NYWIFT Blog

By Jean Criss

Immersive fashion and style in the metaverse combine digital design, virtual environments, and interactive experiences to create unique ways for users to engage with fashion. What I learned this past week from many of our speakers and brands participating at the Fusion Fashion Tech Summit was that there are commonalities across emerging technologies where sustainability, circularity, inclusion, and innovation intersect regardless of whether you’re designing fashion, jewelry, gaming, or art.

Some of the key insights include:

1. Virtual Runways and Shows: Fashion brands host virtual runway shows in immersive environments, allowing global audiences to experience collections in real time, often with interactive elements that include accessibility features for all viewers.
2. Digital Avatars: Users can create and customize avatars that wear digital clothing, enabling personal expression in virtual spaces and enhancing photoshoots and marketing collateral as a new form of self-identity.
3. Sustainability: Digital fashion reduces the environmental impact of traditional clothing production, offering a more sustainable option for fashion enthusiasts.
4. Augmented Reality (AR): Brands use AR to let consumers try on clothing virtually, enhancing the shopping experience and bridging the gap between physical and digital retail, with accessible options for users of all abilities.
5. Collaboration with Artists and Gamers: Fashion designers collaborate with digital artists and game developers to create unique pieces that appeal to a wider audience, merging art and fashion.
6. NFTs and Ownership: Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) allow users to own unique digital garments, adding a layer of exclusivity and investment to virtual fashion.
7. Community Engagement: The metaverse fosters communities around fashion, where users can share styles, attend events, and participate in discussions, creating a sense of belonging and ensuring inclusive participation.
8. Innovation in Design: Designers can experiment without the limitations of physical materials, leading to bold and imaginative creations that push traditional fashion boundaries while considering diverse accessibility needs.

These elements highlight how immersive fashion in the metaverse is reshaping the industry, offering exciting possibilities for creativity and consumer interaction.

As brands and designers explore the metaverse, they are redefining traditional boundaries of fashion. The ability to create virtual garments that challenge the laws of physics allows for unprecedented artistic expression, enabling designers to experiment with bold colors, textures, and forms that may be impossible or impractical in the physical world. This freedom fosters innovation, leading to unique collections that can inspire future trends and aesthetics in both digital and physical realms.

The below example showcases Fafafoom Studio, an exhibitor from the Fusion Summit, with colorful bold set of mixed materials used for upcycled fashion – creating a vision of reimagined, repaired, and refashioned textile waste into art. It’s pure magic to see the end-result, a fashion treasure.

Moreover, the metaverse provides a platform for direct and meaningful consumer interaction. Unlike conventional retail environments, where customer engagement can often feel transactional, the metaverse encourages community-building and collaboration. Users can interact with each other, share their styles, and provide feedback on designs, creating a two-way dialogue between brands and consumers. This engagement not only enhances brand loyalty but also empowers consumers to feel like active participants in the fashion narrative. A.U.R.A, 3DMetaverse, Microsoft, and Omniversity.city leaders shared real-life 3D UX and UI experiences at the Summit that set realistic expectations through expert design, gamification, awards and accessibility as discussion examples, reshaping the fashion landscape. Thought-provoking virtual shopping environments about how brands leverage these innovations to engage consumers in more physical immersive and interactive ways beyond the current and traditional digital marketplace.

Additionally, the immersive nature of the metaverse transforms the shopping experience into an adventure. Consumers can explore virtual boutiques, attend exclusive fashion events, and even participate in interactive experiences that blend gaming and shopping. This evolution keeps consumers entertained and also elevates the overall emotional connection they have with the brands they love.

Our panel captured the essence of the five brands and designers represented in a brief video, highlighting fashion designs and immersive fashion and style in the metaverse – look!

Fusion Summit – Immersive Fashion in the Metaverse Panel video. Video Production: Astrid Pilla. Contributors: Jean Criss, Tracey Greenan, Meena Das, Charlene Nichols.

In summary, the metaverse is not merely an extension of the fashion industry; it is a transformative force that reimagines how fashion is created, consumed, and experienced. With endless opportunities for creativity and engagement, it invites both brands and consumers to re-envision the future of fashion in an increasingly digital world. It also focuses on accessibility with inclusive fashion designs to reach people with disabilities which was well noted by this image below titled ‘fix the system, not me’ by speaker Meena Das, an inclusive Microsoft software engineer who championed a ‘Working with Disabilities’ support group and non-profit ‘Teach Access’ to increase awareness around sustainable and accessible fashion.

Uniting visionaries, empowering humanity, transforming economies, and accelerating circularity with a common goal under the theme “Threads of Change”. For more information on the Fusion Fashion Tech Summit, please visit www.fusionfashiontechsummit.com.

Jean Criss is a writer and was a moderator and media sponsor at the inaugural of the Fusion Fashion Tech Summit.  She is also an Author, Entrepreneur, Fashion Designer and Tech Innovator. You can learn more about Jean on LinkedIN. Follow the Java with Jean blog series about women in business, entrepreneurship, sustainable fashion, digital innovations, startups and much more on JeanCrissMedia.com.