51Âþ»­

They are used to seeing their designs on the catwalk – but three fashion graduates will get to witness their latest creations on virtual runways after being selected for Metaverse Fashion Week.

The event, which runs from March 28 to 31, will take audiences around the world on a virtual fashion extravaganza, with student designs mixing with collections from DKNY, Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger hosted on metaverse platform Decentralised -



Designs from 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­) fashion graduates and students Aiyaaz Khan, Nouf Ali and Bethany Bell have been chosen to be part of 10 new designers by digital fashion platform for Digital Meets Culture, its showcase of fashion cultures around the world. 

Each represents a different part of the world and has taken inspiration for their designs which will spotlight cultural heritage and diversity.

Aiyaaz’s knitwear reflects his Italian and Indian heritage, Bethany has been chosen to represent England and Nouf’s designs reflect Saudi Arabia. His family moved from India to Italy in the late 1990s and his knitwear designs reflect his memories of the heritage crafts and culture.

Nouf’s headwear was originally made with the bead weaving technique, an endangered but culturally significant handicraft in Saudi Arabia, while Bethany was inspired by the great coat worn by British servicemen and women during the First World War.

All three are excited to be working with altr on the project and seeing their work in the metaverse.


Aiyaaz said: “I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to have been chosen to showcase my work on the metaverse fashion week. After initially being approached going through the shortlisting stage and having submitted work to such a distinguished and varied panel, it’s a great achievement to have been recognised and body of work being showcased on such huge platform.

“After studying my BA at 51Âþ»­ and being shortlisted to showcase my graduate collection at the Graduate Fashion Week on a physical runway last year, is so exciting to see my designs being digitised and formalised into a virtual catwalk, it’s so different from what traditional fashion shows are and it’s so fresh and environmentally sustainable and accessible.”



“I think it's really exciting, it's an amazing use of digital space and technology,” said Bethany. “I think that it's a wonderful way to showcase a garment or artwork, I think it's making the future of fashion more accessible, and I'm very excited to see how it all looks.

“It's definitely a different experience, it's wonderful to see my work showcased in a different way, and the work the ALTR team has done is amazing, it is literally my garment recreated digitally, which is just wonderful to see. I think this is very exciting, because it can be seen by anyone anywhere in the world, which is more accessible than an IRL catwalk.”

This year is the second time the Metaverse Fashion Week has been held and will be hosted on the Decentralised platform. DKNY is presenting DKNY.3 which features an art gallery, pizzeria and rooftop lounge. Visitors can also attend yoga sessions, see Miami Fashion Week and buy clothes using NFTs.

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