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How Gen Alpha is rewriting the rules of luxury fashion
From Roblox to real-life retail, the youngest generation is shaping how luxury brands think, design, and sell
- PUBLISHED: Fri 20 Jun 2025, 6:28 PM
Just when it seems like the world has finally figured out the inner worlds of Gen-Zers, along comes Gen Alpha.
Born roughly between 2010 and 2024, Gen Alpha is the first cohort to be raised entirely in the digital age, by tech-savvy, hyper-connected parents. Although a sizeable chunk of this group may not be earning their own money yet, they influence — and are influenced by — their millennial parents’ shopping decisions, giving them early exposure to luxury brands. According to data by US-based media company Razorfish, ‘Older Gen Alpha consumers between the ages of 9 and 13 like to shop and influence purchases, with 68 per cent owning a luxury product by the age of 10’.
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And luxury brands are taking note.
Maire (Mo) Morris, CEO, Morris Global Consulting - Fashion & Lifestyle Experts, says that from her experience of working with luxury clients across the GCC and Europe, she’s seen “a clear strategic pivot in 2024–25 where Gen Alpha are almost the co-creators and brand storytellers in a way.”
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She adds: “In the UAE market, Gen Alpha is not just influencing, it’s driving luxury purchase decisions, especially in affluent families. Take Harvey Nichols new ‘Luxury Family Lounge’ for instance, which offers styling services to parents and their kids as a luxury family experience — complete with branded snacks, game tablets and a mini catwalk, turning shopping into a luxury experience for the whole family.”
Digital natives explore virtual luxury
Gen Alpha and Gen-Z are both children of the Internet, but there is a distinct difference in the way they consume it. Fashion pundits point out that while the latter tends to prefer platforms like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, the former’s favourite haunts online are Roblox, Minecraft, Zepeto, and Fortnite. They create digital avatars and engage in everything from trying on virtual luxury fashion items to something slightly more mundane like completing school assignments. They are also more likely to choose brands that invest in new-age technology like augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
Hence, it’s no surprise that brands like Gucci, Burberry, Prada and Balenciaga have explored in-game marketing or partnered with such popular platforms to deliver interactive, virtual experiences like ‘virtual fitting rooms and fashion shows’. Luxury marketing is undergoing a ‘radical transformation’, points out Morris, as it moves away from celebrity-driven campaigns to ‘immersive, co-creative, and gamified engagement’.
“Prada’s collaboration with Minecraft this year is a great example of gamified luxury targeting Gen Alpha where in-game achievements were rewarded with discounts. And Moncler’s 2025 tie-up with Pokémon was a strategic hit across the GCC and Asia, blending nostalgia for millennial parents and cool-factor appeal for kids,” she says. “And from a consulting perspective, my team is now developing content pipelines for YouTube Kids and Roblox integrations as part of the 2025-26 strategy roadmap for our GCC luxury brands.”
“Brands are very aware of the importance of these games and technologies, if they want to engage with the younger cohorts,” explains Marguerite Le Rolland, Global Insight Manager — Fashion, at the market research company Euromonitor International.
Rolland authored an article titled Generation Alpha: How Fashion Players Can Target Tomorrow’s Consumers, where she cites other examples of fashion brands experimenting with virtual stores – like, Spanish retailer Mango’s Mango Teen products in Roblox’s Outfit Shopping Mall, where ‘the platform’s users can try on and purchase digital garments’. “When I look at all the metaverses and gamification experiences, it seems to speak more to the Gen Alphas who are much more into these platforms,” she adds.
Amit Keswani, Chief Omni-channel Officer, Chalhoub Group, explains: “Brands are prioritising personalisation, exclusive events and purpose-driven storytelling to build deeper, more authentic connections with younger, values-driven audiences. On our side, we have prioritised these exclusive viewings with styling lounges where we invite customers behind closed doors and offer them a variety of brands, all done in an intimate setting to understand customers better.”
“Gen Alpha’s affinity for gamified e-commerce, virtual try-ons, and AI-curated content is pushing brands to innovate far beyond traditional touchpoints,” he adds.
Blurring the line between real and virtual
When we speak, Rolland points out that although Gen Alpha likes such virtual experiences, they also want their online world to spill over into the real world as seen in the case of the Minecraft franchise, which now includes a movie, merchandise and an immersive experience in cities like London and Dallas. “So, in fashion, experiential shopping is super important and it needs to be visually stunning, engaging and easy to share on social media. We’ll see more investments in these real-life experiences which Gen Alpha typically responds well to,” she adds.
It might be unfair to generalise an entire generation, but Gen Alpha generally gravitates toward brands that are seen as cool, sustainable and inclusive of diverse body shapes, sizes and skin tones. And as Rolland points out, they do not hesitate to express their disappointment online if they feel like brands don’t represent them well enough.
Breeding brand loyalty
Morris explains that luxury companies understand that “early exposure to a brand’s world builds long-term loyalty”. “Balenciaga’s Fall 2024 activation with Fortnite, where they launched a real-life capsule collection that mirrored the in-game items, wasn’t just about selling skins (or, virtual outfits or costumes) — it was about embedding the brand into the cultural memory of an 11-year-old who’ll make their first designer sneaker purchase by 16.”
Rolland also points out that more luxury fashion brands will transform into lifestyle brands by branching out into sectors like hospitality, food service and bespoke travel. This strategy is not targeted at Gen Alpha and is more of a “short-term decision to boost revenue streams, to diversify, and limit risks”, but it will nevertheless influence younger customers by delivering brand-driven experiences that have great recall value. For instance, a 10-year-old might be too young to buy Tiffany jewellery, but she will definitely remember having a lovely time at Tiffany’s Blue Box Cafe as a child.
Sarah Silsbury, a Dubai-based stylist, personal shopper and image consultant who has curated looks for leading brands in the UK and UAE, too, agrees. “Tiffany & Co.’s ‘Return to Tiffany’ silver range acts as a gateway collection, designed to capture a younger audience early in their luxury journey, giving them that first taste of the Tiffany magic without the hefty price tag,” she explains. “It still feels special, still carries that iconic blue-box moment, but it’s more within reach. The hope, of course, is that once they’re in, they’ll stick with the brand as they grow up and eventually come back when they’re shopping for engagement rings and proper grown-up jewellery.”
Silsbury also explains that most of her clients have Gen Alpha kids, who they end up shopping for. “Gen Alpha is younger and often exposed to luxury through their family’s purchasing habits. There are lots of ‘mini-me’ collections now — brands like Gucci, Dior and Balenciaga have all launched kidswear that mirrors adult collection,” she says.