Cyberport community members Animoca Brands, Hepha, and EW Metaverse bring virtual Hong Kong to New York Fashion Week

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13 February 2023 – World-renowned Hong Kong designer Ms Vivienne Tam, with the support of Cyberport and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York, collaborated with Animoca Brands and Hepha to bring the streets of Hong Kong to her New York Fashion Week runway show on February 12 (New York time). Animoca Brands, a company that advances digital property rights for gaming and the open metaverse, is headquartered in Cyberport, while Hepha is a Cyberport incubatee. This novel initiative introduced to the audience a brand-new fashion experience by interweaving creativity, artistry, the prowess of technologies, synergy between members of the Cyberport community, and the charm of Hong Kong.

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Ms Tam is an enthusiast of fashiontech and Web3 technologies, and founded EW Metaverse, a Cyberport fashiontech company. Together with Hepha, they created the Hong Kong metaverse environment on the stage. As the audience saw models walking down the runway, they simultaneously embraced the metaverse that showed the city’s urban streetscape and signature features such as Hong Kong trams, the legendary floating restaurant, eye-catching fluorescent signs, and pawn shops. Through the curation of Ms Tam and Animoca Brands, blue chip NFTs (non-fungible tokens), such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, Mocaverse, Meebit, and CryptoPunks, also adorned the streets of the virtual Hong Kong.

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The Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Ms Candy Nip, said, “The creative talents of Hong Kong never cease to amaze. Vivienne and Cyberport seamlessly married fashion and innovation on this glamourous global platform. We are proud to be a part of this incredible project, exuding the originality, inspiration, and beauty of Hong Kong.”

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The Chief Executive Officer of Cyberport, Mr Peter Yan, said, “It is delightful to witness a perfect Hong Kong story showcased in an international arena as prestigious as the New York Fashion Week. EW Metaverse, Animoca Brands and Hepha innovatively applied the metaverse and NFT technologies to the fashion runway, making Vivienne’s show a spectacular success, and presented us with the exciting possibilities of Web3 technologies in art and entertainment. We look forward to seeing more collaborations within the Cyberport community, and further synergy between Hong Kong and global talents in the development and application of fashiontech and other technologies.”

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Ms Tam said, “When I broached the idea of setting my runway against the background of a metaverse, I immediately thought of Animoca Brands and Hong Kong’s Cyberport. There are so many talents in Hong Kong, both from local and international origins, equipped with out-of-the-box ideas, top-notch technologies as well as an adventurous can-do spirit. I take pride in what we have achieved together with Animoca Brands and start-up Hepha in the New York Fashion Week. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Cyberport and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York for their support in making this wonderful show possible.”

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Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands, Mr Yat Siu, said, “It is a privilege to work with Vivienne and Hepha to bring a virtual Hong Kong to the New York Fashion Week. The various NFTs featured in the show represent some of the most loved and impactful brands in the open metaverse. It is awesome to see them being brought to life on Vivienne’s runway.”

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Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hepha, Mr Kevin Lee, said, "The Hepha team is extremely honoured to be a part of this project, with Vivienne and Animoca Brands, two renowned leaders in their own realms, as our partners. We are thrilled to stage Hepha’s ‘Scan the World’ Hong Kong metaverse on Vivienne’s runway show. We are grateful for the exceptional opportunity to join hands with other Cyberport community members in displaying the innovation and technology competence of Hong Kong internationally. We hope to see more similar endeavours in the future."

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Digital Entertainment & Esports is one of the key clusters at Cyberport, boasting over 160 related start-ups and tech companies across the realms of arttech, fashiontech, movietech, the metaverse, NFTs, and more. In January 2023, “Web3 Hub@Cyberport” was established to attract international Web3 companies to set up operations in Hong Kong, as well as provide opportunities for exchanges and collaboration between local and foreign Web3 enterprises.

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About Cyberport

Cyberport is Hong Kong’s digital technology flagship and incubator for entrepreneurship with over 1,900 members including over 800 onsite and close to 1,100 offsite start-ups and technology companies. It is managed by Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, wholly owned by the Hong Kong SAR Government. With a vision to be the hub for digital technology, thereby creating a new economic driver for Hong Kong, Cyberport is committed to nurturing a vibrant tech ecosystem by cultivating talent, promoting entrepreneurship among youth, supporting start-ups, fostering industry development by promoting strategic collaboration with local and international partners, and integrating new and traditional economies by accelerating digital transformation in public and private sectors.

 

For more information, please visit www.cyberport.hk

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About Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York is the official representation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government on the east coast of the United States. To promote and strengthen the economic, trade and cultural ties between Hong Kong and the 31 eastern states is among its mission.

 

For more information, please visit www.hketony.gov.hk

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About Vivienne Tam

Vivienne Tam, honored by Forbes magazine as one of the “25 Top Chinese-Americans in Business”, is an international designer known for her culture-bridging, east-meets-west approach to design. She is a pioneer in global collaborations marrying fashion with technology leaders such as HP and Tencent. Vivienne Tam effortlessly blends her cultural roots with a modern design vocabulary recognized for its artistry. She is also the author of the award winning book “China Chic”. Fashion pieces from her collections are housed in the permanent archives of the world’s most prestigious museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

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In 2015, Tam’s iconic gowns including Buddha collection were highlighted in the Metropolitan Museum Exhibition: “China: Through the Looking Glass" and documented in movie “The First Monday in May”. In 2017, she was presented with “China Fashion Award – International Designer of the Year 2017” on Mercedes-Benz China Fashion Week in recognition of her contributions and achievements in promoting Chinese culture around the world. In 2022, Tam returned to S/S23 New York Fashion Week and bridge the reality of fashion world with the virtual possibilities of Metaverse, featuring the most celebrated NFTs from BAYC, CryptoPunks, CyberKongz and Awkward Astronauts.

 

Tam’s evening gowns are sought after by celebrities from around the world. From Gong Li, Lady Gaga, Jessica Alba, Paris Hilton to Dr. Jill Biden (wife of US President, Joe Biden), former first Daughters Ivanka Trump and Tiffany Trump.

 

For more information, please visit www.viviennetam.com

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About Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands, a Deloitte Tech Fast winner and ranked in the Financial Times list of High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2021, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification that is working to advance digital property rights and contribute to the establishment of the open metaverse. The company develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Disney, WWE, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E. It has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Animoca Brands Japan, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Darewise Entertainment, Notre Game, TinyTap, Be Media, PIXELYNX, and WePlay Media. Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 380 Web3 investments, including Colossal, Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others.

 

For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or follow on Twitter or Facebook.

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About Hepha

Hepha is a global platform for IP Incubation, Verification & Licensing. Our mission is to provide a platform to support IP business developments around the world, and to be the leading platform for IP growth, development and global expansion. As a Member of Licensing International, in addition to our teams in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and UK, we have also developed partnerships in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan to serve the regional markets. Hepha is honoured to be selected as a ‘Forbes China Outstanding Enterprise’ in 2022, and is now also a Member of Hong Kong Cyberport.

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Hepha is serving mainly 3 major types of IPs, i.e. Entertainment and Characters IPs, Web 3 IPs and Digital Arts IPs. IP Owners and creators can share their work, including style guides, design samples and other related materials to match with the needs of potential clients like brands and product manufacturers. Hepha also provides verification services on the authenticity of the IP copyrights together with various national and local government bodies.

 

For more information, please visit http://hepha.io