How Fashion Brands Can Create VALUE within the Metaverse | Metaverse Fashion Council | PI Apparel

My name is Anna, and thank you for coming, and thank you for having us. And may I introduce myself? My name is Anna. I'm a fashion designer, and I start my career when I was 16 years old. And we really know the old fashion system, and now we are here for build new fashion system in metaverse fashion. And may I introduce my colleague, his name Kazbek. Yeah.

Hello. Okay, so my name is Kazbek Viktor Suno, but Anna forgot to add her family name. Her true family name is Anna Karenina, like that's truth. Yeah. So as the fashion designer, yeah, that's truth. So, but no, no, any other connotations with this novel. And as a designer and as, well-known, well enough known as the NAK. So she really started her career when she was 16. And you know, 6 years ago, we switched from traditional fashion to blockchain. So we started, and at slide number 9, we'll describe it with more details. As for now, my name is Kazbek Bekhtursunov. So my family name is like— like difficult to pronounce even for me. But Kazbek is like a unique name. It's OK. So we are based in LA. So we launched Metaverse Fashion Council last year. So we're just 1 year old. Yeah. We hate this hype with the metaverse. And happy us, there is another hype now with AI. Yeah. So and there are just 2 problems, 2 difficulties for us to start this conversation and to explain what we are building. And those difficulties and problems are, our not native English, but it's okay. Another problem is that not native language of metaverse as it is, yeah, with all of those NFTs, Web3, like decentralized finance, which all sounds a little bit like scammer language, yeah. So I, yeah, that's true. So it's one of the barriers which works as an obstacle, yeah, to join. So one of our goals today is just to, make this short introduction and to make things simple, friendly, and quite open. Because to be open is the main thing in all of the Metaverse stuff. Oh, I forgot to— Yeah. Oh yeah, thank you. Yeah, so we are Metaverse Fashion Council. It's not us. It's an already existing bigger community. We can say, we can brag that we are one of the fastest growing community in the world. I mean, in metaverse, yeah, not just in metaverse. So for instance, just on LinkedIn, yeah, which is full of business leaders, our community is approximately 20,000 of people, yeah. So no penny spent on advertising or stuff like that. So we have approximately 250 business members and angel members, yeah, of our community. And them are representatives of Armani brand, of Pincor, brand, of Lanchon brands, of a lot of venture capital funds from Silicon Valley. So we usually go there, and from London, and so on. So we have our joke that sun never sets down upon the Metaverse Fashion Council because we have our members from New Zealand to California, where we live, including Paris, London, Milan, blah, blah, blah, Delhi. So here we start. Yeah, so as I said, there are two difficulties. OK, the main one is this complicated language of metaverse. And let's start with it. Yeah. Yeah. So the metaverse, what it is and is not. Yeah. So there is a hype. Yeah, there was a hype with the metaverse. Yeah, it all started with the announcement made by Mark Zuckerberg, October 2021. When he said, let's change the name of our company from Facebook to Meta, even explaining the ancient Greek root of the word meta. So meta is something behind, yeah, so, or beyond. So another idea by Mark Zuckerberg was in this announcement that the metaverse is going to be the next stage of internet itself because in his mind, the latest development of internet is videos, mobile and videos, and now metaverse. When people ask him what is metaverse, he said it's like spaces for people to meet after COVID-19, after corona. So there is some complicated connection. And his idea was that people can still use Facebook. I'm not against Facebook, but I just describe his ideas. People will use Facebook, but they will look like 3-dimensional creatures without legs. So that was the first description of what metaverse will be. So all of us, we know— I read a lot of articles in Financial Times and in other serious publications that Facebook— so Meta, new company Meta, yeah, so with new name— they invested up to $15 billion every year into the development of the metaverse, yeah. And here, this picture shows us one of the first results. It's a true picture from Facebook. And they say, OK, metaverse will look like that. Yeah, like that. So our answer is no. This is not the metaverse. So bravo. Thank you. Thank you for supporting. OK, so after all the wave of criticism, so where are the legs at least? OK, everyone understand that. That Mark Zuckerberg wants not to lose the market capitalization of his company. He wants to survive in his severe competition. So that was one of the reasons when buying Oculus headsets. So he just wanted to be at the same level with the younger generations, like Anna, like Gen Z. Everyone says, OK, Gen Z are the future. Future. So new wave rose. Other platforms came, other conference speakers came, yes, saying, OK, we know where to go. We know what to do. Just stay with us. Yeah, so and a lot of new concepts or new ideas of what metaverse is were brought to the market. Someone said, use VR, virtual reality. This is the metaverse, or like AR. Augmented reality, so this is the metaverse. Or XR, like, I forgot what is X. Extended reality, yeah. So we say whatever R, like, is it not scam, but so there are questions to this R, to this reality, yeah. So it's philosophical question. And just to promote the world, XR, VR, AR doesn't create any metaverse, yeah. So because we take metaverse seriously, So we really think it's quite serious.

Not like a buzzword. Yeah.

Yeah, it's not just a buzzword itself. OK. So and it's not just the tech solution. It's not just like— it cannot be built or created by any tech giant. So can we ask— oh, yeah, I see. Yeah, on your slides, it looks good. So another attack was produced by tech giants from California— not just from California. We're not against California. California. But like Snapchat came saying, oh yeah, it's us. We will create the metaverse. Microsoft, of course, Microsoft said, oh, stay with us. We are the metaverse. And all of them, Tencent, Chinese companies said the same stuff. But all the community of metaverse people, of blockchain people know that, of course, they just want to create what we call walled gardens. Controlled area where they can control and grab your data and then start to selling them and reselling them. So like it happens with social media, we don't blame, we don't complain, but it happens. It already happens in social media. And there are a lot of questions to that. So this picture, so we grab it from, I hope it's from maybe from Facebook or from World Economic Forum. Even then they said, Now, it was an announcement last month. They said, OK, guys, after Davos meeting, world leaders, political leaders, the CEOs of the biggest companies, they will create the metaverse for themselves to meet. And then they brought the picture without legs. So one year passed after Facebook. They are still without legs. But they want to control everything. And they said, we will invite Microsoft, of course, Facebook, and Interpol. So when the journalists ask why Interpol, they said to control scammers. So of course, we should do. So we are like world government. We should do that and still having this visual side. We have no pictures here. Why? Because we say that there is only one decentralized metaverse. Decentralized is the key word, decentralized. We respect Facebook, we respect Microsoft, we respect Snapchat, we respect all of them. We respect another thousand of smaller platforms, yeah? So metaverse is going to be the sum of all of the platforms. Because otherwise, if metaverse is not decentralized, and that is a problem, decentralization is a problem, yeah? So for regular people. But if it's not decentralized, it will lose its charm. It will lose its raison d'être. So otherwise, it's not needed. Otherwise, it's just a buzzword. Otherwise, it's just like marketing, another marketing stuff, another old system of selling and pushing goods with all of these already existing problems. So our definition of metaverse in general is true. Yeah, so we're quite sure. So no one before could say simply, could explain— I'm kidding, not no one, but I mean, it's not so usual to speak about metaverse simply. Yeah, so we say metaverse is going to be— metaverse to come is a new economical reality. It's a new economy. Of course. So we'll try to describe what kind of a new economy. OK, so yeah, and being this new economic reality, metaverse is agnostic. It's platform agnostic. It is blockchain agnostic. I hope it's everything agnostic. So I mean, so it's not like Microsoft coming— sorry for this repetition— and saying, OK, it's with us or with them. With Facebook. Metaverse is more than that. It's more than Chanel creating metaverse. It's more than— sorry, Chanel, we love Chanel, but still it's bigger. Yeah, it's like a universe. Yeah, so Mongolia cannot come out and say— Mongolia is the country— so they cannot come out and say, hello, we are the universe. Yeah, of course you are the universe, but California is universe as well. Yeah, so France This is the universe, yeah? So the universe, I mean the real world, yeah, it consists of all different countries, different cultures, different people. The same story is with the metaverse, yeah? So we're going to describe it with the help of fashion. So we say that all different platforms which are going to be created, which are created in the metaverse, and we are focused on fashion, should be interoperable, yeah, they should be interconnected. They should be, on one hand, they should be decentralized, that means independent from each other. On the other hand, of course, they should be connected, yeah, otherwise it will not work, it will not happen. So like with this example with countries, yeah, all countries are different, but at the same time, so we still have United Nations. It doesn't work properly, not all the time. I'm Ukrainian. I know what I say. But still, there is United Nations. Yeah? So, and there is a lot of— there are a lot of different technologies which help us to put together all the different things, initiatives, ideas in this metaverse. Yeah? So, and there are a lot of complicated terms and words in this area which should be explained. Maybe during Q&A, we can help you with, if needed, with those explanation, like Web3, like NFT, and so on. Now I will try to describe Web3 because it's important. Please raise your hand who can exactly answer what Web3 is because it's about everyone. Heard this word, yeah, Web3. What is Web3? Mathematically, it's something after 2, yeah? That's the answer. Because me personally, I had like— I'm not lazy still. And I had like 700 calls, on Zoom calls, of course, yeah, with different people from New Zealand to California. And I usually ask them, so, Do you use Telegram? They say, ah, no, Telegram is for, I don't know for who, different answers. You know, all the crypto industry is a blockchain industry on Telegram. If you don't use Telegram, that means that you are not from, that means you have no Bitcoins. It's easy, easy question. So I cannot ask you, do you have Bitcoin wallet? Yeah, so it's like, sound not so polite, but I can ask you, do you use Telegram? When people say no, that means they are just still not in the blockchain industry. Industry. Yeah, OK. Then I ask, so Web3, of course, please tell me, what is Web3? 60% of people say this is web after Web2. And they are right. That's it, because 3 is after 2. Yeah. But there is some difference. So let me explain this. So there is a history of internet. Yeah. The internet as we know it, I mean, Internet for customers started with web. So it was genius invention of protocols, of open protocols for people. It was established just 30 years ago, 1992. And it was open, and it was anonymous, pseudonymous. It was free. It wasn't controlled by anyone. So it was a dream of freedom, of anarchy, sorry, of lack of— World Economic Forum. It was just new area of communication, of informational communication. Information is the keyword for web, for internet. So then came Mark Zuckerberg. Remember the slide number 1. So, and they, not just him, but other people, Twitter, Instagram, and they started creating quite comfortable for us social media. That is Web 2. So it's more comfortable for people to be connected, to communicate. But what is the price? The price is our data. The price is our freedom. So I'm from Ukraine, so I know what freedom is. So what is Web3? So the concept is from 2014. It's from blockchain. It's from crypto-anarchy, 100%. So what is crypto-anarchy? It's something which cannot be destroyed. Even by World Economic Forum, by FBI, by anyone else, because it's decentralized like Bitcoin blockchain, like Ethereum blockchain. And they brought the idea of ownership in the internet. So can someone explain me what is acronym IT means? IT, IT technology. What is IT? What is I? Information, yeah. All this business, hundreds of billions, trillions, trillions practically, I mean the capitalization of all companies are about just information. What is information? Information about something. That means I have my account on Facebook. And when I see Kazbek Viktor Sunov there, it's not me. It is information about me, my pictures, my friends, my connections. It's just the information, yeah. So what is Web3? The next step is that we can create some entities, some things. I don't know the right word, entity, something, objects there which truly exist. Bitcoin is not the information. Bitcoin is like 1 kilogram of gold practically. So you cannot steal it. You cannot destroy it. You cannot do anything with that. So it exists. Not like— it exists. That is Web3. Ethereum exists. Good tokens— not all of them are good. 99% of them are as bad as all the marketing stuff, yeah? But they exist, and you can own them directly. That is Web3. Web3 is your direct ownership of really existing things. Am I clear here? Yeah. So they exist. So when I try to explain it to— sometimes people say, no, internet doesn't exist in the real world. Real world consists of trees, stones, water, and Joe Biden and so on. I say, yeah, of course, of course. But Bitcoin exists as well. Yes. And Joe Biden exists like in the news, which are information technology. Yeah. OK. So Web3. And what is the metaverse fashion? Let's focus to our main topic. We are from fashion industry. So as we say, the metaverse— metaverse to come is going to be decentralized, based on blockchain, providing us true ownership of true entities in the internet, yeah, so, or like in digital form, yeah. So in terms of fashion, so we can say that fashion is going to be one of the most, and I'm sure the most important industry inside of the metaverse. Why fashion? Because, you know, here in this world, sometimes people say, oh, fashion isn't serious. Fashion is for ladies. Fashion is for— so, you know, I'm not a fashionista. But I've been investing for 15 years into fashion. I hosted 2 fashion weeks, wholesale showroom in Paris. I'm president of a company, of French company. So we traded to 25 countries. Every time, all of my friends said, Kotzberg, stop doing that. 'So it's not serious.' Or fashion, it's like for them, it's fashion shows. You say, 'No, it's a business. It's $9 trillion of revenues per year.' They say, 'Oh, okay, it's still, it's not serious.' But you know, in their metaverse, I'm sure that fashion will play even more important role than here in this world. Why? Imagine you are going to create your avatars, your identities, your self as we call it, So it will not be naked selves there. It will not be. No one will be naked. So someone will be naked, but not because of the bad weather in California. So I want to add, we live here. So we had snow last week.

I heard.

Snow. So we saw it. So I'm from Ukraine, so we are okay with snow. But still, I was shocked. I said, oh, I want to leave California soon. No. Yeah, but in the metaverse, people will use clothing— oh no, sorry, not clothing— fashion, not because of snow in California. No. There is no gravity there. There is no need to warm your body up. Yeah? But still, fashion is the most powerful language to express yourself, to establish yourself. Yeah, of course. So I read a book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, sorry for my philosophical background. So it's like an essay about the inequality among people. And he said, okay, different people have different skills, different families and so on. And the shortest and the most polite language to show this inequality is, yeah, clothing, fashion, of course. It's the 18th century. So Jean-Jacques Rousseau is one of the main philosophers of modern thinking. OK. In the metaverse, you can be dinosaurs. You can be like a beautiful lady. You can be whoever you want to be. You can change your looks, but it still looks. So I have my mentor, just one. It's my 10-year-old son David. So he's typical LA boy. So he plays Roblox every day. He plays 5 hours per day. I play just 1, but every day. I play Roblox. Yeah. So of course, you have kids. Yeah. And your kids play Roblox. Please play Roblox with them. So it's my— the only practical advice is start playing Roblox with your kids every day. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. It's so useful. So it's so beneficial. Why? Start playing it and observe what they do. So I give money to my son, of course, for buying something in Roblox, and I watch what he buys. He spends 50% for weapon, of course. He's Ukrainian as well. And— but 50% he spends on looks. He hates two words, yeah, fashion and metaverse. Because he lives in metaverse and he's all about looks. Yeah. And he says, okay, Dad, look how I look. Yeah, I'm a dinosaur today. So his best look is like he has two katana swords, two wings, and six red eyes. He bought them for a lot of like $10 for every red eye. Yeah, it's more expensive than Zara or H&M, his eyes. And this is fashion. So that's what I'm not kidding now. So this is fashion. Because there are no limits in the metaverse. And his identity is like that. So once I said, son, I want to join you. I want to help you with a demon slaying business. Demon slayers, let's go and kill them. So and I went. But I had just, as I give money to my son, I'm greedy to spend it for myself. More than that, I think that I'm Kazbek Viktor Tsunov, I'm from metaverse. Should I spend money for my looks? No. So I'm cool enough. So, okay. I have basic Roblox avatar. That means I have Armani wide shoulders jacket. I have blonde hair with this hairstyle. Yeah. And my son said, "Dad, don't join me, please. Don't come to me closer than 10 meters." No, no, thank you. I said, "Why? So sad. I give you money." I want to support you. I see demons are there coming. I want to fight them. You are my son. I love you. He said, thank you, Dad. Keep your distance, please. Otherwise, my friends will think that I'm a friend with a noob. I'm a pro. No noobs here. Just because of looks. Just because of my Armani jacket. So I respect Armani. So I respect Armani. I love Armani. But my son doesn't. He said, go and buy yourself good stuff. Do it. Yeah. So, and he was my stylist. So I said, okay, here's the money, do something. Now I have 6 arms, so I can show you later. Yeah. So I'm cool. Next time we can meet in the Roblox and we can speak there. Yeah. I'm not kidding now. So I do it every day. So.

Yeah, and I think the, most important thing in metaverse fashion is not clothes, it's looks, it's red eyes, pink hairstyle, and it's a business.

Yeah, so fashion in the metaverse is wider than, wider than clothing. Yeah, of course, not just. So that is why we're not against Nike, Gucci, and so on, so respect them. But when they try to go to metaverse and to make a copies of t-shirts And of sneakers, it's like a lack of fantasy. So I told my son, go— of course, I brought him to Nike Garden, Gucci Garden in the Roblox. You know that Gucci invested into Roblox. He said, Dad, so I give you 5 minutes to be here. OK, you pay me 1,000 Robux just for being here. OK, what do you want me to do? I said, please, please try this. Something, he said, no. How can I change my Six Red Eyes for this? Sorry, sneakers. No, it's not cool. My friends will say you are not cool. So we're sure that sooner or later brands will widen their inventory. And we know which way, not just with the help of Roblox. And as Anna said, so we already have some projects with the tattoos. Makeups, hairstyle, like motions. Yeah, it's all the part of the fashion. Yeah. So what is Metaverse Fashion Council? So who is us? So Metaverse, Metaverse Fashion, Metaverse Fashion Council, it's us, our community, as we already said. So we started just like we started Oh, 45 minutes. OK, we started in April last year. Our idea was to start creating this community and to invite more people to open their eyes, to start connecting blockchain and fashion. When I say blockchain, I don't mean technology. I mean decentralization, to be open. So, and now as I bragged already, so we're good enough, we're successful. Yeah, and oh yeah, and here's our background and history. Here's Anna.

Yeah, I have the same jacket.

I asked Anna to use the same leather jacket. It's her design, yeah. So you will tell your story or I will? Okay.

I can explain it.

Oh yeah, okay.

So, okay, I'm a fashion designer and when I was 16, I launched my own brand Anna K. And I did my show in New York Fashion Week, London, Milan, and Paris. So I did collaboration with Colette. It's one of the main store in Paris in fashion industry. And I did collaboration with Cybex. It's fashion strollers from Germany. Maybe you know this brand. So, and we have a huge experience. Last 11 years we working fashion industry and beautiful old system fashion industry. So in my 21, I think it was in 2017, I was on Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Thank you Forbes for that. Yeah, and in 2019 we switched like blockchain. Crypto, old-fashioned system to blockchain. We start to connect fashion with cryptocurrency, with blockchain. That's how we build, um, Fashion Coin, and that's how we start to create this metaverse fashion together with Skazbek. So I think this is like short explanation.

Oh yeah, and there was— that is our Fashion Coin from 20 2019, you know, the capitalization of it, it was $100 million once. Then it went down, of course, as all the market. So but it exists. It is just a symbol of our knowledge what to do on blockchain with crypto. So we already described it. Sorry, I feel that we should be in a rush. Yeah. So the thesis, community owns money in the metaverse. So please understand it. So everyone loves money. Of course, money is important. Important. Of course, of course, even us we think so. But technically, dollars, pounds, euros, and rubles doesn't— don't work in them technically in the metaverse on blockchain. So it's going to be crypto or any other digital assets first. Then on the legal level, yeah, so this fiat governance money, they are like for fiat world, for this RR, real reality. Yeah, so as it is, yeah. So money should be based, should be decentralized there. And one quite important thesis, yeah. So in this world, it is not society, it is not community, so it's not people who own and control money. Government does, yes? Am I right? In their metaverse, it's just community who owns and controls money. So it's not so evident, but it's important, yeah. So as you already know, I'm boring person, so I love philosophical books. And I read in Latin. So the first book about money in all the European history, it's Nicolas Oresme from Paris, of course. So it's a book De Moneta. It was the 13th century. It's the first philosopher who said, okay guys, it's not the prince, government, who owns, mints, and controls money. It should be people, it should be community. Yeah, of course everyone read this book and said, fired. No, of course it's prince and government who controls money. But 1,000 years ago, this idea was already, expressed openly and clearly. In metaverse, it cannot be otherwise. It cannot be otherwise. It, it can happen maybe not tomorrow, but in 1 year, in 10 years. And the basis for it, it's prepared. It's a Bitcoin, Ethereum, all blockchain solutions, and so on. Yeah. So what is Metaverse Fashion Community? As I already just described. Yeah. So it's a 20,000, uh, business leader community with like 200 150 business members, yeah, I mean like companies who joined us. And starting from March, we'll launch a campaign. And we're sure that we will have like at least 1,000 of fashion brands and venture funds and other tech platforms and people inside of the Metaverse Fashion Council. So the main point, yeah, so we developed, so we elaborated this special tech solution. We call it SELF. All of us heard something about NFTs, yeah? And all of us know that NFTs smell a little bit, I would say bullshit, but I mean something like greedy, like, OK, looking for greater fool, yeah? Like, OK, we launch Apes NFTs. Yeah, I buy it today. I will resell it tomorrow. Yeah, so it's just sometimes it's successful, sometimes not. 95% of cases it's not good, not successful. In our case, when we say they are going to sell, they're going to be tokens, technically speaking. But they are non-transferable tokens. And they will create your self, not yourself in one word, but your self. It can be 10 selves. Yeah. So, uh, and all of those selves are going to be the basis for all the community. Yes. So without that step, there will be no metaverse fashion at all. Otherwise, Gucci can come to Roblox another thousand of times. Yeah. So, but it will work just as marketing. Yeah, it works, but it just is marketing. So we, we, we present those ourselves here, and we are so happy to be here. And, uh, PIA Parallel LA, today is the first day when we say about it openly. Congratulations, thank you, you are a witness. And for instance, Threads, yes, this unique and quite cool application, it has everything. It's true community creating app, but the one additional feature is tokenomics. Maybe one day we will add it. So, Selves is your opportunity. So if someone wants to start using it practically, please speak to us. So we will tell how to do it. So we are starting creating those Selves in the metaverse. What is Self? It's like Self Token provides membership in the metaverse fashion community. Self Token verifies attendance to the event. I hope next PIA Parallel will be— 2 minutes? Oh, okay. And we're going to invest into the products of projects like education, news, awards, and so on. And Anna, today—

Winter is our—

Yeah, and that is our mantra for today. Winter is over. Women crypto winter is over. Investment winter is over. Los Angeles winter is over. We hope so. Yeah. So thank you for your attention. So thank you for having us.