Blizzard Entertainment has teamed up with Danish fashion house Han Kjøbenhavn in a Diablo-inspired high fashion collection.
With the anticipated launch of Diablo 4 on the horizon, Blizzard has taken an unconventional approach for marketing the game. The fashion line is created with a theme of “hell as a beautiful place” and takes inspiration from the RPG video game.
The line features striking high fashion pieces made using faux fur, vegan leather and feathers ranging in various colours. In addition, are bold blood red fabrics accompanied by black hues and chrome accents.
Diablo meets fashion
Before the runway show, Polygon spoke with Han Kjøbenhavn creative director Jannik Wikkelsø Davidsen and CEO Daniel Søondergaard Hummel about the collaboration and how the brand shares an “emotional DNA” with Diablo.
Davidsen commented that “Normally a fashion brand would do sneaker collabs and such, but… we have not done too many collabs [like that] because it just seemed almost too saturated. We wanted to look at new possibilities, with new partners, where it’s more about the emotional DNA and the connection between brands than a product. The match between us and Diablo has been really, really good, because mine and Dan’s aesthetic, creatively, is not clean and sweet. The darker side [is more] our aesthetic more than a classic fashion brand.”
The collaboration aimed to steer away from other gaming to fashion marketing we have seen such as the Pokémon and Puma collaboration on a themed series of sneakers. Many games often release a line of official merchandise featuring T-shirts or hoodies. However, rather than taking a similar approach, it appears that Blizzard wanted to hit the catwalk.
High Fashion
Davidsen also stated that while Diablo inspired the line, they wanted to avoid what he called “gimmicks.” Instead, the idea was to translate the emotions and essence of the game into a fashion line rather than directly trying to replicate one-to-one examples of outfits from the franchise.
Some fans failed to be impressed with the line stating that the whole concept was “confusing” and that the line had nothing to do with Diablo. Others, however, were impressed and felt that the outfits captured Diablo’s dark tone; some even felt that certain pieces resembled the essence of antagonist Lilith.
The line itself is a ready-to-wear collection that will be available for purchase this summer. Diablo 4 is releasing on June 2, 2023.
