METAVERSE FASHION WEEK

THE NEXT BIG THING

The metaverse is giving us a whole new way to experience fashion. But that doesn’t mean that we have to turn our backs on real life: virtuality and reality can, and should, go hand in hand. The first Metaverse Fashion Week is showing us how.

TEXT RENÉE DIEHL

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As a millennial, I can still remember playing the computer game The Sims when I was younger and longing for more stylish clothing options to dress my Sims in. Or back to when I was around 13 years old, sitting with my little avatar in the chatroom of the virtual world of Habbo Hotel and desperately trying to imbue said avatar with a bit of my own personal style – which was obviously doomed to failure because of the lack of options available. It was around that time that I decided to leave the world of video games and virtual 3D worlds behind me.

THE INTERNET: A JOURNEY FROM 3D TO 2D AND BACK AGAIN

During the past two decades, the focus has been on the increasing number of options on the 2D market: we can now meet friends and hold meetings digitally (using FaceTime and Zoom) or develop our own online presence with photos, videos and texts (using Instagram and TikTok). In other words: when it comes to digital communication, we have come on in leaps and bounds. That also means that the next technological innovation is just around the corner. And if tech firms like Meta and Microsoft are to be believed, we are indeed on the cusp of the next big thing – the metaverse.

BITCOINS AND NFTS GO FASHION

But what does all of that have to do with fashion? The first Fashion Week in the metaverse recently took place, hosted by tech company Decentraland. According to tech expert and investor Matthew Ball, the metaverse should be understood as a “3D version of the internet”. There are currently several providers that are enabling access into their own metaverse and Decentraland is one of them. As NFTs have been playing a role in the fashion industry for a while now – just think of digital Birkin bags or Gucci’s NFT project 10KTF – it’s only logical that a virtual version of the Fashion Weeks follows suit. So Decentraland has taken advantage of the momentum that the metaverse is currently enjoying in the fashion world and created a new place for fashion to exist in.

PUTTING THE CAT BACK INTO CATWALK

Anyone who has access to a computer – preferably one with good graphic capabilities – can take part in the shows of Metaverse Fashion Week. The exciting thing for me as a former user of Habbo Hotel, The Sims etc. is that you can dress your avatars however you want and, depending on how far you are willing to venture into the metaverse, you can even purchase clothing from the shows as NFTs and add them to your avatar’s virtual wardrobe. This seems to have gone down very well at the first edition of Metaverse Fashion Week and not just among the virtual visitors. Participating brands included Etro, Elie Saab and Dolce & Gabbana. Instead of virtual models, the latter even sent cat avatars down the runway wearing their designs.

INSPIRATION IS MUTUAL: FROM DIGITAL TO PHYSICAL

As well as the established brands looking to make the most of everything the metaverse has to offer, a whole host of digital-only fashion players like DeadFellaz, The Sevens and 8SIAN also took part in Metaverse Fashion Week. Incidentally, we are already seeing the influence of crypto-fashion on physical fashion trends: for example, clothing made of glass only just recently entered the fashion stage as a digital concept with a Cinderella-like glass slipper and soon afterwards, rapper Doja Cat was spotted at the Grammys carrying a Coperni glass handbag. And silver jewellery is currently celebrating a huge comeback – like it did in the 90s and early 2000s when, inspired by the hardware of the time, the launch of the internet gave rise to the first tech references in fashion. And even a tech brand like Metaverse Fashion Week organiser Decentraland doesn’t believe that the metaverse can or should exist in isolation from the physical world. Instead, as the Head of Metaverse Fashion Week Dr Graziosi Casimiro explains, both realms really can coexist in the future.

THE PROBLEMS OF DIGITAL FASHION: BUGS & BOTHERS

Despite all the new innovations, and not only in terms of the technology, there are still a few bumps that need to be ironed out in the metaverse. While digital fashion is often mentioned in the same breath as sustainability (as it isn’t actually producing any physical waste), we often forget that storing NFTs in the blockchain and simply maintaining the metaverse is a hugely energy-intensive undertaking. Dr Casimiro also sees this as an important challenge of the NFT economy, which is still very much in its infancy. Despite that, she is not giving up hope that these circumstances will change soon, as she tells us in the interview on the following page.

According to tech expert and investor Matthew Ball, the metaverse should be understood as a “3D version of the internet”.

FASHION’S NEW FRONTIER

From 24 to 27 March, virtual reality platform Decentraland hosted the first-ever Metaverse Fashion Week. This leap from the physical to the virtual offers the fashion world previously undreamt-of opportunities that can be explored for the first time. But it’s not without its challenges either. We spoke to Dr Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro, Head of Metaverse Fashion Week, about visions for the future, sustainability, opportunities and what the metaverse means for real-life fashion.

INTERVIEW RENÉE DIEHL

Decentraland recently played host to the first Metaverse Fashion Week. How was the event received by the participating brands and visitors?

The event was an undeniable success! Participating brands are already asking about MVFW 23 and the visitors had a blast! There were some technical glitches, as is the case with most pioneering events in Web3, but the overall sentiment was overwhelmingly positive.

What are your main takeaways from the first edition of the Metaverse Fashion Week for Decentraland? What went well and what could be improved in future editions?

MVFW showed us not to be scared to think outside the box and really push our creativity to the next level. We encouraged brands to do this as well and the result was nothing short of spectacular. We had runway shows unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, incredible concerts and parties, people dressed their avatars in the most extravagant wearables – the sky truly was the limit. I do think the user experience could be improved, but we’ll make sure we take all of these learnings on board for next year and deliver an even better experience for our community!

You told Vogue that “instead of pitting the two against each other, brands should embrace both spaces and use them to amplify their brand narrative and reach new audiences”. How would you advise brands to do that?

This might be the most important takeaway. I encourage brands to explore the power that comes from utilising both the digital and physical realities to tell their story to a wider audience. Digital fashion and experiences should complement the physical experience and allow brands to express themselves in a more holistic way. We advise brands to come up with authentic ways of telling their stories for a completely digital environment – what can your brand do in a digital space that it can’t do in the real world?

Metaverse Fashion and Metaverse Fashion Week are said to be making fashion more sustainable by eliminating the production of any physical waste. Nevertheless, the digital garments can only be bought with MANA, an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency. But the Ethereum blockchain eats up a lot of energy. With that in mind, how sustainable is metaverse fashion?

As an entirely digital technology, blockchain, and therefore the metaverse, does use electricity to power its servers. But the amount of innovation that this space holds to further reduce environmental degradation from point-source pollution is incredible. The NFT space as we know it is just over a year old, having hardly existed in our vocabulary prior to 2021. Things are changing and thousands of developers are working on reducing the energy intensity of the Ethereum blockchain, which is slated to update its consensus protocol soon and will make this whole conversation moot. However, we also recognise the double standards this technology has faced. When mobile phones first hit the market, nobody asked about their energy intensity compared to landline phones. Thanks to economies of scale and the law of diminishing returns, developers have been able to create more efficient batteries and operating systems for mobile phones over time. The same is happening now with blockchain and NFTs. When analysing the energy use of blockchain technology, we need to see it in the context of its social utility and potential for good.

What are your expectations and hopes for Metaverse Fashion Week in the future? What can we expect from metaverse fashion in general within the next five years?

We have so many wishes and dreams for MVFW and that’s what makes all of this so fun! One of our greatest desires is to bring MVFW out of computers and into the real world. We can do this with AR experiences and filters, VR integration and possibly even having immersive experiences IRL. We aim to expand the reach of this event by collaborating with other platforms and metaverses, pioneering the concept of interoperability. In the short term, we’re planning to gamify the experience and begin the production of next year’s event as soon as possible. Personally, I am a big believer in the expansion of the metaverse beyond screens, and digital fashion is one of the most powerful elements for that. As XR solutions evolve, it may become part of the physical world as an additional layer of our identity.

METAVERSE FASHION WEEK META(CURSE)?

As well as the euphoria experienced by the fans and attendees of MVFW who were overjoyed at being part of this first, historical event of its kind, the event also left us with mixed feelings and a few question marks. Is Metaverse Fashion Week the future of fashion, or just a fun, virtual fantasy bubble?

TEXT DENIZ TROSDORFF

Feline models clad in logo-emblazoned outfits are hovering over the runway. Avatars wearing outlandish attire emerge from the jaws of a skull resembling an OTT fantasy version of The Sims. No, we haven’t just teleported ourselves into a digitalised version of Alice in Wonderland, although if MVFW’s descriptions are anything to go by, it would certainly seem like it. Colourful, over-the-top, wonderful and, at times, also pretty bizarre. The scene of the world’s first virtual fashion week was Decentraland, a blockchain-based digital event platform, which opened its doors to the general public in 2020 and, according to its own figures, has up to 560,000 active monthly users. At the inaugural event of MVFW, which can be seen as a symbol of the growing enthusiasm for the virtual fashion market, anyone from all over the world could take part in the events with a customised avatar that they could create on the platform itself. As well as runway shows by the big-name fashion houses, the spotlight was also on a line-up of special events by pioneers of digital fashion such as DressX and digital pop-up stores of major brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Estée Lauder, as well as live DJ sets like the one with Grimes in the virtual party room of digital couture brand Auroboros. It all sounds like a lot of potential fun and a fantastic new way of discovering, experiencing and enjoying fashion. But the main aim of the team behind Decentraland is to make fashion more democratic by giving everyone access to it.

THE NEW FASHION REALITY OR NOT QUITE?

Full of high expectations and anticipation, the participants of MVFW had to bring plenty of time and, above all, patience. For many, a sense of disillusionment set in as soon as they started creating their own avatars, because, despite all the tools available to put together your own alter ego, the results were reminiscent of characters from old-school video game formats. Anyone who wanted to kit their avatar out in a trendier outfit had to whip out their crypto wallet to buy fashionable NFTs. Once you had arrived at Fashion Week, you then had to try and find your way around the somewhat disorientating

platform to the shows, pop-up openings or other events. If you were lucky, you would reach your destination before being thrown out due to system breakdowns. In addition to the technical glitches, which resulted in users missing the live streams or not being able to find them again, the show’s low-level graphics were criticised. Too flat, too rudimentary, too boring – that was just some of the feedback about the virtual fashion creations that were showcased and the spaces in which the installations or brand presentations took place. Even some of the self-designed avatars of the participants were way more imaginative and daring than the styles showcased on the catwalks. Wings and colourful or even illuminating skin colours are just two examples worth mentioning. The diversity of the participants’ appearance makes it clear just how many users are willing to go beyond the free options to individually dress their avatars. Decentraland has reported that users spent 5.5 million dollars on wearables in 2021. At this point we need to ask the question of whether conventional brands can directly translate their everyday styles from ‘normal life’ into the virtual realm. That might be quite a challenge when it comes to the more die-hard metaverse fans who are really embracing the more outlandish digital outfits, but anything is possible.

PLENTY OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

Let’s take fashion and lifestyle heavyweight Tommy Hilfiger, for example. In its virtual MVFW store, the brand presented three NFT styles from the spring collection that were each limited to quantities of 10. The result: everything was sold out within an hour. Each style cost 20 MANA, the Decentraland currency, which is equivalent to around 50 US dollars. The buyers could also swap them for physical versions of the garments if they wanted to. Dolce & Gabbana presented 20 complete looks made up of metaverse garments that they had designed especially for MVFW. After the show, the entire collection was showcased in an exclusive pop-up in Decentraland’s Luxury Fashion District, which was curated by luxury marketplace UNXD. Dolce & Gabbana recently sold a nine-piece collection of digital NFTs at auction for around 6 million dollars as part of another collection created with UNXD. Beyond that, the Italian fashion house is planning the launch of the ‘DGFamily NFT Community’, which will offer members exclusive access to physical and digital drops and wearables. DGFamily owners will receive airdrops from this MVFW collection.

THE METAHYPE – NOTHING BUT HOT AIR?

A recent study, in which investment bank Piper Sandler asked 7,100 US teenagers questions such as how important NFTs etc. are to them, revealed that although the majority is familiar with it all, 48 percent of the respondents admitted that they are either unsure of or not interested in the metaverse. This would suggest that rising efforts by brands to win over mainly young consumers for their increasingly NFT-based brand worlds could be a waste of time, but perhaps the result should serve as a reminder that the mechanisms aren’t in place yet and need to be better geared towards the young target group.

To sum up, Decentraland has the charm of a video game with avatars cobbled together with pixels. The technology needs to be improved and many brands that only took part in the premiere with two-dimensional collection images definitely need to up their game. However, the fact is that we have entered a new dimension of fashion, which won’t just play an important role for Generation Z in the future. There’s a reason why brands and fashion houses are willing to pay millions for a piece of Decentraland so they can sell their NFT wares at its virtual shopping locations. In February, the Philipp Plein brand paid 1.4 million US dollars for a plot of virtual land. If that all still sounds a bit crazy to you, or textile clothing is still more your thing, then that’s totally fine too. Because that’s the great thing about the virtual and the real worlds: the decision is yours to make.

The first ever Metaverse Fashion Week (top left) / A virtual model on the Dolce & Gabbana MVFW catwalk (below)

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM – GESREY PHOTO

FROM CLOSET TO CLOUD — IS DIGITAL FASHION SUSTAINABLE?

If the hype is to be believed, digital fashion is being heralded as part of a sustainable future. But isn’t that a bit contradictory? Upon closer inspection, it turns out that we may have to zoom further in for it all to make sense.

TEXT JENNI KOUTNI

The triple whammy of climate change, COVID-19 and the accompanying wave of digitalisation has brought not only challenges for the fashion world, but also the opportunity for it to completely reinvent itself over the past two years. Social distancing and supply chain delays have forced fashion houses to present their collections digitally for the first time. While most fashion brands are still stepping onto new terrain, consumers are already one step ahead: the digital natives of Generation Z are engaging with the whole metaverse idea more than ever before. As conscious consumers, however, they are also demanding sustainability and ethical production methods, as well as supply chain transparency, from their favourite fashion brands. A wild mix of environmentalism and an escape into the digital realm – and more and more companies are getting in on the action. But there’s still a lot of scepticism out there. After all, what’s the point of gimmicks like the Louis Vuitton ‘skins’ that you can buy in the video game League of Legends to wear digitally? And why spend money on a digital NFT of a garment that can only be worn in TikTok videos? Let’s zoom in for a closer look.

A DIGITAL RETHINK

One thing is clear: the creation of digital fashion requires data centres that consume a lot of energy, which, in turn, generates greenhouse gas emissions. The pieces are often sold as so-called non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on blockchain networks that can have a very high ecological footprint, depending on the provider. So digital fashion per se will never be entirely ‘green’. But it could change the way we work within the fashion industry, as well as its production methods.

Take, for example, our shopping behaviour. Experimenting with clothes is fun and online shopping was booming even before the many lockdowns began. But a lot of what ends up in your shopping cart on a whim can turn out to be a bad buy once you try it on at home, mostly because it’s the wrong fit or simply because it’s hard to visualise garments as part of an outfit. So what if the problem could be solved before shipping? What if you could experiment creatively with styles on your own body without having to produce, order and then send them back again? The online store of the future could well provide us with a lifelike avatar that would make it possible for us to realistically try on new clothes. Materials can be shown in detail and in motion, so we don’t have to order before making a decision.

Although this might initially sound like a bit of fun, it could well have the potential to solve the fashion industry’s biggest problems: overproduction and recycling. Let’s face it, it’s no secret that many companies incinerate returned goods because it’s cheaper than feeding them back into the product cycle. And thanks to free shipping, there is no longer any barrier to ordering as many things as you want and then just sending them back. But imagine a world where realistic selections can be made in an online store before shipping: this would minimise the risk of overproduction. If the samples existed only virtually, there would be no need for physical samples, high retail inventories or sizing margins. This new sector could also satisfy the appetite for constantly new clothing, which, from the production to the disposal, has an extreme environmental impact.

BITS AND BYTES IN YOUR CLOSET

DressX, a digital-only clothing company that trades in NFT fashion items and augmented reality looks has been making a name for itself in this sector since July 2020. Unlike a physical counterpart, a DressX garment generates 97 percent less CO2 and requires no water, waste or chemicals whatsoever. The three percent CO2 emission is offset with trusted partner companies and their application for B Corp certification is already underway. Together with retailer Farfetch, DressX has also designed a pre-order collection that requires no physical materials. This ‘saved’ 346,698 litres of water as well as 2,515 kilograms of CO2, which is equivalent to 10 hours of daily smartphone use for 29 years. Another example is the collaboration between outdoor label Peak Performance and digital fashion company The Fabricant. Here, all physical product samples were replaced with digital ones, which minimised the environmental impact per garment by 96 percent and also simplified internal processes. It could well be a pioneering way of working that would make it financially easier for start-ups in particular to get a foot in the door. After all, high-risk investments have to be made, especially for debut collections. Material orders, expensive delivery costs, equipment and production costs could all be saved with digital samples. Production would go hand in hand with lookbook shoots and marketing campaigns – because once a virtual garment is created, it can be worn by a variety of avatars and models. And best of all: if you take away physical boundaries, the only limit to your creativity is your own imagination.

Digital fashion per se will never be entirely ‘green’.

DRESSX.COM THEFABRICANT.COM

THE NEW VIRTUAL WORLD OF FASHION

A FORAY INTO THE NEW VIRTUAL WORLD OF FASHION

Balenciaga, aspiring British designer Stefan Cooke, London department store Selfridges and Zara all have one thing in common: they are represented in the new digital world, the metaverse. Although Silicon Valley has been abuzz with talk of the metaverse for a while now, the first Metaverse Fashion Week recently celebrated its premiere. But what does this new digital world really have to offer clothing brands?

TEXT KRISTIN WALZEL

READY PLAYER ME

Pull & Bear With a new virtual reality project in the metaverse, the fashion company has ramped up its digital innovation efforts. Via a web-based adaptation, users make their way into a virtual brand showroom where they can try on the different styles and even play a surfing game. They can also design their own avatar with the Ready Player Me function and navigate their way through the virtual world of

Pull & Bear. For the project, the company has digitalised six looks from the Gen Z-inspired collection, which are compatible with apps and games on the Ready Player Me platform such as VR Chat, Sommium Space, LIV and Animaze.

PULLANDBEAR.COM

NFT ART

Moose Knuckles Together with Portuguese artist Tiago Marinho, the Canadian luxury outerwear brand is making its first foray into the metaverse. Together with the artist, the brand has created a unique 3D NFT artwork that takes the form of a special digital jacket by Moose Knuckles in collaboration with Chinese influencer Mia Kong. The brand has also developed a conceptual short film that shows Mia Kong’s avatar on a journey through a surreal landscape to discover and unlock the Moose Knuckles jacket hidden somewhere inside it.

MOOSEKNUCKLESCANADA.COM

META MASCOT

G-Star Raw Diving headfirst into the metaverse,

G-No, the rhino mascot of Dutch brand G-Star Raw, has been turned into an NFT avatar made entirely of digital denim. “We’re excited to enter the NFT space with an art project that brings our story to life. We are known for pushing the limits of denim.

By transforming our mascot into a digital denim artwork, we are able to satisfy our target audience’s appetite for innovation and be present wherever they are,” explains Gwenda van Vliet, CMO at G-Star

Raw. Each of the 10 virtual G-No designs tells its own story and has been made with different denim fabrics. The limited-edition NFT avatars are now available to purchase in a live auction on Rarible for around 300 euros.

G-STAR.COM

TOMMY GOES ROBLOX

Tommy Hilfiger The US brand has joined forces with eight designers of user-generated content (UGC) from the Roblox community to design a digital collection together. The Tommy x Roblox Creators collection consists of 30 garments that people can use to dress their avatars within the Roblox platform, allowing them to access the platform’s multiple experiences while fully kitted out in Tommy Hilfiger.

“I love how the brand has already been unofficially adopted into the Roblox platform, with users creating their own Tommy Hilfiger styles,” explains Tommy

Hilfiger. The eight creators were given the creative freedom to reinterpret some of the brand’s iconic pieces both in digital 2D and 3D elements, including a Tommy Jeans backpack, a crossbody bag, a Tommy Hilfiger headset and a skateboard.

TOMMY.COM

MANGO’S ART EXHIBITION IN THE MUSEUM DISTRICT

Mango The European fashion giant has also jumped on the metaverse bandwagon and is making its debut on the NFT market with the launch of three unique artworks that were created with crypto artist Farkas, a Argentinian-

Hungarian artist who drew inspiration for the digital artworks from the brand’s clothing. Their aim is to project the artist’s vision, as well as the metaverse into the future. The three artworks were on display for a month in Decentraland’s

Museum District during the first edition of Metaverse Fashion Week. By entering the virtual realm of the metaverse, Mango is taking another step in strengthening the ecosystem of channels and partners that its business model is based on.

SHOP.MANGO.COM