Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga’s creative director, hates “the idea of fashion film” because, in his eyes, they’re “dated.” So, in these pandemic times, the Vetements founder produced a video game to highlight his fashion house’s Fall 2021 collection. Called “Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow,” the Sims-meets-Westworld digital opus is rooted in COVID angst with an eye focused on the future.

COVID Crashed the Fashion Party

Since the 1800s, clothing designers have launched their creations at fashion shows starring live models parading along catwalks. Sure, houses introduced innovations over the decades. Still, the basic premise remained unchanged: editors and critics piled into rooms across London, Paris, and New York to witness and judge the latest garments made by the moment’s hottest creatives.

But a worldwide pandemic rendered fashion shows a hazard, and houses turned to remote launches. Some stuck to the old model and filmed audience-free runway shows; others took a page out of the Warholian publicity book and embraced fashion films.

But Balenciaga veered in a different direction and made a video game.

“Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow”: A Fashion-Forward Video Game by Balenciaga

In an interview with Vogue, Gvasalia explained that he and his team started working on the concept in April 2020 when they “knew that fashion shows would be out of the question.” Balenciaga partnered with Unreal Engine, a digital game developer, to bring the concept to life. It took hundreds of people and hours of work to scan the models and transform them into digital avatars.

The final result is a Sims-esque alt-world where the characters are reminiscent of highly developed AI robots, like the hosts in HBO’s Westworld.

Balenciaga didn’t completely abandon the runway model, though. In addition to game access, industry insiders also received Oculus virtual reality headsets to view a traditional runway show.

Balenciaga Fall 2021: Deconstructed, Millennial-Minded, Eco-Aware Garments

The media is making much of Balenciaga’s transition into a “multi-platform media entity.” Nevertheless, the collection bears the brand’s signature totems: baggy cuts, urban-minded sensibilities, and geometric shapes realized through long coats, puffy jackets, and ripped trousers.

Of the season’s aesthetic, Gvasalia explained his desire to create looks where “nature and youth coexist.” Geared toward the “climate-emergency-aware generation,” the artistic director also theorized that people would be less likely to throw away old looks in the near future and “will keep wearing clothes they love until they fall apart” — which is mirrored in the deconstructed, almost tattered, styling.

The collection is darkly hued, but Gvasalia insists that he feels “more positivity than despair” as of late and hopes that sentiment comes through in Balenciaga’s Fall 2021 collection.