Set in FIT last year, Digital Fashion Week NY is a showcase of hybrid fashion shows and immersive exhibits. With live panels and networking opportunities, scheduled for September 12, 2025, the event will bridge the gap between physical and digital fashion.
Creation by Nextberries, Digital Fashion Week NYC 2024
Set at the Fashion Institute of Technology in 2024, the third edition of Digital Fashion Week NY is now set to return to New York City on September 12, 2025. Navigating the shift from IRL to URL, attendees can immerse themselves in the world’s first-ever live motion capture hologram runway show, immersive experiences, live panels, showrooms with virtual try-ons, and the creation of avatars.
Based on the three pillars of thought-leadership, innovation and creativity, Digital Fashion Week NY explores disruption in the fashion industry — from concept to consumer — through discussions, workshops and immersive exhibits. A curated cast of innovators, seasoned experts and fashion insiders will discuss topics across vision, value and ethics in a rapidly changing industry.
“Digital Fashion Week is excited to show what is possible in fashion through our series of events, curating immersive experiences that showcase the most cutting-edge innovators and visionary designers. Every year, our phygital fashion shows aim to redefine the very essence of fashion in the digital age, especially in pioneering the first-ever live mo-cap hologram fashion show,” says Clare Tattersall, founder of Digital Fashion Week.
What Is Digital Fashion Week NY?
Launched by Clare Tattersall in February 2022, Digital Fashion Week New York was conceived as a hybrid format featuring both virtual and physical runway shows, exhibitions, workshops, and panel discussions — rooted in Web 3.0, NFTs, and immersive metaverse experiences. The event was created to disrupt traditional notions by merging IRL and URL experiences—giving access to digital fashion through 3D environments, virtual boutiques, and immersive panels that explored sustainability, innovation, and consumer engagement in the metaverse.
“These past two years have taught us that we need to pivot, rethink our processes and intentions,” said founder Clare Tattersall. “Innovation in fashion is creating new looks, challenging convention and questioning what our clothes mean to us.”
The inaugural edition focused on the future of fashion in the gaming industry; where we are now and what the future might hold for digital fashion; and a look into the growing presence of NFTs in the industry. Visitors attended virtual catwalk shows, met top digital fashion designers and shopped in their boutiques. Today, Digital Fashion Week showcases innovation in the fashion industry — from design concept to consumer. The core belief is that fashion can create positive change and lead sustainable practices.
Digital Fashion Week views individual artists and global brands as equal players, bringing diverse skills and initiatives to retool steps in the creative process and across the supply chain. “Digital Fashion Week is a unique cultural event that plays a key role in educating legacy fashion brands on navigating their IP through the reality spectrum of the Open Metaverse… Each event instance marks the next milestone for industry adoption of Web3 technology by the local ecosystem,” explains Blake Lezenski, Outlier Ventures. “It serves as a crucial forum for key opinion leaders to discuss innovation strategies and opportunities for both brands and startups while showcasing the latest technologies disrupting the fashion sector.”
“So much of our lives are now spent online… As a jewellery designer, you are selling your designs to wear in Zoom calls or on Google Meet. As we move more and more into virtual experiences we are going to need clothes that express who are as much in URL as we do in IRL,” Clare Tattersall, Founder at Digital Fashion Week NY, tells Metaverse Fashion Council.
Creation by Suza Vos x Harriet Davey, Digital Fashion Week NYC 2024
The Core Team
Clare Tattersall | Founder, Director
Clare Tattersall is the founder of Digital Fashion Week, and the curator of The Drip – an haute couture digital fashion boutique. With over two decades of experience innovating at the intersection of fashion design x technology, she launched DFW to throw a spotlight on the possibilities in the fashion industry. An event platform, DFW explores innovation from design concept to consumer. Before founding Digital Fashion Week, she co-created a software to align the design-to-sales process into a single virtual experience and developed wearable technology products.
Rick Davy | Runway Director
Rick Davy is the Director of Fashion Week Brooklyn and the BK Style Foundation, whose mission is to assist emerging, underprivileged designers in developing their talent and growing their business, and to provide a professional forum to showcase their creations alongside other emerging designers. In addition to its commitment to design, BKSF extends its mission to the community as a whole, presenting innovative educational programs to young people interested in developing careers and producing Fashion Week Brooklyn.
Who Can Participate In Digital Fashion Week?
Participation in Digital Fashion Week NY is open to designers who want to explore the potential of fashion technology. Each season is different with holograms, phygital runway shows, virtual try-on, XR showrooms, animation, panel discussions, masterclasses, and creating an avatar. Designers are selected if the team feels they have the potential to exhibit both technical excellence and creative brilliance. This is not a space for the traditional or timid; participants are expected to challenge conventions, learn emerging tools, and reimagine how fashion can be experienced and consumed.
Digital Fashion Week NY also offers opportunities for technologists, 3D artists, and digital storytellers to engage through panel discussions, masterclasses, and immersive showcases. From creating personalized avatars to collaborating on animated fashion films, participants are invited to contribute to a constantly evolving conversation at the intersection of art, fashion, and technology. Digital Fashion Week serves as a platform for showcasing innovation and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration—where creators from different fields unite to shape the future of the fashion industry.
Who Are The Typical Attendees?
Digital Fashion Week New York attracts attendees that sit at the intersection of style, technology, and design innovation. At its core, the event draws luxury and mid-market fashion executives who are no longer simply observing from the sidelines—they actively seek partnerships, tech solutions, and digital strategies to future-proof their brands. Alongside them are tech C-suite leaders and heads of digital integration and innovation from Silicon Valley to Seoul, who are eager to explore how their platforms, whether in AI, AR, or blockchain, can integrate into the fashion ecosystem. They are decision-makers shaping the future of virtual showrooms, digital garments, and immersive retail experiences.
However, Digital Fashion Week NY is not just an industry summit—it’s a cultural think tank. Investors with an eye for scalable digital fashion platforms mix with media. University faculty and design department heads are present, ensuring academic programs remain aligned with the evolving digital-first industry. Meanwhile, 3D product visualisation artists, digital designers, and creators showcase cutting-edge work that blurs the line between fashion and tech. Add to that bloggers, models, designers, and multidisciplinary artists, and the result is a multi-layered community that reflects where fashion is going—and is actively building it.
Digital Fashion Week NYC
Who are the exhibitors this season?
PixelCanvas leads with an immersive metaverse runway experience enhanced by motion capture, while Brilliantcrypto exhibits digital jewellery – designed, created, and sold online. Neuono, the world’s first AI-led fashion label, makes its debut with algorithm-driven designs. Meanwhile, Decentraland pushes boundaries by replicating its virtual showroom IRL, letting guests try on its digital fashion via a photobooth experience. Mirage, the cheeky talking mirror, provides style critiques that entertain.
Right Direction prints custom accessories with precision and speed, aligning with fashion’s shift toward immediacy and personalization. ClubMiku’s viral founder Miku brings her cult following via ClubMiku.com. Stephen Vineburg explores AR/XR fashion, merging digital wearables with real-time interaction, while Duo Design Studio reinforces fashion’s sustainability goals by helping brands digitize their design processes. Together, these exhibitors form a vanguard redefining how fashion is created, experienced, and consumed, forging a path toward a more immersive, and environmentally conscious industry.
The Leadership Team
SALLYANN HOUGHTON
Sallyann Houghton, Industry Manager specialising in fashion and apparel at Epic Games, is at the forefront of shaping digital fashion, avatars, real-time technologies, virtual goods, and digital pipelines. At Epic Games, she champions the idea that the Metaverse is a canvas for individuals to express their unique identities. Sallyann’s expertise lies in harnessing technology to enable real-time experiences in the digital space. She understands the impact that avatars and MetaHumans have on shaping our virtual identities. Sallyann’s contributions also extend to virtual goods, where she explores new dimensions of consumer engagement and commerce. As an expert in digital pipelines, she streamlines the processes that underpin the creation and distribution of digital content.
MATTHEW DRINKWATER | FASHION INNOVATION AGENCY, LCF
Matthew Drinkwater is a specialist in immersive technologies, building pathways for a digitized world. Described as ‘fashion-tech trailblazer’ by Drapers, ‘pioneer and a visionary’ by Wired and the ‘OG of Digital Fashion’ by RTFKT Studios, Matthew has delivered groundbreaking projects that captured the imagination of both the fashion and technology industries, including what Forbes described as ‘the first example of truly beautiful wearable tech’. He was also named as a “Digital World’s Influencer” by Stylus for 2020.
ANDREA ABRAMS | PHYGICODE AND FAITHTRIBE
Andrea Abrams is the founder and CEO of PHYGICODE, a consortium and lab, creating a phygital approach to Web3 adoption. Andrea is also Chief of Strategy at Faith Tribe, a Web2-to-Web3 platform providing physical and digital tools for fashion creators. She is a Board Advisor at 3D engine, Threedium, and EVM blockchain, Lukso, and a Strategic Advisor to Web3 investment firm, Scytale Ventures. Andrea is a lead pre-seed investor in wearable NFT marketplace, The Dematerialised, and in sustainability platform, Pool Berlin. She was a Metaverse Fashion Week 2023 curator and is a Board Trustee of Women of The Future Latin America.
MICHAEL FERRARO | FASHION INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Ferraro is the Executive Director of the FIT Design and Technology Lab at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. A creative technologist, researcher, artist and educator, Ferraro’s career spans software development, virtual reality media production, fine art, commercial entertainment and higher education. In 2015, he won a NY Emmy for Graphics and Animation Supervision for a series of PSA’s entitled “Best of the Bronx”. Ferraro co-authored a $5M CUNY 2020 grant, awarded in 2016, to build a New Media Jobs Incubator and Innovation Lab. In 1996, he co-founded PossibleWorlds, Inc, where he invented the real-time animation technology Kabuki™.
In the 90’s Ferraro designed and built large scale virtual worlds which were constructed as interactive operas and were exhibited at contemporary art centers. He also designed a multiplayer virtual experience for the Lisbon World Exposition and helped Silicon Graphics launch their implementation of VRML, the first web-based VR authoring tool. In 1986, Ferraro co-founded Blue Sky Studios, a feature length computer animation studio where he served as VP System Architecture for the Scientific & Technical Academy Award winning CGI Studio™ renderer.
DENISE HARRIS | SUM VIVAS
Sum Vivas is an artificial intelligence company that creates advanced digital humans to enhance customer interactions. Denise has now also utilised her entrepreneurial expertise to create and manage the UK’s first Digital Human DJ/Influencer, ‘Dex’. Denise’s passions and experience in Music and fashion will be utilised to enable Dex to be a true ambassador for Digital Fashion and to help to highlight sustainability in fashion by addressing the environmental, social, and ethical concerns associated with the fashion industry.
BLAKE LEZENSKI | OUTLIER VENTURES
Blake is the Partner Program Director at Outlier Ventures. Deeply embedded in the global digital fashion network, he established best practices in building program-specific deal flow and unique domain insights into what makes a web3 luxury fashion project successful long-term. He oversees a variety of key strategic partnerships with Outlier Ventures and the relationship with FARFETCH. Blake’s track record of angel investing helped him formulate a robust knowledge base, experience with investor relations and how to best support founders in a niche Web3 luxury commerce.
LESLIE HOLDEN | THE DIGITAL FASHION GROUP
Leslie Holden, is co-founder at The Digital Fashion Group which is a European-led collaboration between Fashion Academics and Industry. Previously as Head of fashion and design at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, he was responsible for the redevelopment of the international curricula focussing on digitalisation and sustainability in fashion. Leslie sits on the Steering Committee of The EU Worth Partnership Project, and is an EU expert for the creative industries. He was for many years an Executive Board member of the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes and a trustee of The UK Graduate Fashion Foundation.
TRACY GREENAN | GAME CHANGING STYLE
Tracy Greenan is a fashion-tech and gaming entrepreneur. She founded A.U.R.A., a digital fashion gaming brand and produced the fashion video game Zombie Fashion Fight. In addition, she serves as co-founder of Game-Changing Style, a news source and podcast covering the state of fashion in gaming. Tracy is co-founder of the Fashion in Gaming Awards and co-owner of Fashion Entertainment Television Hub.
Jasmeen Dugal is Associate Editor at FashionABC, contributing her insights on fashion, technology, and sustainability. She brings with herself more than two decades of editorial experience, working for national newspapers and luxury magazines in India.
Jasmeen Dugal has worked with exchange4media as a senior writer contributing articles on the country’s advertising and marketing movements, and then with Condenast India as Net Editor where she helmed Vogue India’s official website in terms of design, layout and daily content. Besides this, she is also an entrepreneur running her own luxury portal, Explosivefashion, which highlights the latest in luxury fashion and hospitality.
