Portal: M, Jenn Lee & Acer Bring the Metaverse to Life and Champion Sustainability at London Fashion Week 2023

Gaming experiences showcasing 3D designs at Jenn Lee's show highlight potential for digitalization to reduce industry fabric waste while creating brand engagement opportunities for retailers

NEW YORK and LONDON, Sept. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Portal: M, a Taiwan-based metaverse fashion startup, today unveiled its partnership with renowned designer Jenn Lee to digitalize her collection this year and bring it to life at London Fashion Week 2023 — in the virtual 3D worlds of video games using Acer laptops. The 3D designs were central to Jenn Lee's exhibition at Tab Centre in Shoreditch, London on September 17. Facilitated by Portal: M's key partner and Taiwan's leading garment manufacturer Makalot, the cross-industry collaboration underscores the major opportunities digitalization offers for making the fashion industry more sustainable and virtually engaging while encouraging designers to also think of themselves as digital content creators.

To explore turning apparel designs into digitalized, 3D form for the metaverse, please contact Portal: M at https://portalm.io/#home

For an industry that is reported by the UN to waste 25% of fabrics in its supply chain, digitalizing designs while reusing materials is a significant opportunity for improving circularity of materials, as the collaboration demonstrates. The practice would also bolster the growing metaverse fashion industry — Deloitte found that, with a potential value of $55 billion by 2030, top-quality digitalized versions of garment designs are a major opportunity for retailers, fashion brands and designers themselves to leverage the work of 3D artists and companies like Portal: M.

"By digitalizing clothing designs, Portal: M is expanding possibilities for designers and for the fashion industry," noted Alan Liu, Co-Founder of Portal: M. "In addition to delivering opportunities for the industry to reuse and recycle materials and to engage younger consumers in the metaverse, we're empowering designers themselves to embrace sustainability in their creative process as they perfect a garment. This is win-win-win for the future: higher consumer engagement via advancement of fashion tech, the ability to reuse fabrics in a way conducive to creative processes, and sustainability for the industry."

Circularity and facilitating the design process

At the forefront of digital fashion innovation, Portal: M specializes in translating physical garments into digitalized 3D forms, expanding possibilities in the "phygital" fashion realm. As the collaboration shows, its work delivers:

• Greater sustainability and circularity of materials used: The digitalization process allows for designers to reuse and recycle materials, which reduces waste while being cost-effective.
• Endless creativity for designers: The possibilities are endless for creating new designs from a set selection of materials, and digitalization allows for minor modifications to perfect a garment and then store the design permanently.

Event highlights

• Themes: Jenn Lee emphasized:

1. The importance of seeking more freedom of self-expression, greater simplicity, and truer happiness, as antidotes to the chaotic modern world
2. Recycling waste materials and DIY, handmade design concepts: Several garments on display were made by recycling discarded materials discovered along a Taiwanese riverbank, demonstrating her belief in the value of creating things with one's own hands.

• Main feature:
  •  A gaming section held seven Acer laptops to immerse attendees in the fashion metaverse, with 3D depictions of Jenn Lee's designs. These laptops also spotlighted games enriched with themes of female empowerment, expression of individualism, and the celebration of diversity and uniqueness, integrating the 3D clothing within.
  • Digital apparel designs could be viewed in stereoscopic 3D in 4k resolution through Acer's SpatialLabs experiences. SpatialLabs realizes ideas in 3D with stunning detail, allowing designers to accelerate their creative process from ideation to final design.

• Designs on digital display: High-definition screens also projected Portal: M's virtualized 3D designs, highlighting Jenn Lee's skillful use of recycled materials and specialized lining.
• Atmosphere: The venue mirrored the ambiance of Jenn Lee's studio – casual yet artistically vibrant, with design sketches and an array of art pieces.

For further information about the event or collaboration, please email: vanessachou@makalot.com.tw

About Portal: M
Portal: M is leading the way to digitalize the fashion industry, partnering with designers, manufacturers and retailers alike to unlock creativity and bring new possibilities to the phygital fashion world.