Tommy Hilfiger – Return to NY Fashion Week

Tommy Hilfiger announces its return to New York Fashion Week for the first time in three years with an experiential runway event that will unveil the latest “See Now, Buy Now” Fall 2022 collection while immersing audiences physically and digitally into a refreshed brand world.

Inviting press from all over the world Tommy Hilfiger had the opportunity to exclusively invite 2 media titles from Belgium. Focusing on national reach we flew in Weekend Knack-Weekend Le Vif. Besides having access to the Fashion Show, we could offer the journalist an exclusive interview with Tommy Hilfiger himself. Besides Weekend Knack–Weekend Le Vif we kept track of Belgian media on the ground and invited Enfnts Terribles as well to cover a more niche audience in line with the Tommy Jeans brand and to have more visibility on Instagram and TikTok.

RETURNING TO NYC WITH TOMMY FACTORY

Inspired by Warhol’s legacy of celebrating pop culture and creative expression, the phygital event brought together Futuremakers from the worlds of fashion, music, art and entertainment under one roof.  Audiences arrived with the set intentionally unfinished, inviting them to experience the making of a fashion show with a cast of forward-thinking artists. Jon Batiste embraced the concept and gave an impromptu performance as he walked the carpet. The first-of-its-kind simultaneous IRL and URL runway show immersed guests in the creative playground of Tommy Factory, celebrating boundary-pushing collections and creativity across all worlds. The show grand finale included a one-off performance by legendary drummer and producer Travis Barker, playing an exclusive track for Tommy Factory, with the skyline set behind him.

THE MAKING OF A FASHION SHOW

A curated cast of next-generation photographers, videographers and artists created live art at the show and gave audiences full access to backstage preparations of the show – including hair, make-up, first looks and set design. Live set creation featured local NY talent, including Scotty Selvin, set designer; Gabe Rozzell, airbrush artist; Print Mafia & Made By Crack, screen printer; Te’an Archer, wheatpasting; Bladi, photographer; Risa Andy, live printing and wheatpasting; and graffiti artists Kyzer, OM!, Humane and DNTWATCHTV. Their content was broadcast alongside the show as part of the physical set, in the livestream within the TOMMY PLAY experience on Roblox and across the brand’s channels.

MODELS ON THE RUNWAY

The show was opened by Jalin Johnson and featured a diverse cast of models including Lila Moss, Winnie Harlow, Alton Mason, Amelia Gray, Duckie Thot, Hari Nef, Julia Fox, Paloma Elsesser, Parker van Noord, Precious Lee on the physical runway – as well as Bob Colacello, Warhol’s right-hand-man and editor of Interview magazine and American actress and model Donna Jordan, well-known as a Warhol Superstar. Avatar stars from Superplastic Janky, Guggimon and Dayzee took to the virtual runway in TOMMY PLAY wearing Tommy Hilfiger x Richard Quinn and made a special appearance at the IRL event through digital innovation.

BLENDING IRL & URL WORLDS

Guests arrived at Tommy Factory and were immediately immersed in the phygitally created brand world. Mylar balloons, inspired by Warhol’s iconic Silver Clouds, were floating against the NYC skyline – and given a digital twist with an augmented video remix of an AR guest-generated balloon installation and immersive NYC environment from Roblox played on a loop across the screens. As the experience progressed, live art was made in the creative playground while metaverse activations engaged IRL audiences, such as the Tommy Factory NFT, courtesy of Rove, that guests could receive through their phone in under a minute.

As an industry first, the physical show was livestreamed for the community on Roblox as part of an exclusively produced runway event using cutting-edge Roblox technology. Audiences could watch the IRL show while simultaneously watching screens that broadcast the show in Roblox’s remixed New York, in real-time. At the same time, the metaverse catwalk featured Superplastic star talent avatars Janky, Guggimon and Dayzee, with a special appearance from Chinees metahuman NOAH – creating a truly phygital experience across all consumer touchpoints.