Metaverse Fashion Week Will Return March 28-31 – WWD

Decentraland, the world’s largest user-owned and -operated virtual social world, has revealed the return of Metaverse Fashion Week, which will take place March 28 to 31.

Pioneered by Decentraland and UNXD in collaboration with Spatial and Over, the week invites the global community to experience the latest advancements in digital fashion and metaverse interoperability.

The inaugural Metaverse Fashion Week, held last March, hosted more than 108,000 people who explored the world of wearables and digital fashion. Brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Etro, Selfridges, Dolce & Gabbana, Guo Pei, Paco Rabanne and others participated. Both legacy fashion houses and new digital fashion brands combined minted more than 165,000 free wearables during the event. While there were technical glitches, it provided a peek into how brands can build their narratives in the metaverse.

“I am incredibly honored to be leading the second annual Metaverse Fashion Week and cannot wait to show the world what has developed since the last time we showcased the fashion revolution in the metaverse on a grand stage. Within one year, we have shown the world one of the strongest and most obvious use cases for the metaverse yet — digital fashion. After all, we don’t all want to look like dull copies of the same avatar in our digital lives. Just like in the real world, we all want to individualize and curate the personal aesthetics that we are recognized for,” said Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro, head of Metaverse Fashion Week.

The theme of this year’s Metaverse Fashion Week is “Future Heritage.”

“Metaverse Fashion Week is a tentpole moment for digital fashion where both brands and consumers can experience the future of fashion. MVFW is a direct extension of UNXD’s mission to bridge luxury between the real world and the metaverse. After our successful first season with Decentraland, we’re thrilled to be expanding MVFW platform together to encompass additional metaverses,” said Shashi Menon, cofounder and chief executive officer of UNXD, which partners with luxury brands to create crypto-native products and experiences.

Decentraland will partner with Spatial, which designs 3D spaces for collaboration and community, and Over, an AR platform powered by the Ethereum Blockchain. In March, MVFW will expand to invite those building digital fashion to consider the potential of interoperable metaverses in which one can bring a wearable to the other with ease.

Among the event’s features is the Luxury track, which will return to the Luxury Fashion District, developed by UNXD in collaboration with The Metaverse Group. Miami Fashion Week will be the first CFDA globally recognized fashion week to participate during Metaverse Fashion Week with a special activation and runway shows on the rooftop of L’Atelier in The Luxury Fashion District.

Working with high-end fashion names, Phygicode participates as a consortium specialized in luxury and hybrid solutions for fashion bringing partners and brands to the event.

Threedium will return with its 3D/AR Commerce Engine that will power its own luxury mall, enabling a connected commerce infrastructure for brands to build and share customized wearables and augmented reality experiences.

Boson, the decentralized commerce protocol, will expand its participation by enabling brands to sell physical and phygital items in the metaverse as redeemable NFTs. Once tokenized, Boson-redeemable NFTs can be traded, held, gifted or redeemed for the physical item.

DressX, the largest metacloset for digital clothes, AR looks and fashion NFTs is an official event partner and will onboard brands that look to explore their AR components.

In other areas, curator David Cash and the team at Cash Labs will return to present and produce experiences for established fashion brands and new digital native designers in Decentraland and beyond. In addition to Cash, Decentraland is building an advisory board of curators to select designers to participate in the next event edition, among them, the Institute of Digital Fashion, Fashion3 by MAD Global, House of Web3 and The Fabricant. With the help of those curators, a new plaza will be built, showcasing the new horizons of digital fashion and disruptive activations.

In early January, the brands that will participate in the Luxury Fashion District will be revealed.

In the Luxury Fashion District and adjacent plaza, experiences will include runway shows, exclusive wearable collections, immersive 3D/AR web experiences, pop-up stores, the introduction of the first physical fashion week to the metaverse and a closing performance.

New to the 2023 schedule is MVFW Neo, designed to support and celebrate the next generation of digital designers. Working with digital-first companies, Decentraland has selected several new digital fashion designers and up-and-coming physical designers to develop their work and designs within the Web3 space.

In addition, the first official MVFW supermodel will be introduced: Tangpoko, a Decentraland community member involved in fashion and pop culture within the Web3 space will be the main supermodel this season.

MVFW also will present a runway show featuring Barth, the season two winner of “The Hype” on HBO Max. As part of the Next Generation initiative, the event will present an exclusive Decentraland wearable collection created by the second season’s winner in his debut inside the metaverse.