World-renowned Hong Kong designer Vivienne Tam, with the support of Cyberport and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York, collaborated with Cyberport unicorn Animoca Brands and start-up Hepha to bring the streets of Hong Kong to her New York Fashion Week runway show on 12 February (New York time). This novel initiative introduced to the audience a brand-new fashion experience by interweaving creativity, artistry, the prowess of technologies, synergy between members of the Cyberport community, and the charm of Hong Kong.
Vivienne is an enthusiast of fashiontech and Web3 technologies, and founded EW Metaverse, a Cyberport fashiontech company. Together with Hepha, they created the Hong Kong metaverse environment on the stage. As the audience saw models walking down the runway, they simultaneously embraced the metaverse that showed the city’s urban streetscape and signature features such as Hong Kong trams, the legendary floating restaurant, eye-catching fluorescent signs, and pawn shops.
Through the curation of Vivienne and Animoca Brands, blue chip NFTs (non-fungible tokens), such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, Mocaverse, Meebit, and CryptoPunks, also adorned the streets of the virtual Hong Kong.
Peter Yan, CEO of Cyberport was delightful to witness a perfect Hong Kong story showcased in the prestigious international arena, and was amazed by the spectacular success curated by EW Metaverse, Animoca Brands and Hepha which incorporated metaverse and NFT technologies in the fashion runway with exciting possibilities of Web3 technologies in art and entertainment. He looked forward to more collaborations within the Cyberport community, and further synergy between Hong Kong and global talents in the development and application of fashiontech and other technologies.
Vivienne Tam said, “When I broached the idea of setting my runway against the background of a metaverse, I immediately thought of Animoca Brands and Hong Kong’s Cyberport. There are so many talents in Hong Kong, both from local and international origins, equipped with out-of-the-box ideas, top-notch technologies as well as an adventurous can-do spirit. I take pride in what we have achieved together with Animoca Brands and start-up Hepha in the New York Fashion Week. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Cyberport and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York for their support in making this wonderful show possible.”
Digital Entertainment & Esports is one of the key clusters at Cyberport, boasting over 160 related start-ups and tech companies across the realms of ArtTech, fashiontech, movietech, the metaverse, NFTs, and more. In January 2023, “Web3 Hub@Cyberport” was established to attract international Web3 companies to set up operations in Hong Kong, as well as provide opportunities for exchanges and collaboration between local and foreign Web3 enterprises.
