Fashion House Stories at Upper House by Anna Koustas
Cover Tatler House Stories on June 21 (Photo: Anna Koustas)
The fashion industry has jumped on the metaverse train, and it’s moving full steam ahead. But what exactly is digital fashion, and why should we care about it? On June 21, Tatler’s editor-in-chief Jacqueline Tsang spoke to experts for the summer edition of House Stories at The Upper House’s Sky Lounge
'gallery right' 'gallery right'
'gallery right' 'gallery right'
Photo 1 of 12 Jacqueline Tsang, Nick Lau, Queenie Mak, Angus Tsui and Richard Hobbs
Photo 2 of 12 Jenya Rushay
Photo 3 of 12 Marinda Whitehead and Caitlin Gillespie
Photo 4 of 12 Sonia Young
Photo 5 of 12 Alex Viale-Berthelier
Photo 6 of 12 Nathan Minsberg
Photo 7 of 12 Nick Lau
Photo 8 of 12 Queenie Mak
Photo 9 of 12 Angus Tsui
Photo 10 of 12 Richard Hobbs
Photo 11 of 12
Photo 12 of 12

When? June 21, 2022

Where? The Sky Lounge at The Upper House

Who? Richard Hobbs, Queenie Mak, Angus Tsui and Nick Lau

Here’s what you missed:  

On June 21, Tatler’s editor-in-chief Jacqueline Tsang spoke to experts for the summer edition of House Stories at The Upper House’s Sky Lounge. The panel included Richard Hobbs, founder of Brand New Vision (BNV); Angus Tsui, the fashion designer behind his eponymous label; Nick Lau, founder of NFT fashion company Wear; and Louis Vuitton’s communications director, Queenie Mak.

Lau, whose next-gen luxury Web3 platform Wear bridges physical and digital experiences and collaborates with creators on metaverse-compatible digital assets, found his way into digital fashion out of necessity. “I got into it during my last year at Parsons [School of Design]. I studied traditional fashion design, but I hated sewing and couldn’t do garment construction, so digital fashion made a lot of sense for me. It was a new way of designing,” he said.

Digital fashion is gaining traction quickly. Tsui, whose sustainable designs are known for their futuristic, avant-garde and otherworldly silhouettes, said the medium is just a new tool to be creative. “People now say that screenwear is the new streetwear and, obviously, what we wear says a lot about who we are. The idea of phygital [digital and physical] fashion allows us to change our definition of what is real. It’s not actually a new concept—for years, gamers have spent millions of dollars on clothes to dress their avatars.”

Luxury brands and the industry at large are taking notice. Hobbs’ firm BNV explores the use of technology in the traditional fashion product cycle and, in 2019, the business began focusing on 3D virtual products secured on the Ethereum blockchain, acting as a gateway for brands and designers into the metaverse. Now, Hobbs can’t imagine going back to more traditional forms of fashion.

“The combination of 3D products, the blockchain, and not having to physically make anything was really compelling to me. I’ve spent most of my life running around factories, and I don’t want to do that again,” he said, speaking of the freedom enabled by the metaverse. “You can completely disregard cost of material, gravity and physics and do a lot more with digital fashion than in real-world fashion,” he said. However, Hobbs also stressed the enduring importance of hiring skilled designers and tailors to maintain quality standards. “Draping, cutting and knowledge of colour are crucial. You can’t throw that away because its digital fashion,” he added.

Other topics discussed included the evolution of the fashion ecosystem, sustainability in the metaverse, protecting intellectual property rights, the importance of community and collaboration in the metaverse, and where the industry will be in five years.

Mak, who has spent the last 20 years at the forefront of luxury communications working with brands such as Givenchy, Gucci and Louis Vuitton, ended the evening with one final nugget of wisdom: “Most luxury brands are trying to enter the metaverse in a way that makes sense to their brand DNA. However they choose to get involved, they should try to avoid replicating the physical world in the digital world. That’s the beauty of Web3: there are no rules. Innovation needs to be embraced.”

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