Vivienne Tam at New York Fashion Week this month.
The metaverse has captured imaginations around the world with its depiction of new perspectives. The title of a new bestseller this year sums up the buzz: “The Metaverse” promises to explain “How It Will Revolutionize Everything”.
A fashion enthusiast: Vivienne Tam. Tam’s life is rooted in Hong Kong, where she moved at the age of three from the city of Guangzhou in mainland China. Yet it has broadened its influence and brought cultures around the world closer together over the years. Tam, a naturalized American citizen, hit New York City hard in the 1990s, launching her own fashion lines and collections that are now part of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Her dresses have been worn by Lady Gaga, Gong Li, Jessica Alba, Paris Hilton and Jill Biden.
Since 2020, the pandemic has been a catalyst for new thinking. Stores have closed, upending the way people buy fashion items. “What is the future of my business? Tam wondered aloud during an interview in New York this month. Lifestyles have changed, she says.
And technology too. NFTs, once viewed with skepticism, have become more popular, in part because they allow consumers to lock in personalized items. “We all laughed at NFTs,” said Jenny Johnson, President of Franklin Templeton at the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore this week. “But if you take the intellectual property and validate its use, think about what that opens up,” she said. “I think it could be very interesting in the future.”
For her part, Tam was back in New York this month for New York Fashion Week, the city’s big twice-a-year fashion gathering that in September brings together more than 100 designers. Over 200 people attended Tam’s event last Wednesday.
Vivienne Tam shines a light on metaverse themes at New York Fashion Week this month.
What they largely saw of Tam were more prominent personalities from the NFT collections that she incorporated into her cuts and accessories. The characters came from Yuga Labs groups such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, as well as others from CyberKongz and Awkward Astronauts. Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT sales topped $1 billion worldwide and attracted celebrity buyers including Jimmy Fallon and Snoop Dog.
Tam believes the new group of emerging personalities has wide appeal for all age and gender groups. “There are endless possibilities in the digital world that I can’t do in the physical world,” Tam said.
“Stories and communities inspire me so much in what they do and how they can come up with all these individual concepts,” she said. “I have a lot of friends who have bought them, and then they tell me why they bought them.”
The reason, she said, is “personality related. It’s quite interesting. So I thought, ‘Why don’t I bring all these beautiful images to the physical world?’ People can appreciate even more the expression of their concepts in another dimension. Buyers choose images that reflect their own personality, like in the physical world, but in a more flexible digital format.
The motivation to buy digitally can be the same as in the physical world, she said. “Maybe I want to use my atavar to dress up for a boyfriend or girlfriend,” Tam said. “I want to encourage that personalization.”
Times and technology change, but the desire to feel good about life doesn’t, Tam said. “Everyone wants something special and to feel good.” The metaverse, she believes, will open up more opportunities for this pleasure.
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