I went to metaverse fashion week and it was like a dystopian nightmare – I fell off a yacht and had to leave

IT’S Metaverse Fashion Week and high-end brands like Estée Lauder, Tommy Hilfiger and Dolce & Gabbana are all virtually there.

The event is taking place in the virtual reality of Decentraland from March 24 to March 27 and I went along to check out day one.

Unfortunately for my avatar, things didn’t go exactly as planned.

Anyone can ‘jump into’ Decentraland and you don’t even need a VR headset.

Creating an avatar is completely free but you’ll need a crypto-wallet if you want to start buying any of the metaverse fashion pieces.

Decentraland Foundation’s Creative Director, Sam Hamilton, said: “Fashion and haute couture are not new to the metaverse.

“Decentraland has been on the cutting edge of rare and in-demand digital fashion since the launch of avatar wearables in 2020.

“Since that time, creators have been pushing both the technical and stylistic limits of Decentraland wearables and have created a booming economy with over $1 million in sales of avatar wearables last year.”

My avatar went along to the virtual fashion village and checked out the D&G catwalk and shop.

It may have just been the video game-style visuals or the fact it was nighttime in the metaverse but the fashion village had quite a creepy feel.

At one point the avatars of three other people were literally stood inside my virtual self as we all headed for the same spot at the same time.

I visited a luxury fashion house called Auroboros and saw a futuristic bodysuit that Grime’s avatar will be wearing to close the fashion event.

That virtual building had a spiralling staircase that was the stuff of nightmares if you don’t like heights.

It displayed metaverse skins called things like ‘Replicant’ and ‘Venustrap’.

Things took a turn for the worse when I went to visit the ‘luxury fashion yacht’.

The interior of the boat itself is pretty impressive and was reminiscent of the grand style of the Titanic.

Leaving the yacht through its virtual portal was when my problems arose.

Somehow I was exited straight into the metaverse sea and could not get myself to shore no matter how much I tried.

This may be due to my poor virtual coordination and not because I had accidentally drowned my avatar.

Either way, I had to leave Metaverse Fashion Week sooner than planned after several failed attempts to save myself.

The fashion event may seem a far cry from reality but Mark Zuckerberg thinks we’ll all be living in the metaverse one day.

Zuckerberg told : “A lot of people think that the metaverse is about a place, but one definition of this is it’s about a time when basically immersive digital worlds become the primary way that we live our lives and spend our time.”

He added: “I think that’s a reasonable construct.”

Anyone who wishes to watch Grimes perform should enter Decentraland this Sunday March 27.

The musical performance show will run from 10:00pm to 11:00pm UTC (6-7pm ET).

I would recommend being careful around the virtual water.