Metaverse, a decentralized open-source platform for the digital assets of tomorrow, is hosting its first global fashion week in Shanghai. The event will be held from May 8th to 10th and has drawn some big names like Nike’s top designers and H&M’s CEO along with other notable brands.
The “metaverse fashion week brands” is a new event that has been drawing big names and startups.
Forever 21, DKNY, and Estée Lauder are among the brands participating in the inaugural Metaverse Fashion Week, which started on Thursday and will end on Sunday in the virtual world of Decentraland.
Although there have been previous digital-only fashion shows, the four-day event is one of the most high-profile attempts to bring prominent businesses together around—or inside—the notion of the metaverse, a virtual environment where people can communicate, work, and buy.
Luxury fashion labels and smaller entrepreneurs are leveraging the virtual event to stage fashion shows and build storefronts in Decentraland, selling both physical and digital products accompanied by non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which are digital assets.
“It sends a signal that virtual fashion is here to stay, and businesses will continue to be interested in virtual fashion,” said Cathy Hackl, chair of Metaverse Fashion Week and chief metaverse officer at Futures Intelligence Group, a consultancy.
In the past year, the metaverse concept and companies attempting to build it have attracted millions of dollars in funding, high-powered executives, and a lot of interest, especially since Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., pledged to spend heavily on building the metaverse and changed its name to Meta Platforms Inc.
The advent of play-to-earn videogames, in which players exchange NFTs, provides a look into how the metaverse can entice users with monetary incentives, as well as the potential for backlash. Josephine Chu is the author of this image.
Robert Iger, the former CEO of Walt Disney Co., has joined the board of Genies Inc., a company that provides tools for creating virtual characters, apparel, and accessories using NFTs.
Marketers have started looking at Decentraland and other virtual-world platforms like the Sandbox for marketing purposes.
Estée Lauder is giving out 10,000 NFT-backed digital wearables during Metaverse Fashion Week, claiming they would give avatars a radiant aura.
“People may connect with Estée Lauder online and in the actual world when they find Estée Lauder in the metaverse,” said Stéphane de La Faverie, worldwide president of Estée Lauder and group president of Estée Lauder Cos.
Forever 21’s virtual store has 10 shoppable NFTs and digital avatars to assist visitors around the store.
Authentic Brands Group Inc. photo
Forever 21, a division of Authentic Brands Group Inc., has leased 450,000 square feet of space in Decentraland’s fashion sector to build a virtual shop with 10 NFTs for sale and digital avatars functioning as sales staff. Those NFTs provide avatars with clothing to wear or acquire.
“We’ve welcomed the Metaverse’s evolution as it continues to intersect with culture,” said Winnie Park, the fashion retailer’s CEO.
Cider Holding Ltd., a clothing retailer, is selling NFTs via its online store.
According to Yu Oppel, co-founder of Cider, “Metaverse Fashion Week is an opportunity to provide customers a new sort of experience with the firm and maybe establish ties with them.”
Ms. Oppel said that “everything you do in the metaverse may also [lead to] a new membership with the brand.”
Some of the event’s participants don’t sell any tangible goods at all.
NFT XRCouture PVT Ltd., a digital fashion firm whose website encourages consumers to “Wear Clothes That Don’t Exist,” sold 18 NFT-backed virtual garments ahead of Metaverse Fashion Week and is setting up shop in Decentraland.
According to Subham Jain, founder and director of XR Couture, the chance to introduce digital wearables alongside well-known luxury companies is not normally accessible during conventional fashion weeks in the real world.
Mr. Jain said that “not just luxury companies, but also individual artists” are promoted.
The Decentraland Foundation, a charity that develops tools for the platform and manages its marketing, is hosting Metaverse Fashion Week.
According to Andrew Kiguel, CEO and founder of Tokens.com and executive chairman of the Metaverse Group, a metaverse developer that is letting Decentraland use its land during the event, companies are using the event to figure out how a potential new wave of customers will want to shop in digital environments.
“This is the next way the internet will be utilized,” Mr. Kiguel said. “In two, three years, no one will be talking about the metaverse—it will simply be part of your regular life.”
According to the firm, Decentraland has roughly 562,000 monthly active users as of February.
According to Giovanna Casimiro, leader of Metaverse Fashion Week and director of community and events at Decentraland Foundation, Metaverse Fashion Week might take place on other virtual platforms as well.
“Our goal isn’t to centralize,” Ms. Casimiro said, “but to partner with different efforts in one huge event and change as we go.”
Ann-Marie Alcántara can be reached at [email protected]
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Decentraland is a virtual reality platform that allows users to create, experience, and monetize content. In the past year, Metaverse has hosted fashion week events for various brands. The event in 2022 will be held at the Decentraland headquarters in San Francisco. Reference: decentraland fashion week 2022.
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