Circular Fashion Summit (CFS), the world’s largest annual VR gathering in fashion, recently announced its new dates on 9—12 December 2021, due to Facebook-owned VR headsets company, Oculus, making the biggest recall in fashion metaverse history.

Following the announcement, CFS just released the exclusive partnership with IoDF (Institute of Digital Fashion) to advise and co-create a series of studies and applications for human representation of inclusivity and diversity in metaverse. The first avatar and digital fashion drop will be launched on the SPIN by lablaco platform, exclusive premiere for CFS 2021 VR attendees, for a true representative of human-being in the virtual world.

With digital clothing continuing to make waves across the fashion industry and URL identity coming more and more into question, two leaders in the emerging medium, Institute of Digital Fashion and Circular Fashion Summit are partnering to explore the role of representation within the digital arena.

CAPSULE COLLECTION

Together, IoDF and CFS are launching an inclusive, digital only VR capsule collection. The “IoDF x CFS 0.1 collection” will be available on December 9th, in the new Fashion Metaverse, SPIN by lablaco, launching on the Oculus Store on the dates of the summit, for the grand opening of the Circular Fashion Summit. The collection features fashion staples that traverse between loungewear and Met Gala, from a wool pinstripe suit and statement full length gown, to soft, drop-crotch trousers, a hype puffer jacket and embellished sunglasses.

To create the collection and the avatars, in depth research work was needed prior not only within the design but IoDF felt there was a core responsibility in understanding the landscape deeper, in order for the collection to truly champions the discourse and IoDF’s pledge for fairer representation in the new digital arena, the metaverse.

Creating the digital collection, there is an acute attention to detail in the design process at the IoDF atelier which is seen through into the digitisation, the process mirrors making a physical garment, building it out sculpturally, seam by seam, using multiple softwares, craft and artisan.

These garments are available for dressing your SPIN avatar, each piece is completely non gendered, created to highlight the diverse spectrum of representations beyond the binary.

This year, CFS is collaborating with the Saudi Fashion Commission, and featured within the collection is a sheila, the traditional head piece worn by Muslim women. IoDF and CFS felt these such items were important to create and include as cultural clothing such as sheila's have not been represented in virtual reality in the past, and through this offering it makes it more inclusive for users to feel better represented, pushing for greater accessibility and wider representation.

DIVERSITY REPORT

The digital capsule collection is being launched alongside IoDF’s latest white paper on digital diversity, ‘My Self, My Avatar, My Identity: Diversity and Inclusivity Within Virtual Worlds’. The report is an extensive consideration of who and what needs to be represented within the digital arena, which was the background of the design making processes for the avatar and clothing. 

IoDF are the official researchers of the diversity and inclusivity work with CFS, finding that evidently, the respondents expressed current platforms are not doing enough to represent people who do not conform to biased, superficial and capitalist societal “norms”. Working with CFS, IoDF are committed to amplifying and uplifting BIPOC and queer narratives, championing them and activating change within the digital arena.

Please find their latest diversity report here

AVATAR BUILD 

As avatars are the central point of a virtual environment, IoDF and CFS aim to identify a customisation process that is sustainably innovative and inclusive of all. New inclusive SPIN avatars, based on IoDF’s research, will launch at this year’s CFS global collective action summit, including non-binary avatars. Together, CFS and IoDF are working to create avatars that represent the spectrum of skin colors, genders, and disabilities currently missing from the VR space and digital platforms.