There Metaverse Fashion Week 2023 they ARwards Of Over the Reality they were an incredible opportunity.
The data say that participation was lower than that of 2022, but there are really those who believe that technology will stop here and man will be satisfied with where we are now without developing further?
We are at the beginning of a technological revolution that is starting to have concrete and useful use cases. We have the opportunity to position ourselves in a Blue Ocean that is still unknown to most, and which once clear to everyone will no longer offer today's advantages.
If I had to describe the spirit with which we are experiencing this passage I could paraphrase as follows:
“If we fail, there are already more than enough of us, but if we succeed, the fewer we are, the greater our share of glory will be! We couldn't have wished for just one more participant in this edition of MVFW23. We participants, we few participants, we lucky few! Anyone who didn't feel like participating certainly saved some money today. But those who believed in it, 10 years from today will be able to say they were there and show their own NFTs and their own Wearable minted on blockchain, will be able to certify what has been and the name of the MVFW will become higher. And this event imprinted in the blockchain will be forever remembered with the names of the few of us, the happy few of us!”
Putting Shakespearean folklore aside, the spirit with which we live this period is not too dissimilar for better or for worse. However, this decline in numbers is not an issue related to MVFW, nor to the crypto world. The current Bear Market is linked above all to the correlation with the correction of traditional markets and to the liquidity injections carried out by central banks during Covid which triggered inflation and the rise in rates (with a guilty delay). Paradoxically the context is a great Bitcoin commercial & co.. Furthermore, if we look at where technology was at the beginning of the last bubble, we have made incredible progress in just a couple of years! How can you think we're going to stop right now?
Perhaps also for this reason that we have been classified as Metagate at MVFW23 on OVER the Reality with ours “Metaverse Fenix” (model also created for Decentraland) we were particularly pleased. The wearable in question wanted to be its own best wishes to the Metaverse of a rapid recovery after the last year of undeniable suffering.
Furthermore, despite the technology being in its infancy and the participation not being exceptional, the quality level of the wearables proposed was truly high and we are aware that there was no significant gap between the proposals. This is certainly an incentive to continue to improve, aware that technology grows exponentially and all it takes is a moment's distraction to miss the train.
But apart from the glory, MVFW23 was for Metagate a success especially in relation to the investment and this is what really matters in the end, even as a case study for third parties.
As Metagate we had the opportunity to parade with Gucci, Pinko And Ilona Song. We had important networking moments with people we would never have had the opportunity to interact with. We have multiplied contacts with universities and students who in their theses and doctorates are approaching these experiences from a multitude of disciplines: art, architecture, psychology, economics, marketing (each mention is not purely coincidental). In conclusion, as a startup we couldn't have achieved the exposure this event gave us in any other way... and it's just the beginning.
Nowadays we often fall into the cognitive bias of comparing ourselves with the results of large companies. With decentralization, however, in our vision, we see a world that is moving in the direction of giving greater space to the merit of the individual. From the point of view of a small company, this is a more unique than rare opportunity that should be seized upon. Here new communities, new organizations and new ones will be born DAO that will affect humanity in the near future. However, traditional companies can respond to this new cultural and economic model by putting their foot down and resisting strenuously, putting themselves in competition with the whole world; or they can listen by taking a step back to understand how to reposition themselves intelligently and with de-risking strategies. Today we are all lucky because we are still in the early adoption phase where anyone is allowed to make mistakes, even the big players (their target audience in web3 will probably be different from the web2 one). Let's all start on an equal footing. As someone said: the best time to start was probably yesterday, but the second best time is today!
I would like to conclude by reporting the narrative of 2 other wearables that we presented on the occasion of MVFW23 and which were messengers of two other messages linked to reflections on one's personal identity in the metaverse, which for us at Metagate it was important to convey:
1. The digital-twin in collaboration with Elle_IZED, which wanted to emphasize the possibility of remaining oneself in the metaverse. Surely you can choose to be anyone, but you can also choose to be yourself;
2. the “Wallent” instead it is essentially a dress covered in moss and bark. This was a reference to the Ents of the Lord of the Rings who used as a name for living creatures the set of experiences they had lived through. The use of our wallets that record all our experiences and transactions could really create virtual identity repositories that identify us in a similar way to our name in entese.
I wanted to underline these 2 elements because in web3 the component of individual responsibility is very strong, to which however we are no longer accustomed. Not your key, not your wallet is the sacrosanct motto of many maximalists. Over time we have delegated the custody of our assets, our data and our identities to intermediaries. However, delegating responsibility does not only lead us to have a better User Experience at the cost of a loss of control of our properties. It also has a much worse side effect: it has made us unlearn how to choose to take responsibility. The blockchain in this is a cold shower for everyone at the beginning. . We are not used to choosing who to be either, but it is the system that suggests/imposes it on use”. It is said a lot that in the metaverse we will be able to choose who we want to be, but we are no longer used to choosing. The avatar will no longer be just a skin won in a video game, but will be representative of the person who chose it (the NFTs they are precursors in this). The choice of how to show ourselves will be the expression of a cultural revolution much deeper in which people will once again be called to choose and reclaim their identity, data and property. What may now appear like a fashion show, in reality brings with it very profound cultural repercussions whose outcome it is premature to try to imagine.
Finally, it is important to underline that 5 different NFTs were created for this event POAP that have been added to the Metagate collection!
For the video of our experiences follow us on Instagram And Twitter
You can find our references on Linktree, while on Welook our NFT POAPs.
By Marco Pizzini (with the kind collaboration of OpenAI chat)