A difficult balancing act for the fashion business has been maintaining its outwardly liberal, progressive image, whilst dealing with some troublingly illiberal realities – namely, a lack of diversity, and a poor record of environmental responsibility. Thankfully, the former is being visibly addressed, with far more models of color appearing in campaigns and on the runways in recent years.
As to the latter, well, much as the international whirl of the many Fashion Weeks is so much glamorous, decadent fun, the carbon footprint it leaves behind is quite considerable. So the recent debut of the Metaverse Fashion Week may be about much more than technological advances – it may end up the most genuinely responsible way to show new collections to the global style set in the coming years.
One of our fave Italian fashion houses, Etro, took full advantage of the opportunity, even creating a truly impressive looking virtual pop-up boutique, with all merchandise being sold via the innovative Decentraland platform. The 20 unique avatar “models” and environments were all developed by Paris based photographer Philippe Jarrigeon, for the occasion of the introduction of the new Liquid Paisley collection (view the adorable “human” promo clip here).
The capsule collection itself introduces a more minimalistic, monochromatic aesthetic philosophy for a brand that has long distinguished itself by its bold, fearless use of color clashes. But this new contemporary, genderless approach to classic paisley feels utterly fresh and modern. The cooly elegant new print appears on mini-dresses, skirts and oversized shirts, which still retain an air of bohemian-chic – with accessories including Liquid Paisley Crown Me bags, maxi-totes w/ matching bucket hats
and the Crown Me platform sandals w/ antique-finished studs.
Of course, we still genuinely love a catwalk front row seat in Paris or Milan; and there’s nothing quite like watching Naomi, Gigi, Karlie or Karen Elson strut their stuff. But the tech geek in us is most definitely looking forward to further virtual adventures in the fashion metaverse.
