The First Virtual Fashion Show of 2022
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There’s nothing quite like the excitement of fashion week season. Fashion week is a fashion industry event that enables brands, designers, and fashion houses to display their newest collections in runway fashion shows. Held in the fashion capitals of the world, such as New York, London, Milan, and Paris, fashion week dictates current and upcoming trends. New York and London Fashion Week have showcased the hottest looks and trends of fall and winter 2022 and will be followed by Milan Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week. This year, fashion week attendees were introduced to hybrid experiences and shows that blended traditional fashion shows with virtual reality.
In recent times, virtual-reality-based experiences have been deemed useful as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the world to limit face-to-face interaction. Due to these unforeseen circumstances, large industries, like the fashion industry, were required to adopt a digital reimagination to continue their operations effectively. The virtual approach makes fashion more accessible as new opportunities and spaces have been born. In converting renowned fashion events into a digital setting, designers and brands have also realized that they can showcase their designs to a massive audience.
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In the 2022 New York Fashion Week, attendees saw the use of virtual elements in combination with traditional elements in a fashion show setting. Designer Maisie Wilen demonstrated a holographic presentation with models portrayed by Yahoo. Attendees of the Fall 2022 show were escorted to a gallery where virtual models enacted repetitive movements, like that of a GIF. Some labels have started stepping into the metaverse, a fully digital world existing beyond our reality, and plan on revolutionizing the world of virtual reality and fashion.
In December 2021, Decentraland, a platform enabling users to be part of a virtual world, announced that the platform would be hosting the first-ever Metaverse Fashion Week. With no ticket purchase necessary, fashion labels and investors alike will be able to purchase virtual land to host concerts, shows, events, and after-parties. This digital experience has come about as brands rush into the digital universe in an attempt to reach a considerate pool of consumers.
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Although the virtual event will be free to all, attendees will have the option to buy digital garments from brands to customize their respective avatars. The Metaverse Fashion Week will also incorporate physical components that give guests the ability to purchase real-life items from collections at the event.
In a recent interview with Vogue, Sam Hamilton, creative director at Decentraland Foundation, mentions that “[Decentraland] wants to help the onboarding process and push creativity and show everyone what is possible.”
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Brands like Hugo, a newly rebranded component of the Hugo Boss label, have signed with Metaverse Fashion Week to promote their goods in the metaverse. Additionally, global luxury brands like Gucci and Balenciaga have profited from items that are exclusively digital, opening virtual pop-ups in the metaverse.
The Metaverse Fashion Week is not the first virtual event Decentraland has hosted; in the past, the platform hosted a four-day digital music festival in October 2021. The event was extremely successful as virtual visitors logged on in large numbers to experience virtual performances by 3LAU and Nina Nesbitt.
It is incredibly interesting to see how the upcoming, completely virtual Metaverse Fashion Week will play out and how virtual reality will revolutionize the fashion industry as we know it.
Strike Out,
Writer: Fatima Hamad
Editor: Noelle Knowlton
Graphic Designer: Luis Arriaga
Tallahassee