Luxury/Designer Clothing in Games
There are some examples of luxury clothing companies in video games, for example BURBERRY x Minecraft (Finney), Moschino and The Sims 4 (Electronic Arts), and League of Legends and Louis Vuitton (Riot Games), however, I will not be focusing on this beyond this section.
Character Customisation in Games
The type of fashion I am interested in games is accessorising your character with clothing of your choice, like hats, tops and shoes. One example of this is the Splatoon series of games (Diaz). What interests me in Splatoon is that the different options for each piece of clothing has different abilities (Pilkington).
Fast Fashion
But I also want to look at a sector of fashion that has caused immense harm, and that I want to try avoid amplifying, Fast Fashion.
“cheap, trendy clothing that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture and turns them into garments in high street stores at breakneck speed to meet consumer demand.” (Rauturier)
Fast Fashion is the business practice of creating low quality clothes quickly, on a mass scale and often copying the designs of luxury brands or indie designers (Kelleher, D. 2025). Such clothing is often worn for a few times and then quickly discarded, contributing to fashions large carbon footprint and waste output (Rauturier). The clothes that are made often outsourced from poorer countries. The factories that produce these clothes often subject garment workers, usually woman and children, to poor working conditions such as long hours and cramped conditions (WWF 2024). The material used is also often of a lower quality, like using polyester, a form of plastic, which has its own environmental effects (Rauturier).
Clothing has a large environmental footprint, as it uses a lot of water, generates textile waste and co2 emissions (Smith). Other impacts include toxic chemicals and the effects of using animals for their skin (Perry), (Psaros). Because Fast Fashion incentives making as much clothing as possible, this exacerbates its impact (Rauturier).
Sustainable Fashion
“My message is, ‘Buy less, choose well, make it last,'” – Vivienne Westwood (Moore).
There is an alternative to Fast Fashion however, and that is sustainable fashion and slow fashion. Slow fashion is a philosophy that encourages people to buy less clothes, making sure the clothes they buy are from high-quality, ethical sources, with the goal of getting people to care for their clothes longer (Hillman). Another option is choosing to shop second-hand, from places like charity shops or vintage clothing shops (Moore).
References
Kelleher, D. (2025). Fast Fashion. [online] www.britannica.com. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/fast-fashion.
WWF (2024). Fast fashion disaster. [online] WWF. Available at: https://www.wwf.org.uk/myfootprint/challenges/fast-fashion-disaster.
Rauturier, Solene. “What Is Fast Fashion and Why Is It so Bad?” Good on You, 26 Feb. 2025, goodonyou.eco/what-is-fast-fashion/.
Smith, Delilah. “Fast Fashion’s Environmental Impact: The True Price of Trendiness.” Good on You, 4 Apr. 2024, goodonyou.eco/fast-fashions-environmental-impact/.
Psaros, Joanna. “The Environmental Impact of Animal Products in Fashion.” Good on You, 1 Mar. 2020, goodonyou.eco/the-environmental-impact-of-animal-products-in-fashion/.
Finney, Alice. “Burberry Releases Digital Clothing Collection “for the Modern Explorer” in Video Game Minecraft.” Dezeen, 8 Nov. 2022, www.dezeen.com/2022/11/08/burberry-minecraft-freedom-beyond-digital-fashion/.
Electronic Arts. “Introducing the Sims 4: Moschino Stuff Pack.” Electronic Arts Inc., Electronic Arts, 6 Aug. 2019, www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/news/moschino-pack-reveal. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025.
Riot Games. “Louis Vuitton Joins Worlds 2019.” Leagueoflegends.com, 23 Sept. 2019, nexus.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/2019/09/louis-vuitton-joins-worlds-2019/.
Diaz, Ana. “Character Creator Failures in Splatoon 3, Elden Ring, and More.” Polygon, Polygon.com, 11 Oct. 2022, www.polygon.com/23392844/character-creator-failures-elden-ring-splatoon-3/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025.
Pilkington, Matthew. “Splatoon 3’S Best Outfits Highlight Its Sense of Fashion.” Polygon, Polygon.com, 12 Oct. 2022, www.polygon.com/23385706/splatoon-3-inkling-outfits-fashion/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025.
Hillman, James. “Sustainable Fashion vs Slow Fashion: What’s the Difference?” James Hillman Fashion Consultancy, 17 Nov. 2021, www.jameshillman.co.uk/blog/2021/11/17/sustainable-fashion-vs-slow-fashion-whats-the-difference.
Moore, Hannah. “Vivienne Westwood Gives Her Advice on New Designers and Fashion Waste.” BBC News, 13 June 2017, www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-40260489.
Rice, Lara. “Oxfam GB | 5 Alternatives to Fast Fashion.” Oxfam GB, 13 Mar. 2025, www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam-in-action/oxfam-blog/alternatives-to-fast-fashion/.