Lovers, it’s time to rally. In less than a week, from March 28-31, Metaverse Fashion Week (MVFW) 2023 will unspool across Decentraland, the largest user-owned-and-operated virtual world, under the banner of the theme, ‘Future Heritage’. Amid the heady buzz that surrounds the burgeoning potential of Web3 and the game-changing possibilities of everything it touches, it’s easy to forget the human element behind the tech-forward breakthroughs. But the pulse of the human heart is the very essence that informs Vogue Singapore’s line-up at MVFW, which shines a celebratory light at the power of human connection.
The slew of activations will occur within the Cash Labs Gallery, developed by Cash Labs, a Web3 agency specialising in bringing digital projects to fruition in the market. Alongside some of the most buzzing and progressive names in digital fashion, head-turners such as Artisant and SHOWstudio, Vogue Singapore will lift the shroud on its offerings for MVFW 2023.
One of the most pivotal presentations in the roster is premised on continuity; as much as the metaverse has widened the lexicon of fashion, the publication remains committed to unearthing and nurturing the shapers of fashion’s next incarnation. Under the auspices of the MVFW x Vogue Singapore Digital Competition, an open call was issued to designers to submit their interpretations and renditions of the theme ‘Love in the Metaverse’. Following assessment by a VIP jury composed of industry professionals, including representatives from the Institute of Digital Fashion, Artisant and Vogue Singapore, three winners were announced. Morchen Liu, whose East Asia-inspired Red Snake Armour fashioned an armour-like dress made of intertwined red snakes, Yao Yao, who dipped into Chinese Buddhist lore for the Flying Apsaras Dress, thereby invoking the dance of flying celestials, and Lorena Bello, whose multicoloured gala dress MetaLove is a mesmeric beacon of inclusivity, were the judges’ favourites for their vision and execution.
Place your votes to select the winner of Vogue Singapore’s Digital Fashion Competition.
The subsequent winner will receive coverage on Vogue Singapore and their work will be displayed at Club Vogue Singapore on Spatial.io.
This collaborative spirit is also markedly evident in Vogue Singapore’s partnership with phygital fashion forerunner Ilona Song. Unified by the theme ‘Elevating Culture’, Vogue Singapore and Song will present a slate of eight collectibles that affirm the diversity across and within cultures through the prism of fashion. Designed with a gloriously multicultural outlook, each artwork is available for purchase on OpenSea and limited to 100 pieces and priced at 0.003 ETH.
Over and above these, attendees at MVFW will also be able to purchase extremely limited NFT artworks by her: The Camellia Bride (inspired by the Japanese custom of using Camellia flowers to invoke divinity) and Chanterelle Dress (an ode to the bewitching geometric splendour of Chanterelle mushrooms), each of which retails for 5 ETH on OpenSea. Buyers of these works will be granted exclusive access to a private fashion show in Milan hosted by the OVER metaverse network, where a first-ever hologram show featuring life-sized avatars dressed in Ilona Song garments will be debuted. In addition, holders of the NFT are entitled to a permanent 10% off for all Ilona Song physical garments alongside early access to collections and events, access to a pipeline of digital wearables in Ready Player Me (RPM) and Decentraland, and digital AR try-ons.
Ilona Song’s gorgeous and arresting designs also feature in the collection of digital wearables that will be available for purchase on Decentraland and Ready Player Me. The connections between culture and nature are time-honoured and as infinitely poignant as they are complex. In these wearables, that include The Camellia Bloom, Chanterelle Dress, Luv Dress and Lotus Dress (whose creation was guided by the ideas of rebirth and enlightenment the lotus flower symbolises), the intersection of Man and the natural world is depicted with a reverence matched by flair and an impeccable eye for detail.
Vogue Singapore community members will be able to dress their avatars in Ilona Song dresses across the Spatial.io and Decentraland platforms, with the added function of accessing digital try-ons by scanning QR codes available in the spaces. These avatars can then be flaunted on social media via the proprietary app of the digital fashion marketplace LODE.
For the duration of MVFW, Vogue Singapore POAPs will be available for collection and redemption at its exclusive space situated at the rooftop of Cash Labs Gallery.
Apart from championing head-turning looks on the Web3 frontier, Vogue Singapore will also expand the discourse of the fashion’s next phase by helming two panels, ‘Love in the Metaverse: Exploring a New Age of Connection’ and ‘A New World: Fashion in the Metaverse’, each featuring esteemed industry professionals whose ardour has shaped the larger conversations around fashion and the bloom of Web3.
‘Love in the Metaverse: Exploring a New Age of Connection’ will centre on the metaverse’s power to generate new realities––meta-realities—free of the constraints and limitations of the IRL experience, where meta-connections will come to redefine the process of relationship-building and the very manner in which people interact with each other. Here, the experts will share insights on what this implies for human relationships across the new canvas of Web3.
Likewise, in ‘A New World: Fashion in the Metaverse’, the panelists will gather to unpack and assess the dynamic relationship between physical and virtual fashion and how brands are navigating the hitherto unexplored landscape of the metaverse. Focusing on the emergent technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Non-fungible Tokens and the rise of virtual storefronts and wearables, as well as on community engagement and collaborations, fashion’s future in the metaverse will be dissected, appraised and defined.
For an unprecedented perspective on the boldest stride that fashion is about to make, tune in to MVFW 2023 on Decentraland and Spatial.io.
Join Vogue Singapore at Metaverse Fashion Week. To take part in the activities at Decentraland Fashion Week, pre-register here. Discover the collection of digital wearables here. To visit Club Vogue on Spatial.io, click here.
