Tommy Hilfiger to return to New York Fashion Week with phygital experience

Tommy Hilfiger has announced it will be returning to the New York Fashion Week schedule for the first time in three years.

Swati Bhat

Pic Courtesy: Tommy Hilfiger Skyline Drive-In, NYFW

The American brand’s return will be marked with an “experiential runway” event, unveiling its latest ‘See Now, Buy Now’ autumn 2022 collection, through which shoppers can purchase both physical and digital items.

Taking place September 11 at Brooklyn’s Skyline Drive-In, the interactive experience draws inspiration from New York’s creative scene and brings together the physical world with the metaverse, an area the brand has increasingly been exploring.

Additionally, the runway event will be live-streamed into open-world platform Roblox, which it has partnered with since December 2021, where in-game avatars will also sport digital iterations of its collection in a virtual New York setting.

In a release, the brand’s creative director Tommy Hilfiger said New York was where his heart immediately went in the decision to return to fashion week.

“This is where fashion, art, music and entertainment was all coming together when I first started out in the industry. And today, it is still this approach that inspires me to engage with the cutting edge communities building new creative experiences,” he said.

Hilfiger went on to add that the upcoming season will see a collision of his favorite archical inspirations with new live event concepts and virtual worlds, noting: “It’s the perfect expression of what we stand for as we pay homage to our roots with a return to NYFW.”

Meta-Tip: Phygital is the concept of using technology to bridge the digital world with the physical world with the purpose of providing a unique interactive experiences for the user. Phygital makes use of technology to create a digital experience that is user-friendly and seamless for the customer.

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Six street style trends from Florence and Milan

All Pic Courtesy: Nick Leuze

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Russian shoppers are turning to grey markets to buy fashion and luxury

June 19: Russian consumers are turning to grey markets for their shopping needs after sanctions have made access to local fashion and luxury labels difficult, if not impossible.

Pic Courtesy: Personal shopper via Pexels

Russian consumers are turning to grey markets for their shopping needs after sanctions have made access to local fashion and luxury labels difficult, if not impossible.

Like China’s daigou – personal shoppers who buy luxury goods abroad and resell them at home with a small markup but do so avoiding the hefty tariffs – a new breed of personal shoppers is catering to Russia’s elites.

Now that most western brands are legally required to halt or limit their Russian operations, international sanctions are affecting local populations access to goods.

Parallel system

An investigation by Panorama lifted the lid on the parallel system which since the pandemic has seen a rise in Chinese personal shoppers at privately held events in Italy where they purchase products from leading fashion and luxury houses, usually at discount. These are then sold back home with markup of 30 percent.

In recent weeks Russian shoppers have joined China’s daigou, with Russia turning a blind eye to parallel imports and third-party sellers. The Federation has waived the need for retailers importing products to have the trademark owner's permission, paving the way for a buoyant grey market.

Wildberries, a multibrand e-commerce platform in Russia, is selling brands including Zara, despite the sancations, reported Reuters. Other Inditex brands, including Pull & Bear and Massimi Dutti were also available on the platform. "We are buying goods that we sell from Wildberries without intermediaries, only directly from producers or official distributors," Wildberries said in a statement to Reuters.

Whether or not these are past seasons collections or certain distributors are continuing to sell to Russian buyers under the table, it would appear the system to acquire goods may be more challenging for Russians, but not altogether impossible.

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