Metaverse Fashion Week is here!

This post was originally published on Decentraland

Paris, Milano, New York, London, and now, Decentraland—high fashion has gone virtual!
Over the course of March 24-27, Metaverse Fashion Week will be bursting at the seams with runway shows, after-parties, immersive experiences, shopping, panel talks, and much more, starting with a few exciting opening events on the evening of March 23.

With 60+ participating brands, artists, and designers, #MVFW22 is a milestone event in the global fashion industry. A combination of legacy luxury fashion and digital-native brands will showcase their highly anticipated wearable collections, digital spaces, and breakthrough activations during the eventful week. A perfect description of the event comes from our guest panel talk curator, David Cash:

We’ve sought to present fashion in every form possible, from runway shows to retail experiences, fashion presented as art, film, photography, and even fashion presented in ways that extend beyond the confines of reality—as, in the metaverse, anything is possible.

Get ready to dress your avatar to the nines and take a front-row seat at the catwalk—everyone’s a VIP in the metaverse! Below, we’ll give you an overview of the week’s biggest events, but be sure to check out the official MVFW event page for a complete list of what’s happening and when.

Areas of Interest

During MVFW22, several community-run neighborhoods within the newly created Fashion District will be opened to the public. In each new area, brands and designers will feature their catwalks, panels, galleries, and more. Some must-see locations are:

The Luxury Fashion District

The Luxury Fashion District can be found in the current Fashion District owned by Metaverse Group. Presented by UNXD and Vogue Arabia, the district will host a tour-de-force of fashion houses, brands, designers, and fashion devotees. Some of the industry’s most iconic brands to make their Web3 debut include the following: Dolce&Gabbana, Etro, Elie Saab, Imitation of Christ, DUNDAS, Nicholas Kirkwood in collaboration with White Rabbit, crypto and metaverse-themed watchmaker Franck Muller, FaithTribe, Chufy, Jacob & Co, Monnier Frères, Franck Muller, Gary McQueen, Mert Otsamo, Guo Pei, and AUROBOROS.

Rarible Street

Rarible Street will host a temporary space, the Rarible Fresh Drip Zone, inspired by the streets of New York, with concrete and urban vibes. The area will be populated with pop-up shops including the following brands: Placebo Digital Fashion House, The Fabricant, Artcade @ Fred Segal with exclusive drops by Atari Hotels and Subnation, Perry Ellis America, Artisant in collaboration with PUMA, Miss J Collection by Crypto Couture, Macr0matic (NFT artist), Fabeeo Breen, Girls Gang Label, The Immersive Kind, the exclusive collection of digital VAULT.swiss watches, and Fresh Couture.

Parcel and MetaParty collaborated to create the Parcel-MetaParty Community Precinct, celebrating Decentraland’s creator community. Fashion shows and talks, as well as mini games, DJs, music performances and parkour feature in this amazing multi-level space. On the evening of March 26, the 10 winners of the Parcel-MetaParty Wearables Competition will show off their designs on the Parcel catwalk. To celebrate Fashion Week, Parcel will also launch unique glasses that can be found in and around the space at dedicated dispensers. The glasses will allow you to navigate from area to area more efficiently. This portable experience will give you access to an entirely different interface than you’re used to in Decentraland so be sure to grab a pair!

CashLabs

Web3 Agency, CashLabs, will be launching a mixed-media art gallery. Over 20 artists and designers, including Antoni Tudisco, Krista Kim x The Fabricant, Karl Lagerfeld x The Dematerialized, Jason Ebeyer, Botter Paris, Auroboros, and more, will be represented by the gallery in an exhibition titled “at the intersection of Art and Fashion.” The three floors of the gallery are filled with images and video works on the walls and fashion presented as sculptures. SHOWstudio & Nick Knight will bring a Fashion Film Festival to the event. On the rooftop of the gallery they’ll present five films a day, on a four day fashion film extravaganza that will bring the audience through a journey into the history and future of fashion on film.

Flagship Stores

Continuing the trend of big brands purchasing real estate in Decentraland to set up metaverse HQs, a number of special brands will be debuting their flagship stores during Metaverse Fashion Week. The following brands will become permanent residents of Decentraland, showcasing their commitment to a new era in fashion:

Forever 21
Forever 21 will present an exclusive collection of Wearables created just for the metaverse. This event marks the launching of the brand’s unique space inside Decentraland with the promise of more events to come.

Philipp Plein
Philipp Plein will debut Plein Plaza, a prime district covering 65 parcels where you’ll be able to visit Philipp Plein’s founded Museum of NFT Arts (M.O.N.A). Additionally, Plein will launch his first-ever collection originating in the metaverse, featuring a fashion show on a special catwalk in collaboration with 3D artist Antoni Tudisco. His NFT collections will drop on Portion and the exclusive wearables will be available for purchase in Decentraland or on plein.com. To open the evening’s party events, Plein Plaza will also be hosting an open night party with several DJs. Expect a lot of fun, glamor, and high fashion!

Estée Lauder
Estée Lauder will be the exclusive beauty brand of MVFW. The brand has partnered with Alex Box to create a NFT Wearable based on the brand’s #1 serum, Advanced Night Repair. Users will be able to step inside the iconic Advanced Night Repair “Little Brown Bottle” to unlock a digital badge or Proof of Attendance Protocol celebrating the event and claim one NFT Wearable that gives their avatar a glowing, radiant aura inspired by the serum.

Not all the fashion of MVFW will be purely virtual though! NTR1-Meta will present their ‘phygital’, exclusive handmade leather shoes⁠ wearable in Decentraland, in the real world, and tradable as NFTs on March 23. NTR1-META features 34 designs from the hottest Web3 projects, including custom Decentraland sneakers. Find out more and mint your NTR1-Meta sneakers here.

Expert Panels

In addition to fun, fashion, and games, the week will also see a number of panel talks led by experts in the fields of digital fashion, NFTs, Web3, and the future of the metaverse. The daily talks will take place at CashLabs HQ as well as at Boson Protocol.

After Parties

And of course we can’t forget to mention everyone’s favorite kind of event in Decentraland—parties! After Parties to be specific.

Nothing hits the spot after a long day of shopping and fashion sightseeing like showing off your moves (and your shiny new Wearables) on the dancefloor. Every day after the catwalks and panels talks, after parties will be happening across Decentraland. Some big names you can expect to see are:

• Bob Sinclar playing in the Vegas City, powered by Hogan and Exclusible with the first-ever dance competition in the virtual world
• Nicki Nicole performing and launching her wearable collection in the Metaloop district hosted by Kollectiff
• DJ ICYKOF playing in the Metajuku Mall to launch Tribute Brand’s newest collection
• Blond:ish performing in Vegas City, powered by the Faith Tribe brand
• And that’s not all! Stay tuned for more big news about some very special performances later in the week. 😉

But before you run off to secure your spot by the catwalk, you need to know about Sophia the Robot!

While you’re out and about discovering the best that Metaverse Fashion Week has to offer, keep an eye out for the elite fashionista, Sophia the Robot, a social humanoid robot developed by Hanson Robotics.

Every day of Fashion Week she’ll be walking around Decentraland in exclusive, fabulous high fashion Wearables, trying to evade paparazzi that just won’t leave her alone. If you’re lucky enough to spot her, snap a selfie together and post it on Twitter using the hashtag #findingsofphiatherobot to enter a special NFT giveaway, sponsored by Percy Lau and Hanson Robotics. Good luck!

See you on the runway!