Charli XCX, Naomi Campbell & More At SHOWstudio's Digital Fashion Film Festival

This October, Fashion Week Connect will debut to the public. Created by the newly announced Digital Fashion Designer’s Council (DFDC), founded by David Cash as a non-profit association, the online event will featuring activations by SHOWstudio and Nick Knight, Antoni Tudisco, Artificial Rome will present Diesel Metamorph, and more. Working in parallel to traditional fashion weeks and events, Fashion Week Connect will illustrate how storytelling can extend seamlessly into virtual spaces.

The Digital Fashion Film Festival is the latest iteration of Nick Knight and SHOWstudio's long-standing relationship with David Cash, DFDC's CEO. Previously, SHOWstudio curated a film festival and installation for Metaverse Fashion Week in Decentraland, spearheaded by Cash. 'Metaverse Fashion Week walked so that Fashion Week Connect and the Digital Fashion Designer’s Council could run', the founder explains.

First launching in 2022 and reaching over 9 billion media impressions with participation from digital innovators including DressX to traditional fashion megabrands Tommy Hilfiger and Michael Kors, Metaverse Fashion Week is now moving away from the outdated concept of the metaverse and into a hybrid space. 'I learned the pain points both brands and consumers face when navigating digital experiences', Cash says. 'I think it’s difficult for any for-profit platform to control the entire “metaverse”. The issues presented themselves quickly when brands tried to activate between other worlds, and infrastructure was lacking, to say the least.'

The goal with Fashion Week Connect is to create a more cohesive system where the alignment of user interests and brand goals results in a holistic digital experience. Cash continues:

'The era of “tech for the purpose of a sensational marketing activation” is over. Now, we want to use digital fashion for greater utilitarian purposes—we want to meet people where they are—on social media, in-game worlds, and on brand-owned websites and retail stores.

So, our programming now interconnects these various touch-points with the ultimate goal of creating digital experiences that provide real, tangible value to both brands and consumers.'

SHOWstudio's Digital Fashion Film Festival will be a high fashion, visual showcase featuring the likes of Charli XCX and Naomi Campbell, with fashion by Loewe, Bottega Veneta, Mugler, Balenciaga and Marc Jacobs, capturing the future of fashion film through the eyes of legendary image-maker Nick Knight.

'We are living in the most exciting time in fashion imagery that I have ever known. For fashion, magazine pages are being replaced by the virtual and the digital space. The audience is now fully interactive and also truly global. Online life lets us visit more galleries, see more people, and read more books. Life is changing and, in my opinion, we are evolving to be able to create a much more fulfilling, rewarding and meaningful way to live', Knight says.

Cash adds that 'Considering the entire digital ecosystem, which we call the “reality spectrum,” without considering the medium of video/film, would be tone deaf.

Nick and SHOWstudio have not only quite literally defined what it means to capture fashion in motion but continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in terms of the capturing and processing of imagery in all formats, from 2D to 3D and beyond.

Activating globally with the fashion calendar seasons, Fashion Week Connect plans to run as an extension of brands' more traditional events, such as a catwalk shows, whilst bridging them with digital activations to better tell product stories. Users will be able to access hologram runways, AR mirrors and interactive games by connecting their social media and game accounts to a dedicated DFDC platform.

'We are supporting brands in creating activations that incentivise users to move between platforms, from social media to game worlds to e-commerce platforms, helping create a more 360 user experience leveraging our technology at Threedium in direct collaboration with many of the other incredible technical partners the DFDC has brought together', says Mike Charalambous, Founder and CEO of Threedium and Executive Board member of the DFDC.

Stay tuned for more.