Fashion enthusiasts, do you remember? About a year, several seasons ago, major fashion weeks around the world – especially in Europe – were forced to abandon traditional practices due to the raging pandemic, leading major brands to switch to digital or online formats for their new season releases, bringing unprecedented reforms to the fashion industry. Today, digital fashion weeks may become the definite direction, and will once again take place within the Metaverse in Decentraland, including the part involving NFT products.
The well-known virtual reality platform Decentraland recently announced that it will hold a fashion week event called Metaverse Fashion Week (referred to as MVFW) from March 24th to 27th, and it has been confirmed that brands specializing in creating virtual world clothing and traditional fashion brands will participate. Over the course of four days, Decentraland will host a series of fashion shows, parties, and pop-up stores, where brands will showcase their new clothing collections.
Unlike traditional fashion weeks that only allow guests with invitation letters to attend, MVFW will be open to the public for free. Interested friends simply need to register as Decentraland users and log in to the platform after the event opens. During the event, users can scan the QR code to preview the products and make purchases using funds from their cryptocurrency wallet. All clothing items will be sold in the form of NFTs, and users can even dress their virtual characters in Decentraland with these NFT clothing items. It is worth noting that some participating brands have partnered with Boson Protocol, a platform specializing in selling physical goods for brands in the metaverse, to offer physical versions of some products for trading.
MVFW founder Giovanna Casimiro said: “Anyone and everyone around the world can participate in MVFW. One of the drawbacks of traditional fashion shows is that they have been too restrictive for the average person, with only invited guests attending for years. MVFW will be free, and obviously digital, so you can join instantly with just a computer and an internet connection.”
As for the brands that will be attending MVFW, they can generally be divided into “digital brands” and “physical brands”. Some of the more well-known digital brands include the ready-to-wear fashion brand The Fabricant and the digital haute couture brand Auroboros. For this event, The Fabricant has specially invited a group of guests interested in creative design to redesign their Season 1 collection according to their own preferences in fabric and color. Six winning designs will be selected through public voting to be showcased at this MVFW. As for Auroboros, it has been confirmed that the Biomimicry collection showcased at last year’s London Fashion Week (LFW) will be presented, including a crystal-made gown.
Of course, many traditional brands will also be participating. It is understood that there will be over 50 brands attending MVFW, including well-known Italian luxury fashion representatives such as Dolce and Gabbana, Etro, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, and others like Estée Lauder, Gary McQueen, Acura, etc. In addition to fashion shows, these brands will also bring limited stores, gift events, and digitalized physical sales.
Will the debut of MVFW this time attract the attention of the fashion industry and the metaverse-related industry? When “digital brands” and “physical brands” gather at the same event, will it promote more communication between the two categories and bring new impacts to the future development of the fashion industry? Finally, if MVFW is successfully held and well-received, sparking discussions, will the traditional four major fashion weeks be rewritten as the “five major fashion weeks”? Fashion enthusiasts, don’t miss out!
資料及圖片來源：Decentraland、The Fabricant、Auroboros
