What’s Happening: Following in the footsteps of Marc Jacobs to Sandy Liang (Animal Crossing) and Balenciaga (Afterworld), Ralph Lauren announced a collab with Fortnite while Burberry is joining forces with Minecraft to launch limited-edition merch and downloadable content experiences.

The Download: Despite suggestions to the contrary, fashion’s interest in the metaverse is still alive and well. The industry’s newest obsession: gaming. On Monday, Ralph Lauren announced it is teaming up with Fortnite to co-host a streaming tournament and create a digital and physical capsule collection, replete with a historic redesign of the 55-year-old polo pony logo. The timeless American label and popular role-playing game (RPG) celebrated the launch earlier this week in New York City with a VIP party live-streamed on Twitch.

Hot on the heels of Ralph Lauren x Fortnite, Burberry unveiled a collaboration with the world-building game Minecraft that includes an in-game and IRL capsule collection, and free downloadable content (DLC) called Burberry: Freedom to Go Beyond that puts players in an alternate reality London “taken over by a malevolent entity called the Nexus.” The point of the game is to “restore the spirit of the wild” by traveling to four realms—air, water, fire, and earth—to revive their “Nature Guardian” and free trapped animals. Along the way, players encounter the British fashion house’s iconography via monogram mazes and a mounted knight that nods to Burberry’s equestrian heritage. In keeping with Minecraft’s lush virtual naturescapes, the partnership also includes a philanthropic tie-in with Conservation International.

Fashion’s interest in the gaming world is still fairly new. Its defining moment, in the early days of the pandemic, was marked by two words: Animal Crossing. The premise was simple: players were tasked with running a village of adorable animal avatars where nothing bad happens. America couldn’t get enough of the low-stakes escapist fantasy and it didn’t take long for Marc Jacobs, Sandy Liang, and Valentino to launch in-universe pop-ups and product drops.

Then, in December 2020, Balenciaga eschewed the runway and launched its Fall/Winter collection in Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow, allowing players to outfit their avatars in the season’s wares as they embarked on adventures in the dystopian metaverse. Taking the plunge into 3D web-based experiences was a smart strategic move. Balenciaga reached a wider audience beyond the usual crowd of editors, celebrities, and influencers. The collab earned the house and its artistic director Demna high praise for experimenting in the metaverse early on.

The appeal of high fashion in the gaming sphere may seem superfluous at first but in reality, it presents a golden marketing opportunity. Players represent a captive audience, and branded tournaments, streams, quests, and merchandise forge connections between brands and new customers. Plus many predict the metaverse will be a reflection of the real world, a theory that already looks to be proving true: Gucci released a digital version of its Dionysus bag as an in-game accessory for Roblox and a savvy buyer turned around and flipped it for $4,115—more than the price of the physical bag.

In Their Own Words: “Ralph Lauren has always designed dreams and created new worlds, and today, our collection with Fortnite will deliver a first-of-its-kind experience to a new community of next-generation players and consumers,” David Lauren, chief branding and innovation officer at Ralph Lauren, tells TechCrunch.

Surface Says: When the internet was still nascent, we sure didn’t have “luxury European fashion houses teaming up with video game nerds” on our bingo card.

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A truly boutique property with just 20 guest rooms and five standalone cottages, Canoe Place Inn is rendered with exemplary attention to detail courtesy of design studio Workstead. First opened in the 1600s as a waystation, the property was later transformed into a fashionably discrete getaway for dignitaries and movie stars escaping New York City in the early 20th century.

“We found a balance between sourcing and designing pieces that reference the past eras in which the hotel thrived— around 1921 through the 1940s,” explains Workstead co-founder Ryan Mahoney. “Many aspects of the original architecture were stripped away by fires, so we sought for each space to nod to its past while feeling distinctly contemporary in the current setting.” The firm accomplished this by combining elements of Swedish Gustavian style, nautical motifs, and refurbished pieces such as a pine reception desk discovered during the renovation.

The property hosts the third outpost of Onda Beauty, a boutique and spa with an impeccable selection of products including Costa Brazil, Barbara Sturm, and more. The fine art collection is another highlight—the cornerstone piece is a Doug Aitken painting titled When I Was Alive, which Workstead used as a muse when concepting the design.

Iris Apfel has no shortage of expertise to inform her numerous ventures across interiors and fashion. Her background in interior and textile design, not to mention her eye for color and pattern, has no doubt informed her newly launched collection of rugs and doormats for Ruggable. The visuals include a range of tropical patterns, paisley motifs, as well as inspiration drawn from traditional Persian patterns and Ikat techniques.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

Nonbinary Romeo and Juliet Set in Nazi Germany Apologizes for Omitting Jews from Casting Call [Telegraph]

Pete Davidson and Colin Jost’s Ferry May Be Full of Asbestos and Roaches [Curbed]

Man Posed As a Dead Body for 321 Days, Then Landed a Role on CSI [My Modern Met]

Woman Says She Caught STD After Office Janitor Inserted Penis Into Her Water Bottle [Complex]

Massive Silver Orbs Break Free to Terrorize Streets of London [Huffington Post]

Territorial Owl Twice Attacks a Washington State Woman [NPR]

BBC Tries to Understand Politics by Creating Fake Americans [ABC]

When: Until Feb. 27

Where: SculptureCenter, Queens

What: Taking over SculptureCenter’s lower-level galleries is an immersive audiovisual environment designed by Shahryar Nashat showing videos that accompany British musician Tirzah’s affecting melodies and warm electronic production. Often shot by her friends and collaborators, the footage reflects a range of relationships to Tirzah’s music and emotional lyricism, ranging from fandom to building a creative community.

Ever since Qatar won the bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup back in 2010, the Middle Eastern country has been on a building tear. Qatar has been racing against the clock to realize zealous plans for new development that include eight state-of-the-art soccer stadiums designed by a roster of acclaimed architects, several high-profile cultural institutions, a 47-mile-long rail system, dozens of luxury hotels, an expansion to Hamad International Airport, and a star-studded public art program featuring Yayoi Kusama and Damien Hirst.

The latest artwork to be unveiled is from Olafur Eliasson, the environmentally minded Danish-Icelandic artist who has long explored the interplay between human perception and the natural world. His installation, Shadows Traveling on the Sea of the Day (2022), gently disrupts the rugged desert north of Doha with 20 circular shelters arranged in a pentagram. Each is supported by semicircular rings that, when viewed from the structures’ mirrored undersides, form a perfect circle and impart the illusion of staring down at the earth. “It’s an invitation to resync with the planet,” Eliasson says. “It’s a celebration of everything being in and moving through the desert—animals, plants, and human beings; stories, traditions, and cultural artifacts; wind, sunlight, air, and shimmering heat.”

Wolf-Gordon is an American design brand dedicated to enabling the creation of outstanding interiors. Founded in 1967 as a wallcovering resource, the high-performing product line now includes upholstery textiles, RAMPART wall protection, and Wink dry-erase surfaces.

Surface Says: The level of artistry and craftsmanship that Wolf-Gordon brings to every textile is remarkable for a machine-made fabric. Its artist collaborations, including Aliki van der Kruijs, Mae Engelgeer, and Frank Tjepkema, bring mastery to each bespoke design.

A stage adaptation of My Neighbor Totoro is enchanting at the Barbican.

Archaeologists unearth 1,000-year-old Viking silver treasures in Sweden.

Rafael Nadal and his wife debut a set of fragrances with Henry Jacques.

NASA’s new inflatable heat shield protects spacecraft from crash landing.