After hosting the first metaverse festival, Decentraland (MANA) announced that they would be hosting the first metaverse fashion week (MVFW) between March 24 and 27. MVFW is designed by Decentraland Foundation Creative Director Sam Hamilton and MVFW Director Giovanna Casimiro. Unlike traditional fashion shows, which are not accessible to ordinary citizens, Decentral and MVFW will be accessible to everyone who can log into the metaverse. Anyone can exhibit their designs and sit in the front row. Hamilton mentioned that fashion became an important part of the metaverse during an interview last year. However, he emphasized that his main focus at MVFW is to provide an open source event that is equally available to all. He said:
“But ultimately what we do is for the community, so it’s very user-centric. It’s free, everything is available to everyone. There will be spectacular shows. There will be portable devices available for our main users, they want to see that type of content.
Four weeks of fashion events
During these four days, Decentraland will host runway shows, fashion experiences, pop-up stores, panels, exhibits and after parties. The four-week event will take place in the new luxury fashion district of Decentraland, which is already home to numerous stores from notable brands such as Tommy Hilfiger. The launch will take place with Selfridges revealing its new metaverse store located in the fashion district. Participating brands will display digital garments in avatars walking on virtual catwalks. There will be a central catwalk where most of the luxury brands will have their shows. This runway will be custom designed for each brand’s theme. In addition, there will be a secondary catwalk to present the main brands and the third one for the designers of the community. During this event, users will be able to purchase the items on display as NFTs to dress up their avatars. Some NFTs will also be tradeable for the physical version of the item. There will also be different types of trading and free NFT giveaways. Art and cinema will also play a fundamental role throughout the event. Located in the CashLabs Art Gallery and Screening Room, notable fashion films such as Chanel and House of Lanvin will be seen. In addition to the MVFW events, all other Decentraland features will be available during these dates.
high-end fashion brands
Until now, Paco Rabanne, Dolce & Gabanna, Etro, Tommy Hilfiger, Dundas, Cavalli, Nicholas Kirkwood and Elie Saab have announced their addition to MVFW. According to Graziosi, the participating brands will showcase a new collection or new interpretations of existing pieces. Evangelo Bousis was one of the brands that shared their ideas for the new metaverse collection. The band hinted that they would focus on experimental replications of their famous pieces that don’t necessarily follow the rules of physics. Sharing his enthusiasm for designing unorthodox pieces, the founder of Evangelo Bousis stated:
“The goal of the metaverse is to dream and do these fantastic looks that you can’t wear in real life. I tell him [al diseñador Peter Dundas] that you have to get on the train or you will miss the train. We believe this is the future.”
In addition to designer brands, many famous digital fashion collections such as The Fabricant.
An example from the Auroboros Biomimicry Collection (via dezeen.com) Auroboros and DressX will also be joining the week and hosting runway shows. In addition, brands such as Coach, Axel Arigato, Ester Manas, Wandler, Eytys and Osoi will also exhibit their digital accessories in a virtual store. The Fabricant is also inviting entrants to submit their reworked designs from the brand’s Season 1 range in open source access to fashion. Six winning redesigns will be selected through public voting and displayed on the runway. Fashion week will close with digital couture brand Auroboros’ Biomimicry collection, auctioned off as a series of NFTs.