Virtual TANGS
You don’t usually expect fashion retailers to be online trailblazers, yet local retail giant TANGS announced this week that it will be opening its next store – in 3D virtual world Second Life created by Linden Labs.
Virtual TANGS, to be officially launched in March 2009, will basically be a 3-dimensional replica of the retailer’s iconic 76 year-old flagship store on Orchard Road and hopes to bring beauty, fashion and lifestyle merchandise that Singapore has come to love into the virtual world. TANGS also teamed up with local Singapore startup and virtual world financial services provider First Meta™, making it easier for Second Life inhabitants to be able to purchase virtual fashion modelled from the retailer’s in-house fashion brands.
Virtual clothes, modelled from real-life in-house lines
The acceptance of virtual worlds is still relatively low in Asia – for example, the number of Singaporeans on Second Life is estimated at around 1,500. I can’t foresee that virtual TANGS to be as packed as its real-world counterpart, but kudos to TANGS for being the first lifestyle retailer in Asia for attempting something like this on such a scale.
Philip Rosedale would be impressed.
You can read more from this TODAY story.
