The 1st Metaverse Fashion Week: Digital fashion has become a trend

Incredibly, digital fashion has grown so fast that it already needs its own fashion week: from fashion shows and presentations of new collections, to public talks and parties with real DJs. The inaugural Digital Fashion Week took place in Decentraland from March 23-27. Decentraland is a decentralized virtual social platform on the Ethereum blockchain.

Jonathan Simkhai presents his collection at Second Life ahead of New York Fashion Week. After the show, players can use NFTs to purchase evening gown skins to adorn their Second Life avatars.

After that, Decentraland hosted the first official fashion week in history, which lasted for five days. Selfridges opened a store on day one, where a real NFT exhibition currently in London - the future of Victor Vasarely's work , and his influence on the work of the contemporary Paco Rabbane known as UNIVERSE. Players can purchase NFT clothing as well as artwork from the Fondation Vasarely.

the next day

The second day of Metaverse Fashion Week (MVFW) was full of panel discussions, modeling workshops, interviews, UNXD luxury zone opening and mini games. After all, we are in the field of games. Perhaps the most important part was the two fashion shows by Dolce & Gabbana and Philip Plein, which is why gamers and fashionistas alike are paying attention to MVFW.

The image of Decentraland immediately sparked skepticism from many Instagram users who commented on various brands' posts about MVFW. Decentraland launched in beta in 2017, and many creators questioned the quality of the images and used what they had. These shows look ridiculous due to quality issues, forcing brands to only release images of skins that can be purchased in-game. For example, Dolce & Gabbana chose cats with glasses and hairstyles as digital models. Their exhibition took place in a virtual hall with a circular podium and flowers.

Each cat has its own style, and the collection echoes the brand's actual catwalks in both set design and presented skin. This time, D&G fans went wild in the metaverse. They turned into animal avatars, put on down jackets, showed their broad shoulders, and put on sunglasses, beaming.

Philipp Plein showed off a giant skull embodying his brand logo at the fashion show. The skull opens, the tongue unfurls, and the catwalk models appear. Fans of Philip Plein don glow-in-the-dark glasses or breathing masks, helmets with cat ears, down jackets, wings and bathrobes this metaverse season.

On the brand's website, skins sold on the runway range from $1,500 for Moon $urfer to $15,000 for Platinum $urfer. These skins have a special marking: a small skeleton on the shoulder - probably to prove its worth.

After the fashion show, everyone was invited to a party, which Plein live-streamed from his home and bragged on Instagram that his clothes were the first in the Metaverse. The designer is wearing his brand's custom skin: a helmet with cat ears. It's clear that the metaverse fashion industry loves cats a lot.

Additionally, many brands have opened digital boutiques in the Metaverse. In the luxury section, shoppers will find Du D&G and Philip Plein, as well as high-end watch boutique Jacob & Co and a store selling Hermès Birkin bags. Besides Birkin bags and watches, what other ways can you highlight your place in the Metaverse?

Jacob & Co has launched 'Astronomia Metaverso', a non-fungible token (NFT) collection of 8 watches, each representing a planet in the solar system. “Watches for the five planets closest to the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter) are unique physical watches (including NFT watches), while the three planets farthest from the sun (Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) are split into multiple digital versions."

third day

On the third day there was a fashion show by Etro and a presentation of the Dress X collection. The Etro fashion show was the biggest flop in the whole of MVFW, as normal characters wore normal outfits with branded Buta designs, which was more than enough for a metaverse digital series. The fashion show was held in the same venue as D&G, but with fewer special effects and less gloss and style.

Audience behavior was far from perfect, with many users rushing near the stage and ruining the show. Clearly the organizers had no technical limitations to prevent this from happening, or it was unexpected. Fans didn't like the show, tearing up the collection's presentation.

fifth day

The last day featured a showcase of Estée Lauder, the first makeup brand to do well in the Metaverse. They showed off a product that gave an avatar a bling veil, and it looked fantastic. Estée Lauder's branding strategy is very smart, giving away free golden skins-users have a glittering avatar, and they can't be happier.

There's also a Dundas-branded show where your character sparkles in a gown and tie. Nothing really stands out: it repeats the physical collection and plays with the concept of dressing yourself up. Now, users can dress their avatars in clothes. The models they use are more human and less clunky.

Finally, the Auroboros x Grimes immersive experience party, performed by Grimes. It's clear to everyone that she moves much better than a standard avatar, or even a runway model in this metaverse. She wore a snake-scale dress and had long braids. It looks like Grimes has been in the metaverse for a long time - she's just getting used to it.

After watching MVFW for five days, it was cool to see so many brands participating in this new chapter of fashion industry history, even though they couldn't predict the outcome of the experiment. As the brands have shown on social networks, the fashion shows did not go as they expected. That's because brands post the best photos from the catwalks, not pixelated avatars and plain looks.

Perhaps these images were designed specifically to give the viewer a nostalgic feeling, all to surprise us: by showing the shocking results, and what future MVFW will evolve into, and even the costumes and wearing them The real impression of the model.

All we can do is hope that the next digital fashion week will be more technologically advanced and include Balenciaga, which after all seems to be a pioneer in digital fashion in the luxury space.