Web3 Fashion and the Media with TIME, Condé Nast, and The Fabricant | Farfetch Twitter Spaces 03

Dec 14

Recorded live on Twitter Spaces on December 15, 2022, this episode of Farfetch Twitter Spaces looks at how the media covers fashion's move into Web3. Produced and hosted by David Cash for Farfetch, the panel brings together Keith A. Grossman (TIME), Ciara Byrne (Condé Nast), Amber Jae Slooten (The Fabricant), Paula Sello and Alissa Aulbekova (Auroboros), Jo Hunt (Serotonin), and Thomas Issa (Outlier Ventures), with Maghan McDowell (Vogue Business) and Ramona Tudosescu (Farfetch). They discuss how publishers are entering Web3, what it took for digital fashion to be taken seriously, how Metaverse Fashion Week was pitched to the press, and why a clear story shapes how journalists and investors see a project.

Watch on YouTube

Chapters

00:00 Opening
00:19 Meet the panel
08:52 TIME's leap into Web3
14:44 Condé Nast as storyteller
20:56 Amber Jae Slooten on digital fashion's early days
26:51 Auroboros and magic realism
37:23 Hybrid reality and a new generation
44:56 Pitching Metaverse Fashion Week
49:58 Investors, media, and credibility
56:16 Ramona Tudosescu's reflections
58:43 What's next from the panel

Speakers

David Cash, producer and host
Keith A. Grossman, President, TIME
Ciara Byrne, VP, New Business Innovation, Condé Nast
Amber Jae Slooten, Co-founder and Creative Director, The Fabricant
Paula Sello, Co-founder, Auroboros
Alissa Aulbekova, Co-founder and Creative Director, Auroboros
Jo Hunt, Director of PR, Serotonin
Thomas Issa, NFT Strategy Manager, Outlier Ventures
Maghan McDowell, Senior Innovation Editor, Vogue Business
Ramona Tudosescu, Product Lead, Web3 and Innovation, Farfetch

Key topics

Why TIME chose to leapfrog into Web3 instead of playing catch up in Web2
How Condé Nast titles approach storytelling, from print to the metaverse
Amber Jae Slooten on designing digital clothing since 2013 and the Vogue Singapore NFT cover
Auroboros at London Fashion Week, the Biomimicry collection, and magic realism
Hybrid reality, gaming, and a generation growing up in Roblox
Inclusivity and representation in avatar design
Pitching Metaverse Fashion Week to traditional reporters
How PR and media credibility shape investor perception

In their words

"I realized it was actually easier to leapfrog into Web3 than to play catch up in Web2, and especially for this brand." Keith A. Grossman, TIME

"The medium might change, but the art form stays the same." Ciara Byrne, Condé Nast

How to cite

APA: Cash, D. (2022). Web3 fashion and the media [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/aAxPsKHMFFQ

Chicago: Cash, David. "Web3 Fashion and the Media." Recorded December 15, 2022, Twitter Spaces. YouTube video, 1:07:53. https://youtu.be/aAxPsKHMFFQ.

Recording details

Recorded: December 15, 2022, Twitter Spaces

Format: Live audio conversation on Twitter Spaces

Length: 1:07:53 · Language: English

Produced and hosted by David Cash for Farfetch

About the series

Farfetch Twitter Spaces was a series of live audio conversations on luxury fashion and Web3, produced and hosted by David Cash for Farfetch from 2022 to 2023. Each episode brought designers, editors, technologists, and investors together to talk through how the fashion industry was changing as it happened.

About this record

Trimmed at the start and end only, and opens with a short excerpt from later in the conversation; the conversation itself is otherwise unedited. Visuals, captions, and music were added in 2026 for this video edition. Captions were machine-transcribed and reviewed by hand, with names checked against speaker introductions. Speaker roles are as of the recording date and may have changed since.

Shared for educational, research, and archival purposes. For corrections, name spellings, or removal requests: david@cashlabs.io

Transcript

Machine-transcribed and reviewed. Timestamps link to the moment in the video.

[0:00] I think communicating a project is so important to the success of the project because if I can't understand it, my readers can't understand it, your community can't understand it. I Hello and good morning fashion Twitter. Very excited to be back here for another Farfetch Twitter spaces. My name is David Cash. I'm going to be your host today and I'm very excited to be joined by some incredible speakers, some incredible panelists who are gonna be sharing their insights with you here today. I would love to take a quick moment and just go through our stage. We're still waiting on a couple people, but just as we're doing so I'd love to go through our stage and just introduce some of the incredible people we have here.

[0:48] We have some amazing questions for them and also just our typical intro that we always like to mention with these conversations for anybody who's joining us for the first time. But we are really here to create discourse at the intersection of luxury fashion and Web3. We really want to create a conversation. We want to be pushing thought leadership and we're so excited to have so many incredible thought leaders with us here on stage. So the reason I'm saying this is because if anybody says anything during this conversation that piques your interest, that excites you, that makes you want to chime in, please feel free. This is a structured conversation, but we do want to hear from you and hear your thoughts as they come to you in real time. So with all of that being said, I would love to take a moment and introduce all of our incredible panelists. So up first, the first incredible person I see before me,

[1:31] we have Keith from TIME. Keith, thank you so much for joining us. For anybody who may not be familiar with your journey in the space, would you take a moment and introduce yourself? Thank you so much for joining us. Sure. And I love I love that there are other amazing people in the audience. By the way, is Maghan joining on the stage, McDowell, from Vogue Business? Maghan was in our first conversation, but I just invited her out if she happens to be free. I'm just a gigantic Maghan fan. So I started my career back at Condé Nast back in the day, which is why I will always be biased towards Kira and Maghan. I went on to Bloomberg. I am now over at TIME. I announced that I'll be departing TIME at the end of this month. So the 31st is my last day and I'll be joining MoonPay as the President of Enterprise. And that is me.

[2:20] Fabulous, fabulous and a very exciting moment to have you here. Next, as I see them before me, I see Miss Amber Jae Slooten of The Fabricant. Very excited to have you here, a dear friend of mine and somebody who I really admire in the space. Amber, for anybody living under a rock, would you like to introduce yourself? Hey, everyone, so lovely to be here. Yeah, so my name is Amber Jae Slooten. I'm co-founder and creative director of The Fabricant. We are a digital-only fashion house, creating clothing that is always digital and never ever physical. And with that, we try to really revolutionize the fashion industry and try to create a new story for fashion because it's so needed. So really excited to be here with all of you amazing panelists. And thank you so much for the invitation, David. It's always a pleasure.

[3:08] Thank you for joining us. Next up, I'd love to say hello to Miss Ciara Byrne from Condé Nast. Ciara, thank you so much for joining us. How are you today? I'm good. Thanks, David. Thanks so much for inviting me along. Hi, everybody. My name is Ciara Byrne, and I'm the vice president of New Business Innovation at Condé Nast. For those of you who might not be familiar, our brands include Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, to name a few, and are spread across 32 countries around the world. So our team at New Business Innovation operates essentially like an incubator, building new businesses for Condé Nast, including the likes of the very wonderful Vogue Business and Vogue Club. And from the beginning of this year, we've been really diving into Web3 specifically, an area I'm really personally passionate about, investigating how our brands can move into this space in an authentic and an additive way.

[4:07] And then on the side, I'm on the board of the British Fashion Council, representing digital innovation, and Web3, and I sit on the World Economic Forum Metaverse Council as well. Back over to you, David. Fabulous. Fabulous. So happy to have you as part of this conversation here today. Next up, as I see before me, I have both the incredible ladies of Auroboros, Alissa and Paula. Alissa, I see you first. How are you doing today? Good. Nice to be on the spaces with all the incredible people. So for those who don't know us yet, I'm the creative director and co-founder together with Paula of Auroboros, and we're the science, tech, luxury, fashion house. And we say we're built by and for the next generation. So really empowering a diverse community of, as I see like-minded creators, collectors, and passion enthusiasts, and utilizing the latest technologies to really bring together a futuristic vision that's also

[5:02] very creative and beautifully crafted. Hey, everyone. Pleasure to meet you as well. I think Alyssa's kind of summed us up pretty well, but just adding we're all about magic realism and adding beauty to the physical world, uplifting it through the digital. Pleasure to be here and looking forward to this conversation. Back to you, David. Fabulous. And so excited to dive into everything that both of you do. We have two more panelists, and I'd actually love to pass it over to Maghan, if she has a moment. But we have Jo Hunt, director of PR at Serotonin, somebody I've had the pleasure of working with quite closely in the space. Jo, how are you doing? Would you like to share a little bit of what you do at Serotonin? Hey, David. Yep. Thank you so much for having me on the Farfetch Spaces today. Hi, everyone.

[5:49] As David said, I'm the director of PR at Serotonin. We're a marketing and product studio focused on emerging tech within the Web3 space. We work with a variety of brands and companies to either help them launch in Web3 or take Web3 brands to the next level. Personally, what I do is I'm a publicist over here, and so one of the big projects I've worked on over the last year was Metaverse Fashion Week, and communicating to the public and anyone who's interested in the value of fashion in this space. So I'm really honored to be here. Thank you. Fabulous. Sorry, I was just trying to share a tweet. Last but certainly not least, we have Thomas from Outlier Ventures, NFTsins. Thomas, would you like to introduce yourself and all the lovely work you do at OV? Yeah, thank you, David. Hi, everyone. I'm Thomas slash NFTsins.

[6:38] I'm the NFT strategy manager at Outlier. I have the honor of working with Farfetch and Farfetch Dream Assembly, as well as other amazing base camp programs that we run. For anyone that doesn't know, Outlier, we are a leading Web3 accelerator in the space and a top three crypto investor globally by volume. So yeah, excited to be amongst such an esteemed group of speakers and get into the conversation. Thanks again, David. Fabulous. And just before we kick off our conversation, I see Ramona is on stage with us, Ramona from the innovation team at Farfetch. Ramona, are you able to speak and quickly say hello if you're around? Yes, definitely. Hi, everybody. So happy to be on this Twitter space today and so admired of everybody here on the call that has accepted our invitation.

[7:28] We are very excited about these conversations. It is inspiring us. It is bringing us a lot of elements of thought into what we're going to build in this space. I'm very excited for today's conversation and especially on the topic around the future of fashion and self-expression and identity into media and with all of the possibilities that Web3 unlocks. So excited for today's conversation and David, I pass it back to you. Thank you so much, Ramona. And one more person I would love to pass it over to before I kick it off with questions just because she took some time out of her very busy schedule to join us. But Maghan, thank you so much for joining us for another Twitter space. I always assume you're busy, but it's very nice to see you here. And we're bringing you up in multiple points in this conversation. So I'd love to pass it over to you briefly if you have a moment to share with us.

[8:16] Hi, thanks so much. I don't want to crash the conversation at all, but Keith name checks me. Hello, Kira and Keith. I work closely with Kira at Vogue Business and Condé Nast. And I'm the Senior Innovation Editor at Vogue Business. And I am often covering these projects and I've started advising a bit, but I will not take any more time. I'm just here to listen. And if there is a question, happy to answer if I can. So thanks so much. Always happy to have you here, Maghan. You're always more than welcome in these spaces. Consider yourself a perma-pot holder. You're a token pass holder already. So with all that being said, I have some questions for our panelists because I'm a fan of all of these folks. I think that each and every one of these people up on stage has had their own unique touch to the growth of the NFT space and the growth of the Web3 space over the past year, or to or beyond in many cases.

[9:11] But with all of that being said, my first question is actually for Keith, which makes a lot of sense since he's right here next to me on stage right now. But Keith, time up until this point has led the way in showing brands how they can authentically enter the Web3 space. And I very much do credit you and your team for this incredible venture and this incredible journey. What do you think the fashion industry can learn from your journey into NFTs and beyond? And what would you like to see over the next year or two? Well, first, thank you, and thank you for having me. I know this is normally not a stage I would speak on, but I actually have a lot of respect for what Farfetch is doing to enter into the space. I look at it this way. I spent the first 12 years of my career at Condé Nast and actually interned at Condé Nast in college twice.

[10:03] And I came out of college and I started at Wired. And I was Wired and ultimately ran Wired in Ars Technica. But if you've ever seen the movie Zoolander, us hand models at Wired were different than the back and body boys. And I think that's a really important distinction to make because they let Wired run rampant and loose when it came to digital evolution. And my personal bias, and I could be, you know, I'd open it up to the space for any debate if you wanted, is fashion has historically been very, very successful in the print medium. And it was slower to adopt digitally and slower to adopt and really take advantage of some of the social space.

[10:54] When I came to TIME, TIME was actually a laggard in a lot of its evolution as well. It had three different owners and, you know, a 10 year period. It was tremendously neglected. And, you know, we were fortunately amazing owners who invested in the organization and allowed us to really build muscle on it. And I spent a lot of my time, you know, trying to play catch up in Web2. And one day, like, as everything was sort of coming together, I realized it was actually easier to leapfrog into Web3 than to play catch up in Web2, and especially for this brand. And one of the powers of fashion, in my opinion, is it's very tribal, right?

[11:42] And tribal is also very sort of community based. And, you know, one of the powers of Web3, in my opinion, is not only that it sort of taps into the power of community, but it marries it to the power of commerce, right? And I think that that's a huge advantage for the fashion space. And I think that when you look at sort of, you know, how are they going to play catch up in the space, I think it's really important to recognize that it's not going to come down to how do you move more digital subscriptions, right? It's really going to be how do you build, you know, a better sort of membership model or community model or relationship model with their consumers. And I think that fashion is actually perfectly poised for that.

[12:33] And I think especially when I look at the brands at like a place like Condé Nast, where I am biased, and as I said, like the brands are our perfect brands to extend into the community. The question and challenge that the brands will have to have is how much control are they willing to give the community as they extend into that space? So David, does that answer your question or not? But I hope that was a fair response. I think those were some fabulous insights, and I very much appreciate them. I really like the idea of pushing forward at the bleeding edge as maybe an alternative to just trying to innovate within the same sandbox. I really like that just as a concept. And I totally think that the community co-creation aspect is the one thing that brands are going to have to figure out.

[13:21] But it's actually been interesting in these conversations, the amount of similarities and spillover, I guess, between the luxury fashion world and I guess the VIP token holder world. So it's actually quite interesting how these processes intersect. I'm curious if you've had any experiences, you know, you know, building a collector base and working with collectors and how that maybe was similar to your time working with, you know, the luxury fashion world economy. Well, I mean, I think that you're spot on, which is, you know, fashion is very community based. It's very collector based. It's ultimately irrational and passion based, right? Luxury by definition is unnecessary, right? And so you have to tap into something that's bigger and deeper and more rooted in someone's psyche to attract them. And, you know, I think that if you can achieve that and, you know, like, you know, Amber and I had met at,

[14:15] you know, both business events and like I follow her on Instagram and on Twitter and you could see that she has achieved that her ability to bring like minded people together, you know, and rally them around one specific sort of area, you know, essentially can create a mini marketplace for her in addition to reinforcing her her her community and in addition to sort of strengthening her relationship with their consumers. Absolutely. Absolutely. And Keith, I'm excited to pass it back to you, but I'd love to pass it for a moment over to Ciara. You know, speaking of Condé Nast, Condé Nast titles such as Vogue Business have led the way one thing on on Kira. So I do this for many years. We've known each other for 10.

[15:03] She knows exactly where I'm going with this. This is amazing. Kira, do you know where I'm going with this? I know exactly where you go. Okay. And I love it. So you ready, Dave? David, I say, tell me, tell me, out of respect. It's Kira, not Ciara, Kira, Kira. Thank you for that. I would have, I would have called it the wrong tire time. I didn't want you to go like an hour calling Kira, Ciara, right? I went like six years in a 10 year friendship. Okay, so Ciara. Well, you caught me early and I appreciate it. Ciara, we'd love to pass it over to you. So all of work, all of the work that you've done in Condé Nast obviously goes far beyond Vogue Business. I mean, Maghan, the work you've done is incredible. And, you know, I actually credit a lot to you and your team. But I think that the narrative that you've led around virtual fashion and the traditional fashion industry, entering the Web3 space

[15:53] has been really, really powerful. How do you see leaders in media such as Condé Nast from Keith to Maghan to you and beyond playing a role in this development of fashion and Web3 and how it's evolving? Thanks, David. So firstly, thank you, Keith. Kira is an Irish name. I'm Irish. But it's spelled obviously the way like the singer. So since she's come on the scene, she's ruined everything for me, really. So anyway, thank you, Keith. So to your question, David, you know, I think from a Condé Nast perspective, I think I've always focused on what our brand's role has been, what has made it successful in the past, you know, what are the core values and how we see it, our brands have always been about identifying the next generation of creators and spotlighting them on our platform, you know, providing a context and a storytelling.

[16:47] So we essentially want to keep doing this. And the fact that our brands all of these incredible histories, some like Vogue being 130 years old, and people know they can trust us as storytellers, and be that storytelling in the pages of a magazine or storytelling in the metaverse, like we did with this Vogue meta ocean metaverse project, if you haven't checked it out, please do its features 24 diverse creators and it's really beautiful. But essentially, the medium might change, but the art form stays the same. And it's all about applying that quality level, the lens or the aesthetic of our brands on to on to storytelling. So, you know, when when we launched Vogue business four years ago, we wanted to tell the stories of these creators pioneering in the intersection between fashion technology, some of whom are on this Twitter space.

[17:40] And yet shout out to the incomparable Maghan McDowell. And, you know, that intersection became known as Web3, but but our focus is always about creativity and that because that's the very soul of fashion. And so we're seeing, you know, I think everyone here would agree, we're seeing this general narrative shifting from terms like Web3 and NFTs. And, you know, people want to show what the technology enables as opposed to focusing on the technology. I think the example I always give is no one knows that Instagram runs on Python. Why, why would you? You know, it's all it's not the important thing. It's about the enabler of that platform. So I think I see our role in Condé Nast as, you know, being focused on the core values of our brands and every brand has got different core values and translating these into Web3 where the culture and the technology will allow, you know, exciting developments and

[18:35] and really being the bridge between these these worlds for our audiences and learning about this space. You know, I think Maghan sometimes says is we want to show and not only tell what the technology is capable of. And I think there's some great examples between the Vogue Business meta teller you might have seen in September or a beautiful AI generator cover from Vogue Portugal recently avatars in Vogue China and Japan or or even, you know, to Keith's point, launching a new type of relationship with our audiences like GQ did with launching a Discord in May of this year. We really want to tell the stories of these creators, but also show what this what what what these new technologies are going to enable.

[19:22] So I think from a Condé perspective, I'm really excited about our role and this intersection between these, you know, cultural technology, storytelling by showing and telling. And I can tell you there's some really interesting things coming from from our brands next year kicking off in Q and with GQ. So yeah, I think we spend an hour talking about that particular question, but that's that's probably enough. No, it's very exciting and honestly, really encouraging hearing folks like yourself and Maghan at, you know, leading companies like like Vogue, like Condé Nast, saying these types of things like speaking about the technology as solely a tool and something that we have to get past. I think that's so powerful and something that we should really be speaking about more and really just focusing on the creativity and the and the boundless potential that we can work with instead of getting stuck up in the minutia.

[20:16] And in the tech, you know, I haven't heard somebody sell a computer or an iPhone on solely the tech specs in a very long time. You know, everybody's speaking about how it's so sleek, it's newer, it's faster, it's easier. We've really commoditized or commodified, you know, tech. And I think this is a this is a new evolution and people are, again, getting really stuck up in the minutia. So really encouraging to hear you focusing on the beauty in the process. I'm very, very excited that you're at Condé Nast and doing all the incredible things that you're doing. Thank you so much for joining us here today, Ciara. Ciara, Ciara, Keith, you got me. And I'll remember that forever now. Thanks. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. I'd love to pass it over to Amber, pass it over to a creator who's been functioning in the space for for a very long time.

[21:06] Amber, you've been creating virtual fashion since well before the media began taking it seriously, especially on mass. Being one of the first designers of the media covered in the virtual fashion scene, how have you seen the media ranging from folks like Condé Nast to well beyond perceive you in the work you do within virtual fashion? And have you seen people start taking it more seriously recently? Or has it been a slow evolution over the past years of your of your work? Yeah, it's such a beautiful change to see, actually. And thank you. Thank you all, you know, for the lovely words. Also, Keith, thank you for your support. I really, really appreciate it. For me, like, you know, this this is just such a different reality, like where where we were like four years ago, it's just so such a different world, you know, because when I started out, I think when I started creating garments digitally,

[21:56] it was like 2013. And I started some, you know, spreading some ideas of like, yeah, we can dress ourselves digitally, you know, and, you know, nobody really picked it up was like, what is this? What does it even mean? Like, how can we even, you know, what do you mean dressing digitally? Like, will we all walk around naked? Like, nah, never gonna happen. And then at some point, you know, things really started shifting. And and that's when we really saw the industry taking off. And I'm so extremely grateful that this industry is here now. And it's here to stay. It's insane. And so many incredible creators are adding stories to the space. And I think they're there, we're nowhere near done yet with that. Like, for me, I'm really grateful as The Fabricant that we were able to make a mark, because I never imagined that I could do that, you know, I never even dreamed of being able to do that.

[22:50] And now, you know, we are being named in the same sentence as like major fashion labels. And that gives me the proof of like, hey, anybody can do this, because if I can do it, anybody can do it. And obviously, like, there's this amazing team at The Fabricant, you know, we're all creating this together. And I think, you know, we want to create the tools for everybody to to come along with us and to also create in the space and also leave their mark and create the stories and tell those stories that so need to be heard. Because a lot of times, like, there's the same voices saying the same things. And I think, you know, here, we really see different voices stepping up and telling these kind of new stories. I always feel like the digital fashion industry is a little bit of the misfits coming together, and like creating the new story and like, wanting to share that with the world and, yeah, and really sharing,

[23:42] you know, their perspectives. And I think, you know, Condé Nast and Vogue has been an incredible supporter of this space. Obviously, like, last year, September, there was the first Vogue Singapore cover, which was an NFT, which we were invited to design, which I'm still incredibly grateful for, to be recognized by such an entity and wonderful sort of, yeah, wonderful platform as Vogue. It's been incredibly, yeah, honoring for us to be able to appear there and to design this dress and to also create this first NFT cover, yeah, that ever existed on a Vogue and that people could immediately wear the items that they saw on the cover and experience them. You know, for me, this is pushing the boundaries.

[24:30] And I think that is, you know, also, you know, Maghan has been day one always covering, you know, what we've been doing, even though it might sound crazy, you know, what we were trying to imagine, you know, she's been there from day one as the support and to really push the stories out there. Because when we saw that first dress on the blockchain, nobody even knew what the word NFT was or blockchain was, what it even meant. Everybody was like, ah, why would you pay money for that? It's ridiculous. Like, nobody needs to have that. Like, I remember comments of people saying like, oh, what does the world come to now, huh? What is the next thing we're gonna do? And now we see that this is just a different reality, you know, it's such a different world. And I'm so, yeah, grateful that we get to define that together with the values that we care about, you know, which is collaboration, which is, yeah,

[25:22] really working together and creating these new value systems where we can create equal opportunities for anybody that comes into this space and to collaborate together and create space. So, yeah, I guess that's it for now. Thanks for listening. No, this is this is fabulous. And I always love when you get to share your story with people. And I think that it's actually really interesting that Condé Nast and Vogue were some of the outlets to really push you forwards when other publications that maybe weren't even as reputable, especially within the fashion context, were shutting things down. And, you know, you mentioned the this first dress, this first very controversial, but incredible and boundary breaking garment that you first sold. And it's actually funny, because in multiple conversations in recent history, it's actually come up that people think that, wow, I can't believe it sold for so little,

[26:14] and I can't wait for it to get re auctioned and, you know, get sold for some incredible amount, because it's such a historic piece. It's such an important historic piece. So it's actually really interesting how the context has changed and the narrative has shifted so much in such a short period of time. And always so happy that you are along for the ride and never giving up on your vision, and especially on the fact that you are you're a purely digital creator. I think that's such an incredible and poignant standpoint to stick with despite what brands come to you and despite what celebrities come to you offering you deals and opportunities. I think you've been incredibly steadfast and it's always very impressive. I'd love to pass the mic to another set of incredible virtual fashion creators who have also done a really great job with the media and with the way that their brand is perceived.

[27:03] And I actually have a question for both of you. If it's okay, I'll start with Alissa once again. But Auroboros has been one of the brands that has led the way in defining the visual identity of Web3 fashion. Absolutely, along with The Fabricant and other folks I see in our audience, like, you know, The Dematerialised and DRESSX. You both recently been on numerous lists. Oh, wait, this is my question for Paula. Rewind. What is your process being like in working with the media, from magazines to Netflix, displaying Auroboros in the best of light from a creative direction perspective? Alissa, if we can start with you. I'm so confused which question that was for. It's okay. We'll join at the hip. Alissa, go for it. We'll take turns. All good. Thank you so much for the question. I mean, we came together with Paula, even like at the times of the university, we just coming also from, you know, studying fashion,

[27:57] luxury and also design, we just felt that nobody was reflecting the lifestyle that we lead. And even back then, we did spend a lot of the time on our mobile phones and devices online, whether it was for work, study or pleasure. And fashion was just not reflecting the lifestyle that we lead or the demands that we have or, you know, desires in general. And already at that time, we're looking at identity, avatarization and thinking, you know, there has to be more beyond fast fashion and beyond what we experience, especially with the materials and the limitations that we have. So bringing together the idea of combining creative direction, really vision for the digital lifestyle and design under one house, birthed together, Auroboros.

[28:46] And we focus so much on the forward vision of our design and how luxury fashion can be really experienced. And with that being so boundless and limitless in imagination. So it was absolute freedom for us. It was a haven and still is. And we're so grateful to be recognized for the work that we do because it really comes from, you know, pure heart and surpassing the challenges that we face in physical fashion or traditional fashion. Let's put it that way, right? There are so many shortcomings that we know of from representation, from the standards that people create to work with and also promote stuff with. It's just lack of transparency. There's not the credibility that you would wish for an artist or a brand. Whilst going digital, we saw so much potential and totally understand Amber's point where everybody thought we were crazy for doing so.

[29:39] But it is really for the long run because the whole economy we're building is collective and huge shout out and thank you for the platforms who support us because we have to do this together. It can't be one person against all. This is very much against the Web2 spirit that's been around. We're more about kind of partnering together, building this together and creating a vision and inviting people that are like-minded to us and who want to be, you know, at the intersect of technology, art, design, fashion and everything that's in between. So it's for those who didn't find themselves in a very confined box, but they feel free now. So I guess that's a long answer. Over to you Paula.

[30:27] Yeah, so funny when you mentioned Amber when, you know, people say, oh, so you think we're all going to walk around naked. Is that your vision for the future? Because the amount of times we've heard that as well. I think that's probably the slogan for digital fashion. I think we all should kind of use that as some kind of rebrand. But anyway, we'll talk about that later. I think to give a little bit of history of what we've done, we launched the brand officially last year in 2021. We are very young still and kind of from the get-go, it was pretty monumental. So we were the first brand to ever showcase a digital collection at London Fashion Week, which again for us was huge because, you know, idols like McQueen and Galliano, everyone came from the London space.

[31:18] And we actually at the time were at the Sarabande Foundation, which is Alexander McQueen's Foundation. We were the first again digital brand there as well and supported by their team. And yeah, so when we launched at London Fashion Week, within two to three days, we had 2 .5 million people engaging with us, you know, trying our pieces. It was pretty overwhelming. I mean, we both remember, you know, just scrolling through all of the messages and everything else. And it was almost like a shockwave that went through fashion. And again, obviously, Maghan played such a major part. And this is why I remember our first kind of conversation on Instagram in the DMs. And, you know, it's obviously gone a long way since then.

[32:08] So, you know, from London Fashion Week, we actually presented the collection at multiple international exhibitions. The collection name is Biomimicry. It's been shown from the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn in Germany, alongside, you know, people like Karl Lagerfeld, to Michael Jackson, to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where we showcase also the physical couture side of the Biomimicry collection. We went on this year to partner and long-term collaborate with the fantastic Grimes and artists we hugely admire. And of course, then got picked up by Netflix, CNN, 300 plus other publications. So we've been incredibly grateful for the amount of attention that the brand has received.

[33:00] And I think the important work that the brand has also done in showcasing that digital craftsmanship really goes beyond the physical means and this kind of twinning that's been happening at the early stages of digital fashion where, you know, really, we don't need to see another hat or another jumper in the virtual world when we can, you know, wear fire and water and all other kinds of incredibly beautiful materials. It's really a whole new form of creativity that's been unlocked and where, as a brand, we stand for this. And this is what we call magic realism. Our work really stands for magic and enhancing your, you know, daily experience. Again, as the first generation to grow up with the internet and seeing even idols, digital idols from Lara Croft, albeit, obviously, conversations around what she stands for.

[33:52] But nonetheless, you know, being a representative of female empowerment in the digital sphere from Avatar to so many other films and obviously games that we grew up with. It's an amazing moment that we're able to capture now and obviously with our upcoming collection next year as well, which is going to be a huge step up for our brand. And we're quite proud to announce that we've actually been going from ready to wear to digital couture. So it's quite a progressive step up and we've been working with the likes of, you know, digital craftsmen from Marvel, from basically all of your favorite cinema to bring out this collection and the absolutely beautiful visual and technological language around it.

[34:47] Yeah, thank you. Just to add to that, I think what really, you know, resonated with people, I suppose, on such a large scale is the storytelling. It's just so beyond the digital assets because we were able to really capture it in an emotive way and also speak through the stories and concepts that matter to us. And hence, the first collection was named Biomimicry because we wanted to make technology and even the vision of digital fashion more feminine, more soft, more natural, rather than dystopian and harsh and cyberpunk. Although that is a tribe and that is a concept well explored, we wanted to imagine something completely new and original in this space. And that resonated a lot with people because there is a cap and leap of faith that people need to take within the Web3 space, within digital assets, the whole world.

[35:41] And it needs to be, we believe that it needs to be more of a softer entry, really a bridge for them not to be scared of new technology, not to be scared of being creative in new ways than before. I know change is really hard for a lot of people, but it is the most natural thing for us to do. This is evolution. So we really wanted to play around the concept of both the sustainable factors of digital fashion, the circularity, the unique concept of biomimicry and mortality, and then push it to the long way of the collection and exploration. So as creative directors, as designers, it was beautiful to explore and take time of one concept into such a 360 angle. I don't think that's as possible to do with traditional fashion.

[36:28] So there's new ways of expressing yourself that I love, and I think it really resonates with a lot of people here. Yeah. And I think last thing to say is also just to make digital sexy. At the end of the day, we're going to make it look beautiful and attractive and really want people to buy into this. So well said, both of you. And I want to pass it over to Keith in a second per the topic of this conversation, per the discourse. But just quickly to say, I love what you mentioned, Alissa. Well, I love what both of you mentioned, but Alissa, this 360 vision of the brand, I think that both of you have done a really fabulous job on creating a really total visual identity that perpetuates all media. And I think that's also I think one of the many reasons that your brand has been so well perceived by the media, because it has this 360 totalitarian vision, which I really would love to speak on a little bit more.

[37:20] But Keith, I see you've had your hand raised for a moment. I'd love to hear what you're thinking. Sure. So so I figured I had to raise my hand in this room. Normally when I do rooms, I never respect the hand raising, right? I just do I make it super chaotic. But just just piggybacking on sort of the great comments by Amber and Alissa and Paula, you know, and I agree with everything that they've all said. I would say, though, if you look at sort of like the history of art and fashion, and they're both very closely intertwined, like the history is essentially as every time there's a change, there's a whole sort of existing group that says that is not art, that is not fashion, right? So like, it's a funny evolution that's always consistently come up against that resistance of that is not art, that is not fashion.

[38:10] And I think that one of the most interesting aspects of the evolution that's taking place is that it's not just technological, it's generational, right? And very rarely do you get sort of a combination of a generational change and technological change at the exact same time. And, you know, there's a few sort of misunderstandings, I think, that take place. The first is that it's either or. It really is not, right? And, you know, Paula and Alissa spoke to that, you know, we've been living in a hybrid reality for years upon years, people just don't think about the hybrid reality that they live in. You know, you might think that, okay, well, we've been living in a hybrid reality since we've had the iPhone.

[38:58] But, you know, if I was to reposition something that came out in like the early 80s, the Sony Walkman as not just music, but rather the ability to have a soundtrack for your life, then all of a sudden, like you realize like, wow, like the Sony Walkman might have actually been the first moment in time where we had a hybrid reality and we were able to go into the world and, you know, create a new experience that was different from the world that we actually live in. The second, and I thought that this is like one of the best points, and I think it can't be understated, and Paula had made this comment. You know, like, I think that the big mistake of a lot of companies entering into like metaverses in general, or thinking about Web3 in general, is they try to replicate what they know in reality.

[39:51] And the fact is, is that these are opportunities for you to do something that you can't do in reality. I never realized it until I had breakfast one day with Viktoria Modesta, who is a TIMEPieces artist, and she's known as the bionic artist. She has one leg, but she leans into that as a string. And she mentioned to me once, when she goes into the metaverse, into a metaverse, like she's an Olympic athlete, and she loves that, right? And it was the first time that I realized, I was like, huh, right? Like, why would you want a digital twin to be just a cap, the digital cap where the twin can be fire, as Paula said, right? Or it can be something that you could never have in the reality that you currently exist. And I think that that's really powerful to allow your imagination to run free in these spaces.

[40:42] I'm personally an investor in Jadu, which does jet packs and hoverboards. You know, why? Because, you know, it's a pain in the ass to sort of get around in some of the spaces. But also, like, it's just really fun to do it. Like, my best sport in life is email. Like, I'll never be, you know, a hoverboardist. I'll never be a jet packer, right? And, and, you know, I say all this because I think the final thing is, is generationally, right? So I'm like a Web3 geriatric. Okay, I'm turning 43. You know, in Web3 years, that is, that's essentially like 800 years old. Okay. But I say this because like, I grew up with a Nintendo and a Sega and, you know, all of those games. And the reality is, is when I look at everything in my life today, everything is gamified.

[41:34] And that's sort of the world that I grew up in. And I think that when you look at, you know, the world that kids are growing up in today, and I have a nine year old daughter, right? And you look at the way her name is Ellie, right? And when I look at the world that Ellie grows up in today, like, she's in Roblox, she's in Toca Boca, like the idea of buying digital assets, you know, or digital twins of some sort, like actually makes sense to her. But she also has a very different sort of value system, like she believes in things like stakeholder capitalism, right? That, you know, people who, you know, grew up with much different belief in sort of business and its position on things like sustainability in the community in the world might not believe like, like the notion that everything has to be sustainable is rooted in her belief system.

[42:24] And so like, I think that you can't underestimate, you know, what the adoption rate of Roblox is to the consumers experience and expectations and what that will be in like the next 10 to 15 years. Absolutely. Sorry, can I just follow up, please? Yeah, go for it. Thanks. Sorry to be hogging so much time. Thank you, everyone. And Keith, that's such a beautiful and poignant thing to say and, and amazing, because actually, we worked with Viktoria Modesta also of kind of standpoint, well, feminism, but also from the ground, understanding also who needs to be shown in the space. So myself, I have an invisible disability, but it often, you know, hinders me physically from wearing certain things from going out to certain events.

[43:19] And so when we were creating our own avatars, which are to be released next year, it was really interesting process of thinking, okay, how do I turn this thing that really impacts me on a day to day level into something absolutely impeccable and beautiful and empowering. And so I remember this incredible kind of quote from one of my favorite kind of comic books, which was Mutant and Proud. And it's all about, you know, the superhero who's outcast from society in a certain way, you know, looks different, feels different, but they have this incredible superpower and that kind of energy we took into creating our avatars and in general, creating our assets from a standpoint of who do we work with?

[44:08] What is the representation? And how do we uplift people? Where is the standpoint? And this is incredibly important to note from from the ground up is that when we're building Web3, we need to make sure that we're learning from the mistakes that we've made in Web2. Inclusivity is everything. And especially as AI is now progressing, and we've seen, we're not going to deep dive into this, but as we've seen, there is a whole process of learning now, not just human, but also machine learning that needs to be addressed. And it needs to be real, it cannot be an added hashtag, or benefit, or anything like that it needs to come from the desk, because she is fantastic. The best.

[44:59] I love that. I love that. And I think it all comes down to remembering the human aspect of the equation, especially when we're so, you know, head down focused on the technology, which is incredibly important as well. But really to remember the people that are that are witnessing and that are interacting with these products with these with these products of entertainment, whatever the case is fashion pieces. And I think that somebody who works with reaching the people a lot on top of journalists are the PR agencies. And I'd actually think this is a nice segue over to Jo and some of the amazing work that Joe's done. Just to give you a brief intro from my perspective, I've had the pleasure of working with Jo numerous times through my work with Decentraland. He and Serotonin are the agency of choice for Decentraland. And we're the main publicity force behind events like Metaverse Fashion Week.

[45:49] And when we think about people witnessing an event that around one hundred and eight thousand people saw Metaverse Fashion Week, witnessed it physically or tangibly, virtually in an event. But over one point four billion unique people witnessed this event in some way, shape or form via press and media, partially thanks to folks like Maghan, writing incredible articles about it, but also thanks to Jo, you know, sharing the story through TV, film, advertising, press, digital press, physical press beyond. And I think it's really interesting to consider how people witness events like this, virtual events like this today. So Jo, I would love to pass it over to you being somebody who's worked in Web3 for a moment. But I'm curious from your perspective how it's been pitching fashion stories within this virtual space, maybe a year ago versus today, or maybe even how that's shifted over the course of you pitching

[46:39] Metaverse Fashion Week and how it's perceived now. Wow. Thanks for the intro there, David. Yeah, it's been quite an insane 12 months. I'm not going to lie. I've been in Web3 PR and publicity for about five years. So and before that I was in D .C. working on environmental PR comms for the government. And it's been, you know, my job is to take these heady, very cloudy thoughts and topics and kind of communicate them across the entire public globally. And, you know, communicating blockchain and Web3, whether it's infrastructure, crypto exchanges, all of the more finance side of that, that's been very hard to break through, I think. And rightfully so, there's a lot of trust issues as well. With fashion, I was a little nervous also, you know, it's explaining all this to traditional reporters who, you know, are kind of our guards out there in the world looking for truth.

[47:32] I was a little hesitant at first, but it was actually very like, you know, speaking with folks like Maghan and other people like Elle and WWD, it all kind of clicked immediately with them, or maybe not immediately, Maghan, I won't put that in your out there for you. But it was, you know, a pretty seamless conversation, because I think this passion is a use case in Web3 just makes sense to a lot of people, whether it's wearables inside of the Metaverse, or if it's these digital, IRL digital activations, I think it makes sense to a lot of people just on an intuitive level, whereas other components of Web3 and blockchain might take a bit more of a technical background. For people to understand, you have to get dressed, you have to show up, you have to create your own identity and be creative inside of the Metaverse and inside Web3. So it's been, you know, from the beginning of this year, the overwhelming kind of

[48:23] reaction to this was very overwhelming to me myself. But throughout the year, it's really just clicked more and more we started seeing, you know, broadcast TV really wanted to cover this to introduce to folks who have no idea what blockchain is, but can understand the visual internet. I think everyone or most people, I'd say 20 and up, you know, grow up playing the Sims and other kinds of digital worlds and virtual worlds. So it is a pretty easy bridge on-ramp. And I'd say now with the announcement of Metaverse Fashion Week 2023, we're just already seeing a lot of interest in how do we cover this? How do we take it to the next level beyond just a normal story? For instance, I think one thing that's really exciting beyond or in conjunction with fashion is beauty and seeing how that translates into Web3 next.

[49:12] For instance, I was speaking with someone yesterday about fragrance and how do we move into that realm inside Web3 in the Metaverse? And I found it really fascinating just thinking on a basic level, you know, everyone's like, can we smell through our computers? No, but you also can smell through your TV and we have fragrance ads all over the world. Millions of people see them every day. So it's been quite a journey. But I would say the fashion press, to be honest, has been really lovely to work with. It's been my favorite experience so far inside Web3 Media. Fabulous, fabulous. And hopefully we have a moment to get back to you because I love, love, love your insights in this space and probably one of the most under-rept voices kind of leading the things behind the scenes throughout Web3 fashion. So happy to have you here, Jo.

[50:01] Just want to make sure we have time to pass it over to our lovely representative from Outlier, Thomas. I have one more question for you before we just open things up. And I know Keith had to hop to another meeting, so if anybody has to run, please feel free to just chime in and say adieu. But before we get there, I would love to pass it over to Thomas. Thomas, working with numerous NFT projects via Outlier, I'm sure you've seen a lot of projects come and go. What about OV's investment strategy in the Web3 space in projects such as Auroboros sets them apart from other projects trying to make it in the space? And I'm curious from your perspective how their PR and media credibility can affect their perception from VCs such as yours. Yeah, thank you, David. I mean, to kick off, I think it's a point that has been addressed by so many speakers today and very eloquently said, but it's about a company's

[50:54] ability to create experiences and tell stories, right? I think that's the first point. And then the second part is to be able to take calculated bets and then develop unique insights around these bets and just build a unique thesis which informs our product development roadmap strategy and how they're growing and building as a company. I think Auroboros and some of the other amazing fashion, digital fashion companies did such a good job of placing those early bets. They saw digital fashion before everyone else did and took calculated bets. And now they're kind of reaping the benefit of those early risks.

[51:44] So that's true throughout our entire OV portfolio, always looking for entrepreneurs who have unique insights before the broader market does. And then to the second part, it's how the PR and media credibility affect their perception from VCs. I think that's always a funny question to ask, especially in Web3, because we do have so much sits in journalism. I'm sure everyone knows, everyone who's bought an NFT at some point feels like they're entitled to an opinion in the same capacity that a shareholder and investors. So I have so much admiration for all of the builders and entrepreneurs in the space who are pushing this forward.

[52:32] I couldn't imagine the citizen journalists and citizen experts that you guys have to deal with. I'm sure you guys are getting critiqued every day on how to design digital fashion from people who have never designed anything in their lives. So that's where the admiration comes from. But yeah, again, back to the first point, how they proceed in the media. It's like how well they're articulating their vision. It's one thing to pick a North Star, but to break it down into bite-sized chunks so people can understand is probably the most important part. And then it's also a balancing act, right? Once you break down the vision into understandable bite-sized pieces, is the vision remaining fresh? Is it forward enough thinking?

[53:21] So again, joined by some of the people who have done the best that picking trends and finding themes that are going to self-realize in the future. So great to be here and I hope those were some good answers. Thank you, David. It's a pleasure to have you here. I think you're totally spot on. I think it goes beyond just an element of trend forecasting and it really has to work. Media and the way that a brand is perceived really speaks to how well they tell their story and how well their narrative is already established. Speaking to brands like Auroboros and The Fabricant who've done such a great job at defining their visual identity and their cultural identity. I think it really helps the media tell their story in an authentic way because their story is authentic.

[54:13] Just to piggyback off that point, this is usually the point in the conversation. I pass it over to Ramona to hear if you have any thoughts on all the beautiful things that have been said, which I'd still love to do. But just because she spent so much time with us here today, Maghan, no pressure, but I would love to pass it over to you for a moment. I know that you've done such a beautiful job and I say this a lot in terms of contextualizing the fashion space, but I'm curious if you have any thoughts on that point in terms of how brands who take the time to perpetuate and tell their story on their own accord and how that's helpful for you perhaps in your process in picking and choosing and seeing which entities are really defining culture in the space. Thank you so much also for having me and for all the kind words. I think that is true. I think communicating a project is so important to the success

[55:01] of the project because if I can't understand it, my readers can't understand it, your community can't understand it. I think the best projects are ones that they can clearly define succinctly and that I can clearly understand. We do spend a lot of time and a lot of work to making sure we get the details right to making sure that we communicate it correctly. But if brands are able to have FAQs on Discord, I think Discord is a great place where I've seen just kind of roadmaps outlined or having a standalone site. I think that's always great advice because these projects can get pretty complicated. I know that's part of the culture and part of the community to have really intricate mechanics and literally treasure hunts to get on an allow list to maybe have a chance to buy something.

[55:48] I understand that complication is part of the appeal, but I really appreciate brands when they do have a story to tell. I think that adds more to the story that I can tell about the context of the art because you're not just acquiring an NFT or a token or a smart contract. You're acquiring access to a community, you're acquiring context. I think that's always what I look for when I'm trying to tell a story. I don't know if that answered, but yeah. No, that was fabulous. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. As promised, if you are still with us, I would love to pass it over to Ramona. I think one of the many purposes of these conversations is to also put a finger on the pulse of where the community is at and where leaders in the community are in terms of thinking about this space and how we can interact in it.

[56:40] Ramona, I know you love these insights, so I'd love to pass it over to you in here if there's anything specific that stuck out to you in today's conversation. Thank you. It was such an exciting conversation and so many interesting insights from the amazing panelists here that were with us on this space. As far as we exist, for the love of fashion and revolutionary technology, and I love how many of the things we've discussed today is around the love of fashion, coming from the aesthetic, the storytelling, the immersion, all of the beautiful narratives that designers and artists want to bring through their work and how the fashion world can evolve differently than it did in the real space because the digital landscape and the virtual environment is helping us bring new stories to life, more inclusivity, think about more sustainable practices, different creative processes, new stories to tell that

[57:38] have no reproduction of what was done in the past. And I think that's the part which I'm most excited about is what is the next generation that looks nothing to do with what already happened in even the last two years? What are we going to build next altogether? What is the co-creation element where we don't only capture value but we distribute value back and we work together as a community to bring fashion into the next era with all of the principles that we care and love for. And all of the people here on the panel, they're already doing it. So we're so excited to have you as part of our community getting inspired from you and then adding also some of the elements that Farfetch can do and bring to the table in terms of connecting creators, curators and communities for a love of fashion and revolutionary technology.

[58:33] So very excited and thank you for all of the people that joined in, listened in, and I pass it to you, David, to close us up for this future space. Always, always love hearing the way that you contextualize Farfetch. And I absolutely love and always align with the creators and curators of culture and of fashion. I think this is such an important group of folks within the world and definitely representative of our panelists here today. Just before we close things out, if anybody has to hop, totally understandable. But I do always like to take a quick moment just to pass it around to our panelists in case there's anything that you would like to share, a place you'd like people to go, a little plug for each of your incredible brands, outlets, et cetera. If it's okay, I'll quickly mention that Keith since he had to hop.

[59:22] If you haven't yet seen the incredible work that Keith has done at TIME, especially via TIMEPieces and the collections of artists that he's been promoting and elevating, I highly, highly recommend you delve in. Next up, I'd love to pass it over to Ciara. If you would like to share where people can find some of the work that you do at Condé Nast. Sorry, sure. So obviously, Vogue Business, shocking me enough, that is just one of the best sources for fashion and Web3 content. At the moment, I think maybe I'm slightly biased, but also GQ has got an amazing Discord that's really focusing on the core of GQ style, but it's a really great community, really vibrant.

[1:00:08] And as I said, we're going to be doing really exciting things in Web3 in the coming year. So they'd be my two primary ones. Fabulous. Fabulous. And thank you so much again for joining us here today. We really appreciate. No problem. Sorry, my son was just in the background trying to join in, so that's why I was kind of quick to end it there before you started hearing some screams. He's a panelist too, so we're very happy to have him. Thank you so much for having me, David. Thank you again, always a pleasure. We'd love to pass it over to Amber. Amber, would you like to share what you have coming up with The Fabricant? Yeah, sure. Yeah, we've got a really exciting time coming up. Yeah, we have a whole narrative unfolding over the coming year, and we're incredibly excited that we're going to launch a digital fashion journey, which is something that you can join.

[1:01:04] And yeah, it's basically a story that will unfold over the next year. And yeah, we're on a journey to whole land, and whole land, yeah, it comes from the word whole and land. And whole means becoming whole, accepting all of yourself, exploring all of who you are. Also the shadow sides, the darker sides, maybe the things you don't like about yourself, accepting all of that. But also whole land is a play on Holland, which is where we are based. And yeah, it's a place that we're building and a narrative that's unfolding over the coming time. And yeah, it will start with accessories that you'll be able to wear very soon, that we will launch. And they will reveal something about you. It's like randomly selected. So that's really excited. Let's see what fate has to bring you.

[1:01:53] And then, yeah, the narrative will unfold over the coming year with all kinds of really exciting collaborations. So I'm really happy that we're actually bringing out content again, because it's been a while. And yeah, I can't wait to show you guys what we're working on. Yeah, it's going to be pretty insane and pushing the boundaries. And let's see what everybody thinks of it. I'm really excited to share this with the world. I cannot wait to see all the little teasers and everything I've seen so far are absolutely incredible. So very excited for everybody to check that out. Head over to the Fabricant's Twitter, or you can find it, I think, in Amber's profile, if you want to do fewer clicks. I'll pass it over to Jo at Serotonin. I see you're raising your hand. I think you may have to hop to a meeting. We'd love to pass it over to you if you want to share some of the work you guys are doing right now.

[1:02:39] Yeah, thanks, David. For anyone, you know, looking for either strategy, content help, communications in the Web3 space, definitely check out Serotonin .co, or hit that follow to click on our Twitter profile and take a look at us. What we're working on upcoming, if anyone is interested, is there's probably six, seven weeks left for a call to participate in Metaverse Fashion Week, which is going to be the first interoperable Metaverse Fashion Week. It's between Decentraland, Spatial, and we're also chatting with some other ones as well, including OVER. It's an AR metaverse, but also any other Metaverses out there that want to join. We're really looking to prove the interoperability use case of the Metaverse, and then directly following that a couple weeks later in April, we're doing Metaverse Beauty Week as well, so very excited to see this space up and coming.

[1:03:33] So please reach out and follow us for more. Thank you so much, Jo. This was really wonderful. Thanks for having me. Really appreciate you joining us here today. Always appreciate your insights and having you on stage. We'd love to pass it over to Paula and Alissa. I think I'll just refer to you as a single being at this point, but we'd love to pass it over to you if you want to share some of your incredible work that we might do. Yeah, it's cool, Alissa, you know, sometimes. We've been there for sure. Well, we've been in a little bit of stealth mode, but whilst we were cooking away the new collection, which is bigger than ever, and we really included all of the feedback and desires that we got since launching our first collection. So there's something for everyone in that collection, both, you know, with avatars and clothing coming out.

[1:04:22] But meanwhile, that we're, you know, preparing for the launch, that's going to happen early next year, we've opened up a Auroboros Academy. So for anyone who wants to find out more about the space, both digital fashion and also learn about Web3, ownership, investing, it is really the place to go for it to be your bridge through design, through beauty, through craftsmanship, to learn about technology. We always say we find technology as a tool, as a helping hand. It's not the end-all and be-all. We've already seen Web2 and Web3. Surely Web4 will come around. So we take a very interactive approach about joining people into our journey as well and how the space is evolving with us. And there's also a possibility to co-create with us or, you know, collaborate with us.

[1:05:12] So really happy to see people coming into our Discord or Twitter, learning more about what we do and our next plans. So that's in a nutshell. Paulisa too. Exactly. And I think without meaning to reveal too much, but we've obviously been kind of behind closed doors and cooking a little bit. So you might have noticed a little bit more of a, you know, quiet moment from us in the second half of this year. And we're just really, really excited to bring out obviously the new collection that obviously has a huge step up in terms of the visuals again, you know, coming from more of a ready-to-wear aesthetic to really a full-on digital couture aesthetic.

[1:06:05] We've joined forces with UNXD very quietly and are very, very excited to announce all of the new tech that will be bringing the fashion to life in the next year. I'm really focused on utility, on building out an ecosystem. And again, that lifestyle piece that we just, you know, live and breathe on a day-to-day basis and that magic realism that everyone wants in the space. So stay tuned. There's a big announcement coming soon. So a little bit of alpha for everyone here. And on that note, over and out. Thank you. Thank you both so much.

[1:06:54] And thank you once again to all of our incredible panelists. It's always a pleasure sharing a stage with all of you. And also thank you to everybody who spent so much time listening with us here today. I've seen some folks hang out for the entirety of the spaces. And it's always a pleasure to be able to host these types of rooms. I really love that we're able to do these. And also a big thank you to Farfetch for facilitating and for hosting these conversations. So if you aren't yet, please take a moment and follow the Farfetch page. We're going to be doing a lot more of these, especially in the new year. And for anybody who is listening and part of the community who wants to take part in one of these future conversations, we intentionally pack our stages so that we have, you know, chock full of insights and next steps. But we would love to have you in a future conversation. Please feel free to reach

[1:07:38] out to Farfetch directly. Thank you so much to everybody again. Appreciate all of your time. And we'll see you in the next spaces. Thank you so much. Take care.

David Cash https://www.davidcash.ca