Decentraland’s highly anticipated Metaverse Fashion Week (MVFW) has come to an end – and the fashion world has gotten a taste of what the industry could look like as an all-digital experience. For four days, from March 24th to 27th, the MVFW offered an extensive program with over 60 designers, brands and retailers.
Metaverse Fashion Week, which was free to attend, featured a number of after parties, numerous store openings and a variety of digital collections. Dedicated areas for the brands and the fashion industry as a whole have also been set up in the 3D world – a possible indication of Decentraland’s intention to further expand the fashion area in its virtual world.
Store openings, digital retail and meta malls
In addition to the extensive program of catwalk shows and after parties, the brands used the event to open digital stores and pop-ups in different districts of Decentraland. The expansive, purpose-built stores showcased the brands’ ‘phygital’ (a word creation made up of ‘physical’ and ‘digital’) collections and exclusive NFTs, immersing users in their world . Many of these stores allowed their visitors to purchase both digital and physical items and NFTs from their offerings, which were connected directly to the platform’s native cryptocurrency via digital wallets.
British department store chain Selfridges unveiled a flagship store with an immersive experience – created by Paco Rabanne and Victor Vasarely. The store itself, which resembles the Selfridges store in Birmingham, housed an art gallery with exclusive NFTs that visitors could view on a guided tour of the building.
Threedium and Boson Protocol also launched a digital mall during MVFW, allowing users to explore the stores of established and emerging brands, including DKNY and Casablanca. Tommy Hilfiger opened a virtual store where a digital re-release of the Spring 2022 collection and NFTs were available. In Decentraland’s Luxury Fashion District, which was created in collaboration with UNXD, Dolce & Gabbana, Etro and Franck Muller also participated in the opening wave with one store each on the digital shopping street, which is visually based on Paris’ Avenue Montaigne shopping street.
Another neighborhood where big-name brands settled was Rarible’s Fresh Drip Zone. There, visitors could find pop-ups of twelve brands – including Puma, Perry Ellis and Fred Segal – on the streets of New York. Digital fashion houses The Fabricant, which also hosted a catwalk show, and Placebo were also in attendance offering virtual wearables and NFTs. The centerpiece of the temporary location was a dome-shaped Rarible store where users could purchase one-off NFTs and a curated selection of one-of-a-kind digital clothing items.
Presentations, panel discussions and parties
Panel discussions took place throughout the event, ranging from the world of NFTs to the history of virtual fashion. In total, over 30 guests attended, according to David Cash, curator of MVFW and CEO of Cash Labs, a Web3 strategy agency that helped develop the event. Speakers presented by Cash Labs on the MVFW main stage included fashion photographer Nick Knight, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Singapore Norman Tan, and fashion and furniture designer Alexandre de Betak, among others.
Meanwhile, Tommy Hilfiger was present virtually at an in-person interview hosted by Boson Protocol’s Justin Banon and Victoria May and Metaverse expert Cathy Hackl. Hilfiger discussed his take on Metaverse fashion and what it means for designers in the industry.
Some luxury brands presented virtual runway shows with looks inspired by their physical collections. The Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana presented a digital collection with logo-heavy looks, which were shown on models with cat-like features. Fast fashion brands also took part in the campaign: Many opened pop-ups or permanent stores, or tried their hand at catwalk presentations. E-commerce brand Cider was one of them, opening an immersive retail space and hosting a fashion show where attendees could buy digital wearables for their avatars.
Closing the Metaverse fashion week runway program was brand Dundas, who showcased their digital creations at their pop-up store in the Luxury Fashion District, set within store interiors that showcased Dundas’ signature panther emblem. The garments created especially for the MVFW could be pre-ordered via the UNXD marketplace. On a screen in the store, visitors could also see a real-life version of the models wearing the clothes.
Although the runway presentations were the highlights of the events, the after-parties and virtual events played an important role in bringing real-world experiences to the Metaverse. Parties featuring musicians like Tribute Brand and Nicki Nicole were spread across MVFW’s TV schedule – hosted by Kollectif and other Decentraland partners. To wrap things up, singer-songwriter Claire Boucher, also known as Grimes, took to the virtual stage and DJed a set for the event’s guests. The performance could be followed up a spiral staircase, at the end of which an avatar of the artist in a bodysuit by Auroboros, a digital couture house, danced on a floating platform.
This translated post previously appeared on FashionUnited.uk. Translation and editing: Karenita Haalck