The excitement around the metaverse may have waned, but the idea of virtual fashion has not, and it’s now ready to take the next step by delving deeper into both digital and physical offerings.
The Council of Digital Fashion Designers, a new nonprofit, wants to not only keep the “physical-digital” alive, but also to evolve it. To prove the point, the plugged-in group is organizing an event series featuring Diesel and other well-known brands.
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The DFDC launches on Tuesday with the mission of “integrating digital fashion into the traditional fashion ecosystem,” according to the association.
This is easier said than done.
Despite numerous virtual world developers pushing for interoperability across platforms, there are still no universal standards for virtual fashion, much less for physical and digital fashion experiences. Projects vary from one medium to another, as do technical requirements.
This means that a brand will need to create multiple formats to deliver a virtual presence that works across contexts and platforms. Or at least, they did. Now, DFDC is offering a tool to make the effort easier.
DFDC’s new Reality Spectrum Matrix is designed to do the heavy technical work so brands can focus on the product and experience.
It’s part of a broad and ambitious approach that goes beyond gaming or virtual worlds. Think social media, augmented reality and more, and on devices from phones to mixed reality headsets, whether through an app or a web browser.
“We see tremendous power in combining the digital context where consumers spend their time with the physical world of brands and the physical fashion system,” David Cash, founder and CEO of DFDC, told WWD.[It’s about] I’m just doing a little bit better job of connecting these dots. [to] “Instead of implying the connection, we should actually provide the connection.”
To prove its concept, the group brought together some of the biggest names in virtual fashion and blockchain to create an event series featuring pieces from some of the most recognizable brands in the real world.
Connecting All Kinds of Fashion
For its first Fashion Week Connect series, DFDC has created a programme that will kick off in September, featuring a range of physical and digital experiences spanning the globe.
The global Digital Fashion Film Festival, in collaboration with ShowStudio, directed by Nick Knight and his team, will showcase digital fashion globally, both online and in real life, featuring films featuring celebrities such as Charlie XCX and Naomi Campbell, as well as fashion from Balenciaga, Mugler, Loewe, Bottega Veneta and more.
The agenda will also include Diesel’s Metamorph project, VR-created Vert watches, and an interactive metaverse experience by Artificial Rome.
A true VIP reception in Los Angeles, co-hosted by Red DAO and DFDC, will bring Dolce & Gabbana’s Collezione Genesi to a physical location. Hailed as the world’s first luxury physical digital goods, the 2021 collection featured physical counterparts, NFTs, and sold for approximately $6 million, including Red DAO’s purchase of the jacket and the “Doge Crown” that will be on display at the event.
DFDC will also be present in Paris, helping to present the Fabrix Digital Fashion Takeover as part of Paris Fashion Week at the Palais de Tokyo. With support from the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the event will feature Hong Kong-based designers Wilsonkaki, Ponder.er and others.
In London, the group will support Digital Fashion Week at Epic Games Studios and other exclusive VIP events globally before heading to Singapore. As the main sponsor and lead innovation partner of Next in Vogue, it will deliver AR, game worlds, holograms and other experiences.
Fashion Week Connect and DFDC will also be involved in pop-up events for fashion weeks in New York, London and Paris.
Additionally, under the theme of interoperability, platforms supported by the event series include social media apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat; games Fortnite and Roblox; the Spatial and Decentraland metaverses; and devices ranging from phones to desktops to Meta Quest titles.
The effort seems monumental. To pull it off, Cash assembled an all-star cast of virtual fashion talent for the board and operations team.
The list includes Knight, a fashion photographer, filmmaker, and self-described “image maker”; Megan Kaspar, managing director of FirstLight and founding member of Red DAO; Antoni Tudisco, a 3D and digital fashion artist who has worked with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Maison Margiela, Moncler, Balenciaga, and others; Bettina Von Schlippe, publisher of Vogue Singapore; Marjorie Hernandez, co-founder of Web 3.0 fashion marketplace Demat and creative blockchain platform Lukso; Daria Shapovalova and Natalia Modenova of DressX; Dani Loftus, founder of code-based couture platform Draup and founder of digital fashion influencer @thisoutfitdoesnotexist; Leanne Elliott Young of the Institute of Digital Fashion; and Gmoney of 9DCC.
Other groups participating include Threedium, Karta, Beyond Studio, MAD Global, and FFFaceme.
Notably, DFDC has also been in talks with high-profile creative and executive leaders from the established fashion industry. Cash declined to comment on the record about their identities for now, but a formal announcement is expected at some point.
A New Vision of Physical and Digital Technology
When the dust settles, DFDC hopes fashion brands will walk away with an understanding of what can be achieved in the interplay between the digital and the physical.
The events embody its mission. But it’s the technology that facilitates its vision, and that will endure long after the last activation in this series.
This brings the focus back to the group’s Reality Spectrum Matrix.
As a framework, it’s a clever workaround to solve the interoperability problem. With RSM, brands don’t have to make multiple versions of a given product in different formats. The technology does the work, or “polygon remapping,” as Cash describes it. In essence, the tool handles the coding demands so brands can focus on the product, the experience, and the physical aspects.
DFDC is also working on “an API that we can plug into anything,” he added. “So we can plug this directly into a mobile app, a website — technically speaking, any React-supported context, from a game world to a website or even a web page.” React is an open-source toolkit developed by Meta for building interfaces.
There is also a points and registration structure that will enable consumers to unlock rewards and increase loyalty in a gamified scenario.
These tools could also support virtual fashion NFTs. While non-fungible tokens haven’t made the same headlines as Dolce & Gabbana’s multimillion-dollar Collezione Genesi, which took the industry by surprise three years ago, fashion hasn’t yet declared itself dead.
Despite ups and downs in investment and valuations, or the impact of legislation and policy, these and other “on-chain” blockchain efforts are still relevant for brands, Kaspar said.
“Look at brands like Louis Vuitton,” he said, referring to the brand’s steady stream of on-chain releases, including its latest physical and digital NFT leather varsity jacket that it launched in April.
Kaspar, who serves as a general counsel and board member of the DFDC, also worked with the luxury fashion house on the Via NFT program. “They see the long-term value of having their products on-chain,” he explained. “I think with the regulation that the EU has put in place around smart tags, brands are thinking about taking these smart tags, NFC chips that they’re putting on their products, and connecting them to the chain so that you can access that metadata — and then that can seamlessly plug into a more comprehensive digital counterpart to that asset, whether it’s a 3D product, a wearable, a filter.”
There is a push for regulation, but it’s a bit scattered across governing bodies, but with the DFDC, brands can join the conversation and play a role in what the future of this ecosystem looks like, Kaspar added.
“To share my personal experience with the Via initiative, [consumer] “Via members are allowed to vote… on what we want the brand to produce, which is unheard of,” he continued. “Other than that, I’ve never seen any luxury brand allow their consumers to do that.
“So I think what David has done with the DFDC and the RSM tool is going to make it much easier for these brands to integrate these tools and aspects that allow them to strengthen their relationship with the consumer over the long term.”
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