FromSoft games are, first and foremost, redolent with drip, and Elden Ring is no different. Sure, there's something about bosses, a man with a pot for a head and the Game of Thrones guy in there, but 2022's game of the year is above all a beautiful and expansive catwalk. See?
This is presumably why the game now has an official fashion collab with luxury streetwear brand ARK/8, manifested in the form of "The Lands Between Collection," a set of eight eye-wateringly pricey pieces of clothing that I am desperately trying to figure out how to expense.
The line-up launched for sale today, and ranges from a luxurious faux fur coat lined with a map of The Lands Between (£1,400/around $1,700) to a "Tarnished Destroyed Sweater" (£190/around $230) that's either edgy and chic or "looks like my dryer ate it," in the words of PC Gamer fashion editor Andy Chalk.
As someone who is A) forever dressed like a keynote speaker at a young Tory conference and B) feels bad spending north of £10 on a T-shirt, it's less that the clothes aren't for me than it is that I'm not for them. But god, how I wish I was.
The creative director on the lineup is one Dimitri van Eetvelde, who I'm not sure could have become anything but a creative fashion director with a name as potent as that, and he says the collaboration has been in the works since before Elden Ring released in a post on the ARK/8 blog. "The development process of this Elden Ring inspired collection started in late 2021, a few months before the release of the game," he wrote, "It took us over two years, countless design meetings, and over 150 designs that we ended up scrapping (sorry Bandai Namco!) to arrive here."
Eetvelde says he's a fan of the game, but he also told NME he played it on PS3, so who really knows what's going on there.
Regardless, I'm into this absurd, wildly expensive nonsense despite knowing I'd never have the guts to wear it myself. Much like the (wrongly) lamented Silent Hill/Online Ceramics mashup and the forever unattainable Disco Elysium jackets, I'm strangely glad they exist.
