Dressing the Metaverse: Investing in Digital Identity | Summary and Q&A

TL;DR

Fashion designer Charlie Cohen discusses the vision of bringing physical fashion into the digital world, allowing for a seamless representation of identity across the metaverse.

Key Insights

• 👻 The goal is to eliminate the separation between physical and virtual identity, allowing for a seamless representation of oneself across different spaces.
• 🎁 Digital fashion presents an opportunity for inclusivity and counteracts the exclusivity of the traditional fashion industry.
• 👻 NFTs offer a way to bring value and functionality to virtual fashion, allowing for a greater utility across various virtual spaces.
• ❓ Collaboration between fashion and gaming industries can result in unique hybrid experiences, blending digital and physical elements.
• 🉐 Digital events and virtual fashion gained significance during the COVID-19 pandemic when physical activations were canceled.
• 🤕 Involvement in entrepreneurship from a young age and exposure to family members who are entrepreneurs helped shape Charlie Cohen's journey in fashion.
• 👻 The experience of sailing and being in different physical locations allowed Cohen to explore her passion for fashion and solidify her career path.

Transcript

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Questions & Answers

Q: How does Charlie Cohen envision a seamless representation of identity across the physical and virtual world?

Cohen believes that just as people don't separate their physical and virtual lives, there should be no barrier between their visual representation. The goal is to allow individuals to seamlessly represent themselves wherever they are socializing or existing.

Q: How did Charlie Cohen's journey in fashion begin?

Cohen started her first fashion brand at the age of 15 and went on to get a fashion degree. However, she became disillusioned with the traditional fashion industry and focused on inclusivity and digital world-building, experimenting with AR, VR, and digital events.

Q: What role does NFTs play in Charlie Cohen's vision of virtual fashion?

NFTs provide a way to bring more utility to virtual fashion by allowing digital assets to have value and functionality across different virtual spaces. Cohen has used NFTs to create digital fashion with utility in the metaverse.

Q: Can you provide an example of a hybrid digital and physical fashion experience that Charlie Cohen has worked on?

One example is the collaboration with Selfridges and Pokemon, where a physical pop-up store served as a portal to a virtual city. In this space, both digital and physical fashion were sold, with physical garments having augmented reality integration.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Charlie Cohen aims to eliminate the barrier between physical and virtual identity, envisioning a seamless representation of oneself in any social or digital setting.

• Cohen started exploring the digital space in 2013, creating a brand that focused on inclusivity and digital experiences as alternatives to traditional fashion weeks.

• By collaborating with gaming industry and utilizing NFTs, Cohen has been able to experiment with hybrid digital and physical fashion experiences, such as the recent collaboration with Selfridges and Pokemon.