New York Metaverse Fashion Week

👗 Virtual Fashion - NYFW 2022

COMPANY

NYFW 2022

ROLE

3D Fashion Designer / Character Art

EXPERTISE

3D Garment Modeling / Character Creation / Virtual Styling / Animation

YEAR

2022

Description

Created a fully digital fashion look for the New York Fashion Week 2022 as an artistic exploration of identity, power, and post-human elegance. The design combines metallic, sculptural materials with soft, flowing fabrics to evoke a futuristic warrior presence in a dystopian setting. This piece was part of an initiative to merge fashion, character design, and animation into a cohesive 3D expression.

Challenge

Designing for a fashion week without fabric, seams, or physical presence posed a unique challenge. How do you express movement, texture, and emotion when the body is virtual and the runway is a render?

The goal was to create a digital garment that didn’t replicate real-world fashion but instead took full advantage of 3D tools to imagine something impossible to wear in physical space—something symbolic, expressive, and cinematic.

Ways of Working

This project was developed with an exploratory and experimental workflow. I worked across Marvelous Designer, Blender, and character animation tools, allowing design, movement, and storytelling to evolve together.

The process was nonlinear and iterative—starting from concept sketches, shifting to sculpting, testing cloth simulations, and adjusting based on how the avatar responded in motion and light. The goal was not just technical perfection, but emotional resonance in a virtual world.

Background

This project was developed as part of an ongoing exploration of digital identity and the role of fashion in speculative futures. Influenced by sci-fi aesthetics, armor symbolism, and queer transformation, it challenges the limits of fashion design by removing material constraints and embracing new bodies, new worlds, and new rituals of expression.

Process


  • Concept Design: Inspired by themes of queer futurism, protection, and emotional armor, the design imagined clothing as a form of spiritual and aesthetic resilience.

  • 3D Garment Creation: Used Marvelous Designer and Blender to simulate and sculpt garments with hybrid textures and silhouettes.

  • Character Development: Created a custom digital avatar with glowing eyes, copper-toned synthetic skin, and biomechanical features.

  • Scene Composition: Built a decayed cityscape as the backdrop, contrasting vulnerability and strength through setting and posture.

  • Animation: Developed a short runway animation loop to showcase the garment’s behavior in motion and its presence in an atmospheric world.

Research & Planning

Researched trends in digital fashion, queer futurism, and post-human aesthetics to inform the visual language of the piece. Studied references from both couture and sci-fi media to design a garment that exists outside of traditional gender norms or physical limitations. Defined a narrative concept centered on strength, transition, and digital rebirth.

Design & Prototyping

Developed early sketches and 3D blockouts of the garment and character. Used Marvelous Designer for pattern creation and fabric simulation, then refined the shapes and materials in Blender. Prototyped animations and rendered stills to test movement, silhouette, and lighting under different conditions. Adjusted the visual tone to match a post-apocalyptic world with synthetic grace.

Development & Implementation

Finalized the 3D avatar and garment integration, then animated a runway-style loop showcasing the full look in motion. Applied custom textures, metallic shaders, and rigged accessories to reinforce the contrast between soft flow and armored presence. Built a digital environment that contextualized the piece narratively, and exported assets for showcase and social media publishing.

Key Features


  • 3D Garment Modeling — Custom-designed clothing with structured forms and flowing fabrics

  • Character Animation — Full-body motion and fabric dynamics in a looped runway sequence

  • Virtual Styling — Color, light, and material contrasts designed to evoke emotion and power

  • Narrative Integration — A complete digital persona embodied through fashion and context

Solution

The final piece proposes a vision of digital fashion as both artistic expression and narrative medium. Rather than mimic traditional clothing, it elevates the virtual body as a canvas for storytelling, transformation, and rebellion. The work lives as a standalone visual experience and as a blueprint for wearable storytelling in metaverse contexts.

Digital Fashion Highlights

Sculptural Design
The garment features a hybrid structure of rigid armor-like elements and flowing fabrics, created through advanced cloth simulation and form sculpting—designed to emphasize contrast and narrative strength.

Avatar Integration
The outfit was designed specifically for a custom 3D avatar, enabling perfect anatomical alignment, stylized movement, and expressive poses that complement the garment’s visual story.

Motion-Ready Clothing
Simulated with animation in mind, the garment includes dynamic elements that respond to walking cycles and environmental physics, making it ideal for metaverse avatars or cinematic showcases.

Narrative Styling
Beyond aesthetics, every aspect of the design—materials, silhouette, accessories—was chosen to embody a post-human digital identity, merging themes of resilience, fluidity, and empowerment.

Results


  • 🌐 Showcased during a digital activation aligned with NYFW 2022's tech-forward programming

  • 🧬 Expanded skillset in virtual fashion, character design, and motion storytelling

  • 🤝 Sparked conversations around sustainability, post-gender expression, and identity in digital couture

  • 🎥 Widely shared across Instagram and online communities interested in fashion, 3D, and cyberfeminism

Creative Impact

Audience Engagement
The animated piece captured attention across digital art and fashion communities, leading to increased engagement on platforms like Instagram and 3D design forums. Its cinematic style and distinct aesthetic contributed to longer view times and more interaction compared to static lookbook posts.

Creative Recognition
The project drew attention from other designers, animators, and curators exploring the limits of virtual fashion, resulting in new collaborations and creative inquiries for future digital wearables and characters.

Expanding Reach
This piece served as a launching point for a wider exploration into fashion storytelling, influencing the development of garments and avatars in other metaverse-related projects and solidifying a personal style that blends narrative, design, and worldbuilding.