Digital-forward fashion brand Ilona Song’s Futuristic Fauna and Primavera collections will bloom in the actual and virtual worlds this week, and the hassle may offer a glimpse into how the style business — from design to runway shows to distribution — could look in the longer term.

The young, Los Angeles-based fashion house is thought best for its Luv dress, a heart-shaped gown first made available in digital form that went viral last yr due to a virtual try-on feature, with variations worn by stars like Madonna, Cher and viral fashion avatar Noonoouri. Now there’s a physical version of the garment on the market, and with Ilona Song’s so-called “phygital” bona fides established, the virtual dress is heading to Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week (MVFW), starting Tuesday.

Inspired by nature, Ilona Song is exhibiting Camellia Bride, Chanterelle Dress, Lotus Dress and, after all, the Luv dress, amongst others, in various ways starting from NFT art, wearables or each. But that just scratches the surface.

On Decentraland itself, a partnership with Vogue Singapore brings the brand to the publisher’s virtual rooftop on the Money Labs Gallery, where it’s going to present NFT artwork and wearables for the “Elevating Culture” campaign.

As Kamila Rym, cofounder and inventive director of the brand, told WWD, “the message is for the metaverse to be more inclusive, by way of different cultures and cultural attire, similar to hijabs, Turkish caftans, kimonos and Korean hanboks. Those are all featured in our artwork.”

For Song, there’s a private angle as well.

“I’m ethnically Korean, born in Russia, grew up in Kazakhstan and currently based in the US,” explained the designer. “Experiencing all these distinct cultures and their similarities with each other continues to expand my worldview and appreciation for culture and tradition. There’s beauty in every culture across the globe, and I aim to have a good time this through my designs.”

The style company may even bring wearables and artwork to Spatial, which is cohosting MVFW, to Vogue’s club, in addition to the Mad Gallery. In line with Rym, the latter will host its spring-themed Primavera collection, a line inspired by themes of rebirth and renewal.

The outline is perfectly consistent with the brand’s sustainability mission.

Seems, the corporate doesn’t just use technology for tech’s sake. It powers its efforts within the circular economy. AR tryons help people make informed buying decisions, and on-demand production for physical products helps reduce waste. Products are also embedded with NFC chips, so people can tap to simply access blockchain information for transparency, verification of authenticity and ownership tracing.

Not that the tech is meaningless in its own right. For creatives, innovation matters and developments like AI will be a captivating tool.

In reality, the Primavera collection on view on the Mad Gallery can be certain for AI Fashion Week, which premieres Thursday. That’s since the line was developed with assistance from artificial intelligence, as were the art and associated wearables. The tech was also an efficiency tool used to assist shorten the technique of garment creation.

When asked about how AI matches into her design process, Song elaborated: “I get up with ideas and 3D visuals in my head.” she said. “I envision the large picture first: the primary idea, mood, colours after which I create very detailed, precise prompts to create AI-generated visuals. AI permits you to mess around together with your ideas and improve upon them to get the specified result.” So for anyone wondering how a small, three-year-old brand can create and juggle so many moving parts, apparently the reply is, no less than partially, data science.

For Song and her team, the week culminates on Friday, the last day of MVFW, at Over’s mixed reality fashion event. Over, the third MVFW cohost, will stage its first fashion event at Milan’s Piazza del Duomo with Song and other designers.

The way in which the tech will work, in keeping with Rym, is that “the entire attendees may have their phones and, using geo-location [and computer vision], they will open the Over app and watch the livestream of the augmented reality catwalk.”

Making that work is an advanced affair, so Over spared no effort on the geo-location. Because nobody desires to see a model, even a virtual stumble down the runway or run into partitions. “We don’t depend on GPS, but on our own code and systems,” said David Carr, Over’s head of partnerships. “It gives us a much greater accuracy of about 20 centimeters. That’s crucial while you’re attempting to position content inside a scene.”

The implication for runway shows continues to be up within the air. Some established fashion houses have told WWD that immersive experiences of some sort will all the time be a part of their events.

But others are skeptical that the metaverse and related virtual tech will turn into endemic to fashion. Over is planning a panel about it, titled “Will virtual fashion save the metaverse?” Ilona Song might be a speaker in that session.

It’s a good query. The notion of a latest web, as a virtual world peopled by avatars, looked exciting to fashion houses only one yr ago. And now, as tech trends go, AI appears to be the brand new black. But the style metaverse continues to be developing, and although AI may hog the highlight, it’s not a competitor. It’s an enabler. That’s evident when taking a look at Ilona Song’s array of MVFW offerings.

A significant highlight of its whirlwind week will occur on the Piazza, the corporate noted to WWD, when it dresses South Korean viral virtual influencer Rozy for her turn down the physical catwalk.

“[The show] just touches the perimeters of what’s possible,” Over’s Carr added. “It’s a extremely exciting thing to see fashion jump in and push quite a lot of this.”