Scottish composer Alastair White’s new fashion-opera, #CAPITAL, is to open Metaverse Fashion Week 2023. The work will be performed within a bespoke fashion-opera house, the “House of Synergos,” designed by Sybarite architects — whose niche specialism is experiential retail.
Taking place within Metaverse Labs’ platform Dragon City, the work features the digital fashion of Winter Olympics brand CHENPENG curated by the fashion week’s ambassador Gemma A. Williams. It is performed by Queen Elisabeth Competition candidate Kelly Poukens (“a soprano in a thousand” — Klassiek Centraal) and danced by Zara Sands (“extraordinary” — North West End) with sound production by Pieter Franssen.
#CAPITAL is a tale of dematerialization and symbolism: from the first time someone exchanged a token for an object, or a symbol — a word — for a being in the world — all the way through gold bars and bank notes, or the virtual reality of art — to Web3, avatars and Dragon City itself. It is the story of becoming something else — where everything is always possible.
Fashion-opera is a new discipline proposed by Alastair White and Gemma A. Williams under the banner of their collective UU Studios. It has been described as “a whole exciting new genre of art” (BBC RADIO 3) “groundbreaking” (Classical Music Magazine), “perfect” (Vogue Italia) and “genuinely original” (TEMPO). The methodology behind these, outlined by Alastair White in a recent PhD, concerns a reimagining of the relationship between garment and music. This is based on ideas drawn from contemporary mathematics and quantum mechanics: that is, the existence of multiple infinities and universes allows for the existence of an art form in which each constituent — fashion, music, drama, dance — is both central and absolute. This new work develops the methodology both by its translation into the digital realm of the metaverse, and through the incorporation of architecture into its collaborative networks.
Simon Mitchell, architect and co-founder of Sybarite, explains how: “Designing an opera house in the metaverse immediately appealed to my sense of all things avant-garde. The hyperbolic paraboloid is a structure symbolising modernisation and progress and so it appears here in Dragon City as a defining feature of the ‘House of Synergos’ existing at the intersection of what is inspired by the past and yet transcends us infinitely beyond that, the dream of all architects. This is a place where architecture, music and fashion come together in perfect synergy to interact and explore the possibilities of living in another reality.”
When participating in the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, CHENPENG began their journey of exploring the virtual clothing domain and later that year released digital collectable designs during Shanghai Fashion Week. The brand observe that, for them, “the metaverse concerns infinite possibilities – how digital technologies can achieve something that is impossible in the physical world with strong visual impact. With the development and progress in 6G/7G networks, the chip industry, wearable devices and holographic projection, new trends in fashion will emerge. The definition of consumers and audiences, goods and spaces, will continue to evolve as times change. What we are doing now is preparing for the arrival of this near future.”
Where: Dragon City, Decentraland, The Metaverse
When: 28th March 2023
www.sybarite.com | IG: @sybaritearchitects | Twitter: @sybaritearch
www.chenpeng.com | IG: @chenpengstudio | Twitter: @metaverselabs
www.metaverselabs.com | IG: @metaverselabs_
www.dragoncity.io | Twitter: @dragoncityio
www.alastairwhite.com | Twitter: @alwhitemusic
