It’s fashion week in Sydney this week, which once again means the fine line between high-end fashion and utter nonsense is on display for everyone to see.
And this year’s naming rights sponsor Afterpay is getting involved in the excitement, launching Australia’s first piece of unisex digital haute couture.
Afterpay has partnered with renowned Australian designer, Toni Maticevski and leading international digital fashion house, The Fabricant to create the digital garment.
Known as the Animator Overcoat, it will be used as a digital fashion experience at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week at Carriageworks.
According to Afterpay, the digital-only concept is intended to start a conversation about the creative and commercial role this technology could play in realising Afterpay’s vision for a future of a fashion that is more accessible, inclusive and sustainable.
Speaking of the design brief, Australian Designer, Toni Maticevski, said “the liquid aesthetic of the garment embodies fluidity between worlds, but also between gender, ideas of materiality, beauty and hostility, the possible and impossible. It offers the wearer a chance to express multiple concepts simultaneously.”
Co-CEO and co-founder of Afterpay, Nick Molnar, believes the Animator Overcoat is a timely representation of the future of fashion.
“Digital fashion is here and it is taking centre stage as accessible fashion, which is reflective of every individual, regardless of gender, age, sex or race,” he said.
Molnar continued, “we see digital fashion as an emerging avenue for all stakeholders in the industry, both creatively and in terms of its potential as a new market. It fulfills the needs and wants of the next generation consumer, particularly with the recent boom of avatar dressing in gaming, NFTs and the rise of blockchain.”
“As our first time as title sponsor of Afterpay Australian Fashion Week, we wanted to create an innovative, tech forward concept that was uniquely different to anything seen in Australia before and believe we have done this with the help of Toni Maticevski and The Fabricant.”
