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What does one wear for a visit to the realm of pure evil? Fashion designer and digital creator Charli Cohen would say denim is in style.
Timed to coincide with the recent launch of Blizzard Entertainment’s hotly anticipated game, Diablo IV, a game-themed apparel collection dropped last week at a pop-up in the historic department store Selfridges in London. The collection includes a Diablo denim jacket, bustier, and “upcycled” jeans.
Upcycling, also known as creative reuse, refers to taking unwanted items—in this case, clothing—and repurposing them to create new, eco-friendly, and sustainable clothing of greater value.
“We are sustainable, so it’s standard practice for us to use upcycled and recycled fabrics,” Cohen said. “The denim also allowed us to play with texture and dying techniques that really helped bring the graphic nature of the game through into the garments.”
Cohen is no stranger to bridging digital fashion and gaming. Featured in Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018, she has also worked with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Nintendo’s Pokémon brands. Cohen said the collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment began in late 2022, and that she was given access to advance game art and significant leeway on how the project would interpret the designs.
“Our aesthetic has always been heavily video game inspired, along with our philosophy of creating clothes that allow you to ‘suit up,’ hero (or villain) style,” Cohen told Decrypt on Telegram. “We also skew a little dark, so the Diablo IP was a perfect fit for us to collaborate with.”
As Cohen explained, the collection’s style was inspired by early 2000s nu-metal aesthetics and focused on the character of Lilith, daughter of the Prime Evil Mephisto, and the main antagonist of Diablo IV.
“We focused on Lilith as this dark and deeply empowered character, and wanted to bring her energy, aesthetic to the designs,” Cohen said.
Cohen said the Lilith collection features several references to the summoning of Lilith, with words from the in-game invocation hidden in the clothes.
The collection comes embroidered with phrases from Diablo IV, including “Save us” and “Call her home.”
Besides being fashionable, the Lilith Collection includes augmented reality (AR) capabilities, each unlocking an immersive experience via a near field communication (NFC) chip created by RSTLSS, Cohen’s digital fashion label.
When a collector scans the NFC chip with their smartphone, a window will come up, confirming that the item is a genuine item from the Lilith/Diablo IV collection. From there, the collector is able to “summon” Lilith using a voice-activated Snap Lens experience.
“All the pieces are very limited edition, and this provides a virtual certificate of authenticity,” Cohen said. “It also provides access to an AR experience where you summon Lilith via the garment when you’re wearing it.”
NFC refers to a set of communication protocols that enable two devices, like a smartphone, to establish communication by bringing them very close to each other.
“Our aim is always to bridge identity as seamlessly as possible across worlds—gaming, social, physical—and to make it fun,” Cohen said.
Blizzard Entertainment did not respond to Decrypt’s requests for comment.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/146616/diablo-iv-augmented-reality-fashion-line-launches-in-london
