Let’s Get Digital

Let’s Get Digital: Fashion Week’s First Official Move to the Metaverse

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Emulating fashion month in the physical world with a twist, Decentraland hosted a four-day digital fashion week following in the footsteps of the “Big Four” clothing capitals: New York, Paris, Milan and London. While front row seats and after parties remained alike, tickets and travel were inessential, and the four season strategy was overlooked. In other words, welcome to fashion week in the Metaverse.

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Virtual reality platform Decentraland launched its Metaverse Fashion Week from the 24^th to the 27^th of March this year, which saw the likes of over 60 participating artists, designers and brands. Unlike traditional fashion week that only admits guests by invitation, MVFW was open to anyone and everyone. The blockchain-based experience featured not only runway shows, but panel talks, pop-up stores, galleries and even after parties, from a selection of notable names including Selfridges, Philipp Plein, Tommy Hilfiger and DKNY, showcasing new clothing collections and other creations. Virtual avatars strutted down runways in an assortment of ready-to-wear looks to be worn both inside and out of the Metaverse, taken straight off the runway by the spectating avatars on the virtual platform, or by the real-lifers of the physical world. For instance, MVFW show-goers could purchase a digital product and immediately dress their avatar in it.

Once bought, they have the option to sell the item or keep it and claim it as an NFT (non-fungible token), which grants them the brand’s physical counterpart (if they have one). While for the most part, MVFW was available for anyone to attend, some brands even explored the option of giving VIP access to existing NFT owners, providing them with special access or free commodities, mirroring the real-world fashion week freebies and front row invites given to the highly sought-after fashion figures. But one thing is for sure in the Metaverse: purchasing a product is fairly far-fetched without a wallet full of Ethereum.

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So what was the digital event extravaganza that generated all this hype really like? Decentraland introduced its newly created Fashion District for the debut of its first Metaverse Fashion Week with several devoted digital spaces for each of its included events: the Luxury Fashion District for runway shows, Rarible Street populated with pop-up stores, the Parcel-MetaParty Community Precinct that presented a selection of fashion shows and panels, mini games, DJ sets and music performances.

The Luxury Fashion District, for example, was pretty self-explanatory: it hosted a number of big brands, two acclaimed examples being Italian fashion houses, Etro and Dolce & Gabbana, who showcased their runway looks down a dreamlike boulevard, embellished by its futuristic aesthetic. While Etro cast life-like looking avatars for their show, Dolce & Gabbana put cats to catwalk, occasionally pausing to pose. With focus on fashion, Etro kept it ‘real’ presenting patterned prints, quirky colours and genderless garments in their Liquid Paisley show, which has recently surfaced in Milan, as the brand unveiled its physical collection in their boutique. Dolce & Gabbana took an ethereal embark into MVFW with lots of leopard print, followed by the release of a collection of NFTs of each look after the show.

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Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro, head of Metaverse Fashion Week determined that, “For years the fashion industry has talked about innovating in the digital space. Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week enables major fashion brands to explore this new space alongside the decentralised artists and designers who created this space. MVFW22 will be a moment in time when the fashion world will witness the future of fashion, and how this world will enable them to meet new audiences, advance fashion sustainability, and re-evaluate diversity and accessibility in fashion.”

It may be a future worth exploring, but will it be the future of fashion?