- Date
- 15 SEPTEMBER 2022
- Author
- ZARINA IZY
- Image by
- COURTESY OF BRANDS PRESS OFFICES
- Categories
- Fashion
New York Fashion Week meets digital fashion
Fashion Week NY brought together cutting-edge digital fashion shows, the best designers, innovators and speakers from around the world to share their stories and connect with one another in an immersive environment.
Designers from all over the globe showed off their latest collections, including those who design in the virtual space. The runway shows featured “IRL” (in real life) clothing as well as those designed for digital experiences.
The week was packed with panels featuring some of fashion’s most important figures, including Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, Puma and many pure digital designers.
The iconic brand Tommy Hilfiger partnered with new Web3 entertainment launchpad Rove for an exclusive crypto experience at the label's Official New York Fashion Week event. Guests including Kate Moss, Shawn Mendes, Kourtney Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Travis Barker and more were able to mint a free NFT on-site, featuring the iconic designer himself taking a Polaroid in Warhol-style colour-blocked stripes.
“Our experiential fashion show, which is inspired by Andy Warhol’s iconic creative studio, brings together Futuremakers while bridging the real life and digital worlds - for a new type of runway experience - in NYC, the world, and across the metaverse.” – posted Tommy Hilfiger.
At the Puma show during NYFW, the brand unveiled an immersive experience in the form of Black Station—named after PUMA’s home for its most innovative designs in fashion. Highlighting the show was a metaverse experience designed specifically for Nitropass NFT holders (Nitropass is the access pass to all items within the Nitro project of Puma). To receive the exclusive IRL experience, Nitropass holders burned their NFTs and subsequently received an exclusive physical product.
Australian fintech company AfterPay came up with a way to make it more accessible: digital “keys” to this year’s festivities. This year, AfterPay partnered with five fashion designers to create “keys”—NFTs that doubled as access passes to exclusive IRL experiences at this notoriously difficult-to-access event.
At the same time, Italian fashion giant Dolce & Gabbana has partnered with the UNXD platform to bring its Disco Drip collection into the metaverse. The fashion brand's iconic style can now be shown off in a virtual world, and those who want to do finer things and show their class need to explore this fine collection by Dolce & Gabbana.
The linked wearable is now live in Decentraland, but it will be available not only there: "The beautifully upgraded collection was revealed at Metaverse Fashion Week and over time will be available in multiple metaverses." – says Dolce & Gabbana on Twitter.
Among A-list luxury brands, NYFW opened its doors to pure digital brands as well. KRWN Studio, Shiu-Huei Wang, Edvard Nielsen, Right Direction, Yashi Dadhich, Diverge and other emerging brands presented their virtual collections as 3D, AR\VR experiences.
Red Eye had an opportunity to meet Amina, the founder of KRWN Studio, who came from Italy to New York to present their virtual collection.
Hello, Amina! Tell us please, what was your impression of New York fashion week and, in particular, the Web 3.0 part of it?
I had the most wonderful opportunity to participate both in Digital Fashion Week NYC and NYFW hosted by Nolcha shows on the behalf of KRWN Studio. Both experiences were completely unforgettable in their own respects. The Web 3 fashion community is evolving with rapid speed every season! Creatives in this space are truly starting to explore the extents of their vision and bringing fresh ideas on their phygital runways. The curation of the show and its overall execution were fantastic!
What was the most interesting thing you saw at NYFW?
The people! The Web 3 community would not be what it is without its people. The creatives are on a constant mission to break away from the unconventional while working on revolutionizing their own designs. This was evidently clear on the runway as well. Fashion is an expression, and these artists were all able to showcase their breathtaking vision. Even the attendees of the shows came dressed with interesting and mysterious looks. The event was a creative explosion both on and off the runway.
Which digital brands have participated there and who got the most interesting presentations, in your opinion?
Each brand had an emphasis on its own niche within the fashion industry and etc. I enjoyed Pucci’s innovative approach to runway presentations seeing as the models sat down at the end of the runway and posed for photographers. It was an interesting presentation that caught the eye of many. Also, chain guardians had their models breakdance and show off dance moves as they walked through the runway. The engagement of their audience was at its peak, and certainly an untraditional way to approach the fashion week runway.
We know that KrwnStudio also has been presented there. Please tell us what was your role in the show?
We were lucky to participate and be invited to such prestigious events, especially within the Web 3 community. During DFW we were one of the chosen participants in the digital-only show. Our debut collection of 891 H8Dz consists of 89 hoodie designs from materials that cannot be replicated IRL. For instance, soap hoodies, crystallized dragon tears, trapped stars, moonstones, peacock feathers and many others! Each NFT collectable also comes with an AR filter that can be used on Snapchat and zoom!
