MAIN

DIGITAL FASHION WEEK IN SEARCH OF "CONSENSUS"

On September 13th, amidst major Fashion Weeks occurring worldwide, London Digital Fashion Week took place at the Epic Games Innovation Lab. This event marked an extension of the New York edition of Digital Fashion Week, which had occurred on September 7th at the Westfield World Trade Center. As these events coincide with the Big4 Fashion Weeks, media coverage of Digital Fashion Week was largely overshadowed by news of London Fashion Week, leaving no significant media presence for the Digital one.

Luckily for enthusiasts of metaverse fashion, both events were supported by PixelCanvas's Metaverse, an immersive platform that allows anyone to access the live event through their devices. While we await official attendance data from the Digital Fashion Week team, it’s noteworthy that virtual attendance did not exceed 15 participants simultaneously on the Metaverse platform.

The same David Cash opened both the New York and London events, stating that the panel discussions aimed to “find consensus” on the intersection of digital technology and fashion within the industry. And it's still the same David Cash who has been involved with dubious Metaverse Fashion Week by Decentraland and UNXD in 2022-2023.

Despite featuring many of the same speakers as last year, this year's Digital Fashion Weeks shifted their focus primarily to AI, departing from previous years that emphasized the Metaverse—a term that has rapidly lost its appeal this year. Speakers preferred discussing "Immersive Experiences" and "VR" rather than the Metaverse. At London Digital Fashion Week, during the panel titled “Can AI Help Us Buy the Right Clothes?”, Eda Aguilar from Phygicode and Alexander Berend, CEO of Anthropics, explored how AI can help reduce returns and waste by providing a more personalized shopping experience based on customer preferences and previous purchase data.
In addition to shortening the New York event to a one-day show instead of the usual two, many prominent figures were notably absent from this year’s conferences. The number of panel discussions and participants decreased significantly, with many New York participants also speaking in London just one week later. The New York runway show featured only three fashion designers: Loraine, K16, and Vivia Ferragamo. The London fashion show included Steven Vineburg and Rakee Chen, in collaboration with Louise Laing’s Phygital Twin.

Lastly, the official Digital Fashion Week website shows no indication of an upcoming event in Paris, despite it traditionally being the third and final installment in the New York-London-Paris triad.