Key to Lady Meta’s social status is which set she runs in, so I expand her social clique and follow Lil Miquela from Lady Meta’s account. To my surprise, nothing happens. She doesn’t follow me back. I decide to comment on a few of her posts – one of Lil Miquela eating ice cream and another where she is posing nonchalantly by a glistening pool. Still, nothing. I then slide into the influencer’s DMs, asking whether she would like to ‘hang out in the metaverse’.
After a few weeks of silence, a friendship between Lady Meta and Lil Miquela begins to look unrealistic. Yet while she has been shunned by a robot It girl, she has been noticed by the digital fashion world. Crypto Fashion Week – the meta highlight of the social calendar – has asked Lady M to be involved in this year’s show. It’s official: Lady Meta has well and truly arrived in the metaverse.
Following an underwater theme, the next Crypto Fashion Week will take place on a virtual coral reef. The show has an environmental focus, with some of the proceeds going towards preserving Southeast Asian reefs. There are two parts to the show: avatars will ‘swim’ below the water’s surface to showcase designs, while various stars ‘walk’ above the water on the coral reef. The latter catwalk is where Lady Meta comes in; she’ll be dressed in digital couture – she’s currently in talks with the Institute of Digital Fashion (IoDF) – and will parade down the catwalk, claiming her title as ‘queen of Crypto Fashion Week’.
It’s all falling into place – and yet… It’s been weeks since I introduced myself to Lil Miquela, and still no response. Entreaties to her team at Creative Artists Agency for an interview (they also represent Cristiano Ronaldo and Reese Witherspoon) have gone unanswered, too. But there’s no point in taking it personally; she might still be in the doldrums, having announced over Instagram her ‘conscious uncoupling’ with her human boyfriend, Nick.
Read More: Have you Meta? A guide to social climbing in the digital age
