The eyewear industry is taking a bold leap into the future by venturing into new and emerging fields. According to a Grand View Research report, technological advancements drive industry growth and contribute to the market’s steady performance, providing new opportunities for eyewear manufacturers to innovate. Today, the intersection between tech and eyewear has allowed brands to stand out more than ever before.
For instance, Mojo Vision contact lenses have been developed with the world’s smallest micro-LED display technology. These lenses display information directly in front of the wearer’s field of view by incorporating augmented reality (AR), which merges the physical and digital worlds. Eye-tracking makes it possible to display weather information, upcoming flight details, and directions on the lenses. Meanwhile, other eyewear brands like Ray-Ban have ventured into the smart glasses market with tech giant Meta using similar AR and artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
Tech has entered the luxury eyewear space as well, with fashion house Gucci leading the way in exploring new avenues for market growth. The Italian luxury fashion and eyewear brand has tapped into emerging tech such as AI and the metaverse, highlighting the potential of combining fashion and Web3 in the digital age. Below, we take a closer look at Gucci’s AI and metaverse endeavours:
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A leader in the global luxury sector
Founded by Guccio Gucci in Florence, Italy, in 1921, Gucci has positioned itself as a luxury brand that focuses on premium Italian craftsmanship. The brand has grown significantly since it first opened the doors of its only shop in the side streets of Florence and is renowned for its refined style and attention to detail. Gucci sunglasses highlight this ethos through high-quality materials and unique styles that blend traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design. Its signature double G logo and green and red stripes on sunnies like the GG1421S and GG0603S create a recognisable style that makes its frames stand out.
Aside from sunglasses, the brand also offers watches, jewellery, and home decor. Gucci bags are especially popular among fashion aficionados, with A-listers like Lady Gaga occasionally wearing the Gucci Zumi top-handle style bag, which mixes leather and multi-tone metal hardware. Meanwhile, the Gucci Jackie, which features a crescent shape and a geometric style buckle, is a cult classic among other celebrities like Dakota Johnson. Today, Gucci continues to establish itself as a pioneering luxury brand, particularly in exploring opportunities in AI and the metaverse.
Venturing into the world of AI
Credit: Christie’s on Instagram
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In 2023, Gucci partnered with auctioneer Christie’s for their second collaboration aimed at exploring the combination of art, technology, and fashion. Christie’s 3.0, the auction company’s platform for digital art, teamed up with the maison’s online gallery Gucci Art Space to launch Parallel Universes: From Future Frequencies to Gucci Cosmos, featuring nine artworks made with generative AI. It was built upon the two brand’s Future Frequencies: Explorations in Generative Art and Fashion exhibition, which paid tribute to Gucci’s history. Nine artists were challenged to look back into Gucci’s archives and the themes they carry, leveraging inspiration from the brand’s rich history and eras to create pieces that explore artistic methods and aesthetics across Gucci’s iconic moments. Gucci and Christie’s selected these artists with the goal of exploring generative systems’ potential in enhancing the human element in artistic creation.
The artists engaged with several of the brand’s motifs throughout history, contemplating how iconic Gucci pieces defined the aesthetics of their time. Each artist took up brand origin myths and specific themes to supplement their work – from young Guccio Gucci’s stint as a luggage porter at The Savoy Hotel in 1897 to the birth of iconic symbols like the Flora, Horsebit, and Gucci Rosso Ancora. Using generative systems, these artists produced several images that create meaningful conversations across different eras of the luxury house, showcasing an interplay between the past and future.
The resulting works featured cyclical patterns and Gucci Ancora’s red hues, which mirrored the intersection between art and fashion across periods. Gucci’s move to experiment with generative AI for this exhibit is part of the brand’s commitment to establishing its name in the digital space. Thanks to this partnership with Christie’s, Gucci was able to explore generative tech while further establishing the brand’s creative identity.
“I find that artists using generative systems have an innate understanding of concept and craft, which fundamentally feels very aligned with Gucci’s ethos,” according to Sebastian Sanchez, Christie’s manager of digital art sales, in an interview with Vogue business.
Credit: Roblox on Instagram
Aside from venturing into the world of AI, Gucci has also established itself as a pioneer in the fashion metaverse. The brand is known for being one of the first luxury houses to use non-fungible tokens (NFTs), launching its first NFT in 2021, a four-minute short film inspired by the brand’s Aria collection. The brand has also adopted cryptocurrency—a key component of the metaverse ecosystem—as an alternative way for consumers to buy its products.
Credit: Paul Milinski on Instagram
Additionally, Gucci has created immersive virtual experiences on online platforms like Robox and The Sandbox. In 2022, the brand opened the Gucci Vault Land, a virtual space within The Sandbox metaverse where the high fashion house’s legacy is showcased through games and NFTs. The Gucci Vault is the brand’s “landing space” for its multiverse and web3 expansion efforts, providing gamified information about the Maison’s rich history.
A year later in 2023, Gucci brought its 180 Strand exhibition – an immersive look at the brand’s history – into The Sandbox, further expanding its reach and strengthening its commitment to blockchain-based art. The luxury brand also previously collaborated with the Sims 4 community by bringing its Off the Grid collection to the game, tapping content creators Harrie and Grimcookies to showcase Gucci-branded content in the virtual world.
Gucci Vault and Metaverse Ventures CEO Robert Triefus has highlighted the importance of experimenting with new technologies as these offer a testing ground for innovation. “Through [Gucci] Vault, we’re able to push ourselves into places where for the core brand, it might be considered to be too risky. But through Vault, we have that playground space so that if by chance we were to make a mistake, we’re not going to impact the core brand,” said Triefus in an interview with Business of Fashion.
Gucci’s AI and metaverse endeavours are ushering in a new era for fashion. These efforts highlight the potential for embracing emerging technologies that help the eyewear and fashion industries adapt to the fast-evolving digital landscape.
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