The Nerdiest High-Fashion Moments of 2021

The phrase “it’s called fashion, look it up” is typically a meme, but the official Fortnite Twitter account meant it literally when announcing its collaboration with Balenciaga this September. For the unfamiliar, Fortnite is a shooter-survival video game that’s amassed a cult following since launching in 2017. That’s thanks in no small part to gamers whose only expendable income comes from their allowance—aka youngsters who not only can’t afford Balenciaga, but may not have even heard of the high-fashion label in the first place. To the house’s creative director, Demna, the partnership was a natural fit: It’s thanks to Fortnite’s developer, Epic Games, that he was able to present Balenciaga’s fall 2021 collection via a custom (and occasionally glitchy) video game. What’s more, Fortnite gamers spend just about as much time roleplaying and customizing their environments and looks, or “skins,” as they do in battle—and they can now do the latter with a virtual Speed 3.0 sneaker that’s been transformed into a pickaxe. As for the collab’s IRL component, well, Fortnite users on Twitter didn’t mince words when reacting to the price tags: “The hoodie is made out of yarn woven from the queen’s ass hairs for it to cost that much,” one quipped of a $725 sweatshirt. “Quality stuff.”