For her Autumn/Winter 2023 show, New York-based designer Vivienne Tam sought to bridge digital and physical not only in her designs, but in their exhibition, hosting her fashion show simultaneously in-person and in the Metaverse platform Vatom. Web3 has breathed new life into her business, she says. Now she wants to bring her Web2 customers into the Web3 world.
Tam is no stranger to the Metaverse. Last season, the designer incorporated NFT PFP avatars into her pieces, from CryptoPunks to Bored Apes (she also broadcast the show on Instagram Live). In December 2022, she was one of seven designers to release NFTs in partnership with the CFDA in celebration of its 60th anniversary. “My last collection was about bringing virtual and physical worlds together,” Tam says. “This time, it’s about bringing the physical world to the virtual world.”
The red carpet experience is “much better in the virtual world,” Tam laughs. “Better than the Oscars!”
Photo: Screenshot of Vivienne Tam Metaverse show
This time around, the designer leaned even more heavily into the Metaverse by building a space in Vatom that mirrored Spring Studios’s physical setup, and simultaneously streamed the live event (not unlike Tommy Hilfiger’s Roblox show last September). “Instead of just designs, we looked at how we could actually merge the two worlds,” says Swan Sit, who spearheaded the Metaverse portion of the show.
The Metaverse show was envisioned as a “mirror” of the physical, in that the spaces could exist equally (as digital counterparts are so often considered to be of lesser importance, Sit says). Even the New York skyline is the same as that when people look out the windows in-person. There was a “portal” in both spaces (in the same location) where in-person attendees could speak to those watching online. Avatars could respond by way of emoji, from waving hands to literal waves indicating residence on the west coast. “I’m learning emoji language tonight,” one of the hosts joked on the livestream.
Vogue Business was present at both the physical and metaverse shows.
Photo: Screenshot of Vivienne Tam metaverse show
Tam’s goal is to bring history into the metaverse, she says. She brings her own culture and tradition into her collections, and wants to parse this into metaverse spaces. It’s what’s missing from the virtual, she says. This collection places emphasis on collectivism. “Now people only have individual communities. Before, people were human together.” She’s intrigued by the different NFT communities, and wanted to bring these together, by incorporating different NFTs into singular garments to point toward the future of the metaverse — one of coming together.
Attendees also had the chance to pick up a POAP — a token of their presence at the event. There’s a zodiac dragon imprinted on the digital art. These were automatically added to users’ Vatom wallets. Those who attend the physical show will also receive the digital keepsake. What metaverse attendees do get that those in-person don’t, however, is backstage access. Metaverse attendees were privy to peeks at Tam’s vision boards and live footage from the show prep.
Photo: Screenshot of Vivienne Tam metaverse show
Pre-show, the metaverse space was streamed on the LED wall behind the runway. And when it came time for the show, online attendees were directed to the two screens at either end of the virtual runway. Here, they watched the action live (not pixelated digital renderings, Sit says), just as those in the front row did from Soho, New York. Though an inevitably different experience than a physical show, the metaverse element signified a shift in how designers might look to expand their reach and invite more people to experience their collections firsthand.
“Last time, it was about bringing virtual images to the physical world. This time it’s about the experience,” Tam says. “I want to bring fashion, culture and tradition to the virtual world. This is my mission.”
