This post was originally published on digitalx
From the 24th-27th of March 2022 Decentraland will be hosting a Metaverse Fashion Week, to which DIGITALAX was eagerly invited to take part in during Miami Art Basel (December 2021).
As IRL, regional, digital, crypto, web3 and metaverse fashion weeks proliferate, the better it is for this fast growing industry.
However, from the DIGITALAX perspective, it is also a fantastic opportunity each time something like this presents itself to first ask how it fits with core practices and principles of decentralisation, networked self sovereignty, genuine WAGMI ethos, and even sometimes the track record of behaviours of who we are being asked to work with.
It’s unfortunate, but after some new information came to light, the DIGITALAX ecosystem has turned down this invitation.
Before we say why we are not participating, let’s make clear why it is important to make this announcement publicly, before there is any confusion.
As the earliest and foremost web3 fashion pioneer, in fact, having coined the term web3 fashion for how it is distinct from plain vanilla digital or centralised metaverse fashion, if DIGITALAX simply turned down the invite in private, didn’t show up and no one knew why, it would confuse quite a lot of people.
Instead of going 1 by 1 to clear up the countless DMs that are certain to come in, we feel the broader web3 fashion community and its complements deserve to know exactly what these reasons are, both for transparency’s sake and so that any designer can make their own decisions about whether they choose to participate more effectively.
In short, the curators behind the event, particularly CashLabs, have previously exploited both DIGITALAX and one of our core designers. They have shown us extensively throughout private conversations and behaviours on display that whatever they think web3 is, it certainly doesn’t match with our principles rooted in creative freedom, personal independence, networked self sovereignty and the growth of wealth, wellbeing and opportunity for creators of all kinds— indie and web3 creators most of all.
There is a very short list of people that we have worked with that we will never work with again, and unfortunately, David Cash and his entourage are firmly on that list.
We did not know until a few days ago that if we were to take up the invitation that we would be filtered through David Cash or at best a handful of other middleman and agents directly connected to him, that who regardless are all taking an agency, middleman and big brand orientated perspective to this entire endeavor.
Whilst there is plenty of room for debate about whether an old fashion show biz heavy, backroom deal approach is what is actually going to unlock the greatest scale up of web3, the open metaverse and total transformation of fashion— that all of us agree we are on the cusp of—what isn’t up for debate is who we will rely on and reinforce as we work side by side towards that goal.
It is far too easy for anyone to come from a web2 closed centralised mindset and wrap themselves in the clothing of web3.
While we have nothing at all against Decentraland itself, and in fact, have worked with them in the past and probably will in the future, we do think that it is important and valuable for others in the space to hear that the planning for this event could have been handled better.
Our genuinely friendly recommendation for the future would be;
- Make sure to do sufficient diligence on the kind of people running potentially prominent events and their track record in the space.
- Have a healthier balance between the big brands that often help early stage platforms gain sufficient funding, attention and traction, and the indie pioneers truly leading the way in web3 fashion and the open metaverse.
That is our opinion, and like anyone else in this broader market dedicated to self sovereign networks, Decentraland’s leadership is entitled to their own.
Likewise, every designer in the Global Designer Network & broader DIGITALAX ecosystem of complementary realms, marketplaces and creators and collectors, is also beautifully empowered by web3— unlike the previous systems of centralised control that we are here to break away from— to formulate their own decisions about who to work with, when and why.
So with that said, for any designer in the Global Designer Network who would like to participate in the Metaverse Fashion Week, the details of who you need to get directly in contact with will be shared in the dedicated GDN discord channel and private DMs. Keep in mind that unlike previous times, DIGITALAX won’t be involved in any resource coverage or event coordination/promotion.
To end on an upbeat note, DIGITALAX will continue to focus on the launch of the inaugural Realm Runway event during NY Fashion Week, February 12th 2022, subsequent Realm Runway events throughout the spring, and the next Web3 Fashion Week set for June 2022, coinciding with NFT NYC!
Expect significant expansions of decentralised metaversal experiences at many points along that way.
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