Tommy Hilfiger and Roblox partner for New York Fashion Week

Fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger is returning to New York Fashion Week after a three year hiatus through partnering with Roblox to create a runway event in the Roblox Metaverse in a live stream show.

This IRL event will take place on September 11 at the Skyline Drive0In in Brooklyn and will be live-streamed to Roblox users. Avatars wearing the fashion brand’s autumn 2022 styles will cat-walk through the platform’s ‘remixed virtual city of New York’ alongside the ‘see now, buy now’ collection display.  

As part of the newly launched initiative, Hilfiger worked with eight Roblox users who create their own content to render 30 2D and 3D versions of virtual fashion items as digital assets. Roblox users can dress up their avatars with these fashion items.

These fashion items consist of Tommy Jeans backpack, bucket hat and head bow, headset, crossbody bag, skateboard and more - all of which are reinterpreted from some of Hilfiger’s signature items. 

The fashion collection will also be available to purchase worldwide along with exclusive digital assets for Roblox users, details of which have yet to be released. 

‘This season is all about the collision of my favourite archival inspirations with the new live event concepts and virtual worlds. It’s the perfect expression of what we stand for as we pay homage to our roots with a return to NYFW,’ said Tommy Hilfiger in a statement. 

Previously, Hilfiger has showcased its fashion collections at a fashion week for the Metaverse. Back in March, the company entered the Metaverse for the first time via  Decentraland and presented its Spring 2022 collection in the first-ever Metaverse Fashion Week. It also partnered with Roblox back in December 2021 to launch a 30-piece digital fashion collection and expanded the partnership in June to launch its Tommy Play community space. 

Other major fashion brands are also entering the Metaverse in unique ways. Like Hilfiger, Balenciaga also launched its own virtual fashion show in 2020 called Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow, a ‘video game’ that took place instead of its Fall 2021 runway show in 2020.

Gucci entered the Roblox Metaverse with the opening of Gucci Town, which serves as a ‘dynamic destination’ for users to explore the vision of creative director Alessando Michele. This follows on the heels of the fashion house’s other immersive experiences, which includes Gucci Garden launched in May 2021.

Burberry also announced it would release a limited-edition of its Lola handbags on Roblox.  

Photo: Tommy Hilfiger