SYKY DEBUTS LUXURY FASHION INCUBATOR FOR DIGITAL DESIGNERS

by John Russel Jones Apr 11, 2023

While Meta/Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may have ghosted the Metaverse, the Web3 world still has fans in the fashion industry, especially because of its ability to reduce prototyping times and costs (among other things) through 3D design tech. Today the digital fashion platform SYKY launched the SYKY Collective, which will be a cohort of creatives who will go through a year-long incubator that will serve as a launch pad for emerging digital designers. Since its launch in 2022, SYKY has bridged the gap between the world of luxury fashion, digital design, and web3: With the launch of this incubator, the company aims to eliminate the industry’s traditional barriers to entry by empowering the next generation of design talent with new models for creating, scaling, and distributing their collections.

Alice Delahunt, Founder and CEO, SYKY

Alice Delahunt, Founder and CEO of SYKY, said, “SYKY believes that the next generation of luxury fashion designers are global, exist at the intersection of physical and digital realms, and are leveraging technology to decentralize the fashion industry. We believe that the next generation of major luxury houses is designing in digital worlds today and that the SYKY Collective will be the launchpad of many of these next-generation luxury fashion houses.”

Each year, SYKY will curate a new cohort of digital designers who will participate in a year-long proprietary curriculum that will enable designers to launch their own luxury fashion houses. Designers will be selected and supported by industry-leading mentors, who will serve as advisors throughout the program and help to foster the talent of the highest quality. This year’s mentors include leading executives and creatives from Calvin Klein, the British Fashion Council, Vogue, web3-native players from Red DAO and Epyllion, and the creative agency Frosty. The inaugural cohort will feature ten designers who will be selected during the open application period which starts today.

As part of the incubation, SYKY Collective designers will get access to:

  • Proprietary SYKY Curriculum – A year-long educational program that will expose designers to business strategies and considerations, creative and technical lessons for design, and relationship-building techniques, among other lessons.
  • Mentorship from industry experts – ongoing one-on-one sessions with SYKY Collective mentors who give personal access to the luxury fashion industry and provide a one-of-a-kind view into the inner workings of running successful fashion houses.
  • The British Fashion Council’s extensive curriculum whose alumni include Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Christopher Kane, Phoebe Philo, Jonathan Anderson, Simone Rocha, Grace Wales Bonner, and dozens of other successful fashion designers.
  • Access to Fashion Industry Events – special invites and access to many of the major fashion moments in the industry calendar
  • Showcase Collections on SYKY platform – SYKY Collective designers launch their genesis collection on the SYKY platform which will launch in the coming months.
  • Special Brand Collaborations – cohort designers will be eligible to continue their work through partner collaborations with top luxury brands.

Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council, said, “Fashion sits at the intersection of culture, constantly innovating to challenge the status quo and embrace newness. We are excited to work with the SYKY collective to focus on the evolution of the possibilities for the fashion industry, provide education for designers, engage with new audiences, create and build experiences and explore what’s next.”

Jonathan Bottomley, CMO of Calvin Klein, said: “I’m incredibly honored to have been selected by Alice Delahunt and the SYKY team to be an inaugural Mentor for The SYKY Collective. I believe that empowering and nurturing the next generation of fashion designers is powerful, and I believe SYKY’s connections to the established luxury fashion world and the ascendant Web3 economy will create an experience unlike any other fashion incubators.”

The SYKY Collective logo is a 3D creation from the SYKY Community in celebration of this launch. Applications for The SYKY Collective open today on SYKY.com and will close on May 2nd, 2023. The inaugural cohort of designers will be announced in early June and the incubator will commence at the end of that month.