Digital New York Fashion Week (DFWNY) & Metaverse
March 20, 2022
Fashion tech leaders and top designers leading the digital fashion trends all gathered in New York, for the first half of the Digital Fashion Week New York (DFWNY) held between February 10th to 13th. Unlike the digital edition of the classic New York fashion week, the DFWNY was a combination of a digital experience zone, with the combination of both physical and digital events. The event was hosted by virtual event hosting platform V-Gather while Queendom.io, another virtual metaverse platform hosted the 22 digital designers.
The show had a few glitches unfortunately. The show was pushed back a few days with GPU server shortage to host the digital wears. Nevertheless, DFWNY provided an opportunity to expand into the world of metaverse in addition to allowing brands and designers to use modern technology as a means of creative expression. Moreover, it served as new grounds for designers to reach out to their clientele
The DFWNY also hosted various workshops for seasoned professionals to educate the new generation of digital designers. The topic that created the most buzz, however, was metaverse
While many brands have lead successful virtual projects, it has been limited to a one-time pop-up event, instead of a long-term goal to develop and utilize technology. While it is undeniable that virtual reality adds on to the consumer experience, the concept becomes more of a quick interest on the experience instead of converting the interest into the given products.
There are different stances when it comes to metaverse. Conglomerates have larger expectations and in turn is utilizing the concept for marketing retail for larger consumer reach. On a different note, while NFT is a new concept for most, and traded by a bare 2% of the population, the digital art market was expected to reach $410 Billion in 2021. Major platform providers including Meta (formerly known as Facebook), are also in the race to investing millions into integrated 3D to their products. It is only a mater of time for immersive experience and digital fashion to become the mainstream.
The concept of digitization of apparel sales does not come without its own limitations. The current metaverse platforms were primarily used for the gaming industry which limits the size of the platform. That is, the current digital fashion sales are not made for the consumers themselves but mostly to dress up consumers’ virtual avatars. This also indicates the purchase made on a single gaming platform cannot be used on a different platform.
DFWNY has proven two important facts. Firstly, digital fashion is undeniably on trend, but secondly, it is still at its primal stages. Not only is the technology itself limited, but the consumers are still new to the concept of metaverse and its implications. Compared to those at the forefront of the digital revolution, the gap between normal consumers is still existent. Ultimately, the question boil downs to how well the industry can bridge the gap between the digital environment and consumers to welcome them into the world of metaverse. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that metaverse will spread in more diverse form and diverse industries in the future.
