Preparations for fashion week in the Meta Verse were significantly dissimilar to the rising chaos and rushed crowds experienced at London Fashion Week. Decentraland, a 3D virtual world browser-based platform, allows you to log in via your computer. Whether this be from the comfort of your own car, bed, or bath – you can remain entirely anonymous, chatting with other users online whilst flaunting your array of digital fits. This increasingly popular online phenomenon, with up to 8,500 unique visitors per day, reflects fashion’s rapid advancement into fictitious online worlds powered by Web3 technology. Back for its subsequent year, MVFW23 will run from the 28th until the 31st of March, rallying fashion lovers from around the globe for four jam-packed days of catwalk shows, panel talks, and Meta after-parties. Digital wearables are to be exhibited by well-loved fashion houses Adidas, Dolce & Gabbana, Diesel, Vogue Singapore, and Tommy Hilfiger – as well as by budding digital creators Chrryt, Sumbyos, and Haus of Fuego.
There has been an overwhelmingly positive response to fashion’s take-over of the Meta Verse, despite computer crashes and system reloads, Haus of Fuego tweeting: ‘Come on internet, you got this.’ Technological delays aside, digital creators have been applauding the inclusivity of the event. Saltï, Drag Leader of the Meta Verse, discussed how queer creators of MVFW23 are revolutionising tech space, redefining social media, and re-framing how marginalised communities come together online. Haus Of Fuego displayed their digital wearables on the third day of the fashion event. Echoing Saltï’s discussion of an LGBTQ+ presence developing in the Meta Verse – Fuego’s show felt eerily human, avatars individually striding down the runway to sullen synth-pop and off-beat electro soundscapes. A mixture of retro-futuristic utility wear, neon pink puffer jackets, and chunky digital footwear – the runway gave themes of diversity and individuality, with a visible bond shared between runway avatars and digital attendees.
This Spring, Vogue Singapore had an otherworldly presence in the Meta Verse, presenting audiences with a curation of digital outfits, enshrined by the theme ‘Love in the Meta Verse’. Digital wearables were visualised by a selection of cutting-edge designers such as Bad Binch TINGTONG and Xtended iDENITY. The ‘DMAT x Xi x BBT’ was a personal favorite, a spherical, fuchsia pink, blade-runneresque garment with a latex top and bonnet. This garment was available on The Dematerialised – a digital fashion marketplace. Part of the MVFW’s x Vogue Singapore Digital Competition was an open call for digital designers to submit their interpretations of ‘Love in the Meta Verse’. Artists Morchen Liu, Yao Yao and Lorena Bello were chosen – their fits upping the ante for fashion in technology’s most up-to-date, breakthrough Web3 fashion design.
Decentraland’s partnership with Spatial, a social augmented reality platform, offers a selection of runways, digital spaces, and panel talks and has illuminated female-led projects, including virtual being Chrryt. The artist’s space smells of ‘cherryt perfume and summer’, enclosed by ethereal, shoe-gaze soundtrack. The Ancient Greek-styled marble arches, partnered with the artist’s sinuous, magenta gown illuminated at golden hour lend a surreal aesthetic to Cherryt’s digital world. This meta-fashion house reveals the unique fashion possibilities offered by virtual scopes. Cherryt tells Mess Mag how this wearable collection was inspired by dream scopes described by Carl Jung. Since 2019, Cherryt’s has been building on digital art and fashion from within the Meta Verse and presents the potentialities of digital fashion via cutting-edge technology.
‘We welcome you to explore this virtual realm, submerge yourself in the world of digital fashion, and discover the talented artists we are proud to represent’ writes Braw Haaus, a creative agency that represents a number of digital fashion designers. As I wandered unknowingly through the Braw Haus showroom, I stumbled across Sumbyos, a Montreal-based 3D artist. His visual motifs revealed his passion for the natural and the exotic, as well as the strange and uncanny. Full of red forest pansy trees, pale blue skies, and turquoise waters. His wearables were exhibited as if hanging on the gallery wall, attendees crowding around them, entranced by Sumbyos’s phantasmagorical 3D creations. Vibrant oranges, sapphire blues, and bursts of neon pink illuminate his Meta – avatars adorned in decorative headpieces and metallic space suits. The experience was utterly mesmerizing.
Existing within these surreal digital worlds presents a new way of understanding and consuming fashion. This year, MVFW23 featured a diverse mix of established brands, budding designers, and 3D artists. The creative ambiance and inclusive atmosphere was apparent, with attendees logging in from all over the world to familiarise themselves with the showcasing of fashion’s next most exciting takeover – The Meta Verse.
