Help! Philipp Plein Is Colonizing the Metaverse!
We already knew the metaverse is dystopian, but we didn't realize it would get this dark.
Philipp Plein, fashion's crown prince of Private Jet Couture, announced that he blew $1.4 million on a plot of land in Decentraland, a browser-based metaverse world that deals in a cryptocurrency called MANA.
According to WWD, digital artist Antoni Tudisco will help design virtual stores, luxury residences, a hotel, and even an art museum for the virtual space, humbly dubbed "Plein Plaza."
"We are there to stay and to develop and share the creativity of all our brands — Philipp Plein, Plein Sport and Billionaire — also in this new dimension of human interaction in which I personally believe a lot,” Plein said in a statement, as eloquent as ever.
The designer has yet to grace us with a preview of what Plein Plaza will actually look like but its taste level will most likely hover somewhere around that of "Chateau Falconview," his very nouveau riche Bel Air mansion (topped with a bastardized Tracey Emin neon on the roof, no less).
If you thought you could turn to the metaverse for respite from a world that plays host to Plein and his many brands: basically, you can't. He can and will be invading your virtual reality, too.
Of course, the designer seems to operate blissfully unaware of the fact that hardly anyone is excited to see him colonize Decentraland nor of the fact that he's widely regarded as an industry joke.
It's almost sad but sympathy quickly dissolves once you remember that Plein is notorious for ripping off other designers and that one time he invoked Black Lives Matter to weasel his way out of a lawsuit.
Between copying Louis Vuitton's homework and announcing his purchase of virtual real estate with an MS Paint illustration of Bugs Bunny, Plein is taking Ls left and right, IRL and in the metaverse.
