The Metaverse Where Fashion & Gaming Collide

The metaverse opens new opportunities for fashion designers in creative processes, aesthetics, culture, and the ownership of work. It is time for us, as fashion designers and fashion professionals, to understand the metaverse from within. We need to explore and embrace its unique culture, that started from the gaming industry, as it collides with fashion culture and its own symbols and signs.
Are we developing a future aesthetic in fashion for the metaverse? Or are we just reproducing things we have seen before?
And for whom are we creating? How do we ensure the relevance of our designs for longer than an ephemeral social media post and break out of our network bubbles?
Five key players engage in a conversation about the future of fashion and gaming in the metaverse.
Alexis Arragon - is the Managing Director at Skinvaders, a digital company driving brands across the multiple opportunities of the virtual space. He started his path in the tech industry 20 years ago, doing Computer Science studies to work in the game industry. Since then, Computer Graphics and visual aesthetics have been the motor of Arragon's career, joining the digital fashion field in November 2019.
William Easton - is the Head of Futuregames, Sweden’s leading games education. He has been teaching for over 30 years in Universities in the USA, Canada, UK, Poland, Turkey and Sweden. For over six years he was Head of Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm, and he has lectured worldwide on a range of topics within the field of communications. As a writer, he is the author of several books including his own award winning work on design education ‘Play’. Easton was English editor for two art magazines ‘Material’ in Sweden and ‘Mare Articum’ a pan-Baltic art journal. His own performances, films and art works have been shown extensively including exhibitions at the ICA in London, Bornholm Art Museum in Denmark, and as a curator he has presented numerous programs of art and design including exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm.
Lui Iarocheski - is Head of Marketing and Digital Fashion Innovation at PlatformE, and has a background in fashion design with 10+ years of experience within every aspect of the fashion industry. Lui founded his label IAROCHESKI back in 2013 and showcased collections in fashion weeks in Vienna, Vancouver, and Sao Paulo - being voted by L'Officiel Hommes as one of the top 5 menswear labels in Brazil. Today, Lui is the Head of Marketing and Digital Fashion Innovation at PlatformE and he is committed to the digitalization of the apparel industry working as an On-demand Fashion, Gaming and 3D Apparel ambassador. Next to digital creation and visualization, PlatformE is on a mission to end Fashion's overproduction problem by providing full circle Made-to-Order tech and strategy implementation to apparel businesses and processes.
Richard Hobbs - is a veteran of the fashion industry and has been involved in all aspects of the business in which he has always strived to improve processes and results by the use of technology. In recent years this has involved the use of 3D design and now the application of blockchain technology with the result being bnv.me, the first fashion NFT auction house and marketplace that works with brands and designers to create enhanced virtual products and then take those products and brands into new digital realms.
Dani Loftus - is the founder of This Outfit Does Not Exist, a platform bringing Digital Fashion to life. Combining her backgrounds in Fashion and Technology, Dani aims to educate the Fashion Industry about the ways Digital Fashion can and will disrupt. This Outfit Does Not Exist has been featured on a number of influential sites, such as Bloomberg, Nikkei and Maze. Dani is also the first partner and 'PolymXth' of leading Digital Fashion House The Fabricant, hosting weekly Clubhouse rooms with industry leaders from fashion, blockchain, and gaming, and authors monthly deep dives into The Wardrobe of The Metaverse.