Iconic designer Vivienne Tam experimenting with NFTs and metaverse

September 12, 2022

By Tsering Namgyal

Famed fashion designer Vivienne Tam is working to bridge physical stories with NFTs and metaverse, she told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) in an interview.

The designer known for her ability to bridge the elements of East and West in her clothes said that the challenges of Covid 19 on her physical stores and being stuck in Hong Kong during the pandemic has led her to NFTs and metaverse.

“It is very challenging regarding my business. People are not going out to buy clothes any more. Fashion is like really the lowest priority in their life. They’re very much about like surviving, about health,” she said in an interview with “Talking Post”, the podcast conducted by the SCMP.

Asked about her new career trajectory, she said “she is very much focusing on the metaverse at this moment, and how I am going to blend this together with the physical store,” she said.

Because during the Covid 19, it was really hard to run the physical stores.

“My China partner closed all the physical stores. It’s very, very difficult times.   For me, it is a difficult moment too. But I’m like, now, we are going to do something different. So we are rethinking about fashion business. It’s not just about fashion, it’s about lifestyle,” she said.

Tam, who has dressed personalities like the US first lady Jill Biden and tennis star Serena Williams, said that she finds metaverse really interesting and it really “opened her mind.”

In the past, she said she found her inspiration from antiques and the heritage of different countries as well as minority and indigenous cultures, whose causes she helped promote to empower them, she said.

“Now I find the metaverse very interesting, especially the NFTs. The message behind the creators are very interesting. Inspired me so much,” she said, adding that “the last couple of months I have met a lot of technology and fintech people in Hong Kong especially because I was stuck in Hong Kong.”

“It really opened my mind because a lot of things that I cannot express and create in the physical world I can do it in the metaverse. I can do it in the virtual world. It’s really like (there are) no boundaries.”

She said she loved the creativity of NFTs and Metaverse and that it has been inspirational.

“And I find it really challenging. At the same time, it opened my mind and I want to do it. I want to combine my physical world together with the metaverse world. I am bridge of the two worlds,” she said.

“What is the future? I find the metaverse world, NFT world really inspiring and mind-boggling. Wow, it is amazing, I want to bring all this to the metaverse. I want to bring the virtual world and my physical world together.”

Asked what she is going to show up at the New York Fashion Week, she said “it’s very interesting bringing the NFTs and the Web3 world to reality.”

“NFT will be in my clothes, I incorporate the images into my clothes. Some of the images are difficult to merge…. But because of the challenge I love it. I can go beyond,” she said.

About the author

Tsering Namgyal is the chief content officer of the NFTmetta.com.