Net-a-porter’s Animal Crossing island wins Best Escape From Reality: Wallpaper* Design Awards 2021

In March last year, Nintendo launched the perfect and perfectly timed gaming antidote to long-term confinement. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the latest iteration of the social simulation video game that first appeared in 2001, allows players to design their own island paradise, and for fashion fans, the game provides an unexpected sartorial escape. Players can customise their avatars, and a host of visual artists on Instagram have responded with wardrobe wizardry, designing virtual catwalk looks inspired by brands such as Prada, Chanel and Louis Vuitton. There was even a staging of the game’s first fashion show, with runway looks inspired by Paco Rabanne and Craig Green, and set to a soundtrack created by soundscape expert Michel Gaubert. 

So we were beyond excited when, in November, Animal Crossing gained a Net-a-Porter island, designed in collaboration with the luxury fashion e-tailer, alongside photographer Kara Chung, who runs Instagram account @animalcrossingfashionarchive, and creative agency WeSuperseed. Visitors to Net-a-Porter island can stroll along to an outpost of the Able Sisters’ boutique and outfit themselves in virtual looks inspired by an exclusive Isabel Marant capsule collection, before taking a stylish selfie on their NookPhone. So, as physical travel is still largely off the cards, for our next escape, we’re booking a flight on Dodo Airlines bound for Net-a-Porter island, which also boasts a private beach, picnic area, café, hot spring bath, flower garden, gym and meditation area. We might not come back.

Louis Vuitton S/S 2021