Louis Vuitton and Prada’s Final Fantasy collabs to ‘Super Moschino’ – 5 times luxury fashion brands have collaborated with video games

Video games have come a long way. Once portrayed as the preserve of basement-dwelling geeks, gaming is now a multibillion-dollar industry. According to figures released in 2015, the global games market was worth US$74.2 billion – in contrast, the global film industry’s cinema receipts for 2018 were only US$41.7 billion.

As video games have gradually moved to dominate the mainstream so too have they gained greater appreciation. Video games are studied for their cultural aspects at universities around the world and the Smithsonian in Washington has games as part of its permanent display, while dedicated gaming museums exist in Berlin, Rome and Moscow.

Even the elite fashion world has partnered with video game producers in recent years, ensuring a popular mix of high and lowbrow cultural items. Here are five memorable occasions when these worlds collided.

Prada x Final Final Fantasy XIII-2

One of video games’ biggest franchises, Final Fantasy – with estimated sales of nearly 150 million – collaborated with one of the biggest names in fashion back in 2012. The tie-in was in celebration of Final Fantasy’s 25th anniversary. Although Prada did not create any new designs they permitted Final Fantasy artist and character designer Tetsuya Nomura to dress characters from the series’ newest game in the latest Prada items. The resulting spread was then published in London fashion magazine Arena Homme +.

Moschino x Super Mario

Moschino are regular dabblers in amalgams of high and low culture. Before this venture with Nintendo’s flagship character, Mario, they had already released Moschino Barbie dolls and clothing that referenced McDonald’s. In 2015, they followed that up by creating a range of casual wear, entitled Super Moschino, which paid homage to the iconic platform game Super Mario World.

Giles Deacon x Pac-Man