New York February Fashion Week 2025: Exploring the Intersection of Fashion and Technology
New York City recently became the epicenter of innovation in fashion and technology with two groundbreaking events: REFIND x ThredX Labs NYFW Fashion Forward and the Digital Fashion Week NYC Symposium. These conferences showcased how technology is reshaping the fashion industry, from sustainability and community building to the integration of gaming and virtual fashion.
REFIND x ThredX Labs: Bridging Fashion and Tech
The REFIND x ThredX Labs NYFW 2025 event, held on February 6 in Soho, offered an immersive experience blending fashion, technology, and community. The event featured interactive panels, virtual try-ons, and networking opportunities, all aimed at exploring how digital innovation can enhance creativity while maintaining brand authenticity.
Key Panels and Discussions
Bridging Fashion and Tech: How Retailers and Startups Can Collaborate
Led by Sean Sinko, founder of ThredX, this panel featured industry leaders discussing how fashion brands can adopt tech solutions without compromising their identity.
Susan Fricke (Muus Collective) highlighted gaming as an untapped market for brands, noting that partnerships like her collaboration with Revolve leverage influencer marketing and AI tools to engage audiences aged 18-43.
Lisa Diegel (Faherty) emphasized sustainability through circularity, advocating for partnerships with tech companies like Archive to support resale and repair initiatives. She also noted the importance of pilot programs for startups, emphasizing the need for flexibility in onboarding new projects due to the fast-paced nature of the fashion industry.
Natasha Franck (EON) introduced the concept of digital product passports, which provide lifecycle data for garments, enabling resale and repair while aligning with upcoming EU regulations. She also underscored the importance of turning non-buyers into buyers for tech founders.
The Power of Connection: Merging Tech and IRL to Build Communities
Loriza Ibarra, founder of REFIND, moderated this discussion on integrating digital platforms with real-world interactions.
Panelists included:
Julia O’Mara (Pickle), who shared insights on peer-to-peer rental platforms that foster trust through community engagement and in-person events.
Kate Sanner (Beni), who discussed building user-friendly secondhand marketplaces with creative campaigns like resale registries, highlighting a dream partnership with EON to leverage digital product passport data.
Lucy Jones (Ffora), who highlighted accessibility-focused design in fashion.
Digital Fashion Week NYC Symposium: From IRL to URL to Gaming
On February 7, the Digital Fashion Week NYC Symposium at FIT took a deep dive into Web 3.0 technologies, gaming’s influence and digital product passports, merging the physical and virtual realms of fashion. This event underscored the role of blockchain, NFTs, metaverse integrations, and the growing impact of gaming in democratizing access to high-end fashion.
Key Highlights and Workshops
Gaming and Fashion Integration:
Tracy Greenan (A.U.R.A.) highlighted the increasing influence of gaming themes in high fashion, including cyberpunk aesthetics and the potential of haptic feedback technology to enhance the gaming experience.
Tracey Mancenido (SawHorse) discussed the importance of virtual identities for younger generations on platforms like Roblox, emphasizing the need for seamless virtual try-on experiences.
Jorrel Batac (SXNGA) emphasized the need to build sustainable relationships in the esports market, leaning less on AI, and expressed excitement for technology that reduces latency.
Olivier Moingeon (Exclusible) noted Roblox as a key platform for luxury brands to engage with a younger audience and highlighted the importance of defining performance metrics when entering the Roblox space.
The workshop "Best Practices for Building Your Fashion Business in Gaming," hosted by Game Changing Style, explored brand authenticity within games like GTA and the potential of future competitors to the Sims, such as Inzoi.
James Purell (BuildingBlox.gg) stated that engagement comes from people caring about where their items are coming from and who the founders are of the brands they are shopping with.
Haseeb Musa (Meta) discussed avatar outfitting price points on Roblox and Zepeto.
Digital Product Passport (DPP) Advantage:
Charis Marquez (eBay), moderated a panel about unlocking the future with DPP's.
Fred Clulow (Kezzler) explained how DPPs build unique identities and tell stories through textiles, emphasizing brand liability for accurate sourcing information.
Alexandra Maslova (Seamm) highlighted how DPPs give brands post-sale data, improve supply chain transparency, and facilitate customer engagement through NFC chips and blockchain technology. She later hosted a session that focused on one-click digital product passports, demonstrating features like loyalty program enrollment, virtual try-ons via AR, and the ability to track crime and stolen items.
Tom Herman (Meta Carbon) discussed the role of DPPs as digital ledgers for products, linking them to carbon emission transparency and recyclable materials, such as cotton jeans.
Retail Customer Engagement:
Janey Park (The Digital Runway) moderated a discussion on what retail customers want in terms of engagement.
Haseeb Musa (Meta Reality Labs) emphasized community building and connection as key engagement drivers in VR.
Maeve Wang (IAMBIC) highlighted utility and customization as the biggest forms of engagement, particularly through AI-driven precision-fit footwear.
Disruption and Marketing Strategies:
Nova Lorraine moderated a panel on key strategies that marketers need to know about disruption.
Jana Delamarter (Meta) stressed the importance of authenticity and learning by doing to stay competitive with rapidly changing technology, highlighting virtual try-ons as a growing trend.
Philip Malamatos (CLO Virtual Fashion) discussed the increasing demand in the gaming world for physical brand name garments to be available in the digital world
Brendon Ronon (J.Crew) advised brands to reimplement a strategy of hiring talent that doesn't just focus on churning out product.
Raymond Croft (Tommy Hilfiger) advised to take initiative and be agile.
Conclusion
Both the REFIND x ThredX Labs event and Digital Fashion Week NYC Symposium showcased how technology is transforming fashion into a more sustainable, inclusive, interactive, and gamified industry. From digital product passports and community-driven platforms to virtual fashion and AI-driven customization, these conferences set the stage for a future where innovation meets authenticity and the digital and physical worlds converge.