Animal Crossing New Horizons has been one of my anchors to keep me grounded throughout this pandemic. I have easily spent hundreds of hours terraforming my ‘Newfie Island’: decorating in my tropical 80’s vaporwave theme, tending my garden to get that oh so elusive blue rose, making friends with the villagers, and of course, picking out the perfect outfit to wear as I virtually visit friends and family online.
So when I received an email teasing a joint venture between a major fashion brand, a famous celebrity and Animal Crossing New Horizons, my interest was piqued.
On Sunday afternoon, I got the chance to visit Looop Isle, a synergy of sustainability, creativity and video game passion brought together by the folks at H&M, Maisie Williams and content creator Blarla. I experienced a digital representation of H&M’s sustainability mission: for all H&M materials to be either recycled or made from sustainable methods by 2030. How are they going to do this you ask? Well, it involves a machine called the Looop that deconstructs old items of clothing into fabric that is then used to make new ones. It’s a pretty cool piece of tech that you can learn more about in the following video:
The H&M team brought in content creator Blarla to mimic the Looop machine experience in New Horizons. I brought an unwanted piece of Animal Crossing clothing to the island and used the Looop to ‘recycle’ it for a limited edition custom piece that replicates the outfit worn by Maisie Williams in the new #looopit campaign, of which she is the spokeswoman.
After receiving my new outfit, I was brought on a tour of the lovely island, which featured a replica of the H&M office, Maisie’s apartment, a wind farm (because of course there has to be sustainable energy powering the island), a living restaurant, the animal village, a market place and a beautiful glowing forest. Every element of the island was expertly curated by Blarla with pixel art by Liquid Crimson founder Jason that replicates H&M fashion campaigns. There is even a very special warp point which brings you to a room that feels like you are experiencing the Looop conversion process where Maisie travels through in the campaign to morph into her avatar. When I asked how long this process took to make this epic island adventure, Lauran from the Liquid Crimson PR team expressed it was “101 hours resourcing for the island and over 300 hours building” 😀.
And to top it all off, today I got the chance to visit Loop Isle with Maisie along with some other content creators to hang out and have a few photo ops before publishing this post. So cool!
What is awesome about this project is that the island is going to be open for others to visit as well! From noon to 8pm BST (that’s 7am to 3pm eastern) April 14th – 20th, you too can go visit the island and try the Looop machine for yourself. The Dodo Code is going to be available via the Looop twitter account so keep your eyes open! If you cannot get there in time, there is always the Dream Address: DA-3314-6895-7902. If you do make your way over the Looop Isle, don’t forget to share your experience by tagging @Looop and @HM and using the official hashtags #jointherecyclingrevolution #looopit #letschangefashion on Twitter and Instagram.
Stay tuned to the upcoming episode of the GoGCast as well to hear an exclusive interview with Blarla and Lauren about how all of this came together!
Checking out the H&M Looop machine for the first time. 
Getting a look behind the scenes at the H&M offices at Looop Isle. 
Just running around Maisie’s apartment! 
Where the magic is made! 
Strike a pose! 
Chillin’ in the living restaurant 
Loooping into the avatar of myself… just like Maisie!
