Obi Anyanwu

A Look Into the Fashion World of Animal Crossing

Designers and brands are fashionably late to the party on Nintendo social simulation game Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

The Nintendo Switch title that launched in March at the start of the pandemic, quickly became popular among millions of gamers looking to pass the time and try to live a normal life, albeit virtually.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the fifth title in the series, takes the player to a deserted island that they can then build from the ground up. Like previous titles, players can interact with anthropomorphic characters that move to the island and then play and share with real friends via the internet.

In recent months, brands and fashion designers have added their designs to the games with partners that are familiar with the Animal Crossing series that made its debut in Japan in 2001.

Is Fashion Taking Over Gaming?

Fashion and gaming took their relationship public in 2020, so what does that mean for 2021?

After years of flirtation resulting in trophy cases, esports organization collaborations and popular game characters appearing on products for global fashion and apparel companies, brands have officially entered the digital world — and in a big way.

Gaming and Fashion 101: The Games, The Gamers and The Brand Collabs

Fashion and video games have been closely linked for some years now, though the sudden spotlight has alerted fashion to the possibilities at play.

For starters, video games aren’t as niche as some may think.

Market intelligence firm IDC projected in December 2020 that global video game revenue would increase 20 percent from $150.2 billion in 2019 to $179.7 billion in 2020 thanks, in part, to COVID-19-induced quarantines. The 2019 figures alone eclipse the global film industry’s milestone $100 billion in 2019.