as physical fashion design. As Parsons Dean of Fashion Ben Barry said during our expert panel discussion on metaverse fashion, “We see from the data how important digital fashion is to mental health, to self-expression, to mood. Whether it’s a safe space to play or whether there’s a carryover from the physical to the digital, it is connected to who we are.”
Now, schools like Bunka are teaching the next generation of fashion designers both traditional skills and how to 3D model, code, and design fashionable looks for people’s avatars. This dovetails perfectly with a recent industry trend of top fashion brands jumping onto platforms like Roblox, developing digital product lines and, as a result, looking to hire talented creators who have honed digital fashion design skills, be it for collaborations or in house.
My Brand
As part of Bunka’s new course, students worked on collections of digital and physical items based on the “My Brand” theme that reflected their personal design aesthetic. To do so, they utilized Roblox Studio, a 3D immersive content creation ecosystem that provides a comprehensive set of free powerful tools enabling anyone to create and publish content on Roblox. They also used our layered clothing technology and other tools to design and publish digital fashions that, in turn, inspired physical creations.
“Our goal is to give our students the advantage of being at the forefront of today’s trends where technology is democratizing how fashion is created and worn, and the growing scale of people’s connections and interactions in the digital world dictates trends and defines style both in the digital and physical worlds,” said Sachiko Aihara, School President, Bunka Fashion College. “Future fashion brands will be both sewing and coding clothes, and Bunka graduates will be in the position to create sustainable global fashion brands that respond to the interests of digital-forward consumer generations.”
Credit: Photo on the right by Keiichi Nitta, from Bunka Fashion College School Festival Fashion Show
At Roblox, we want to give designers more and more economic opportunities. Last year, for example, we began allowing creators to style and sell full avatar looks, and in the near future, we plan to introduce the ability for creators to make and sell new virtual item categories like shoes. We’re also expanding the number of creators and brands who can sell physical items within immersive experiences as part of our commerce integration in the U.S., which will exit beta in the coming months.
We’re committed to shining a spotlight on the innovative work of digital fashion designers like those graduating in Tokyo today. Together with Bunka and Dentsu, we plan to support exhibitions of these students’ works in galleries in Japan and around the world, including at the 2025 Roblox Developers Conference.
Bunka’s Digital Fashion Program is also expected to continue and expand in the years to come to further enhance support for students’ career development and potential collaborations with fashion brands.
We’re excited that top fashion schools are adopting Roblox. Which one will be next?