DO BELIEVE THE HYPE!

NATALIA
MODENOVA

Thinking of buying a digital NFT (non-fungible token) dress or a designer skin for your avatar? It may still sound nerdy, but virtual fashion could be the next big thing according to the founders of DRESSX, the world’s largest only-digital fashion store to date.

It’s early morning in Los Angeles when we meet Natalia Modenova and Daria Shapovalova on Google for a video call. Natalia is sitting in her home office in Beverly Hills, Daria in Playa Vista, nicknamed Silicon Beach because of the numerous tech companies located there. The two Ukrainian women, aged 34 and 35, started DRESSX only two years ago in the midst of the pandemic. Their business has grown at breakneck pace since then, notably tapping into the burgeoning interest in the metaverse and NFTs (non-fungible tokens)—digital items that can be consumed and collected in the virtual world. From their beginnings as a two-woman startup, they oversee a team of 35 today. DRESSX has secured over $ 8 million in seed funding, with its investors including Artemis Fund, Warner Music, Unlock VP, Slow Ventures and many others. 

 

Shapovalova began her career hosting a fashion show for Ukrainian TV, and met Modenova at the same media company. Shapovalova co-founded Mercedes-Benz Kyiv Fashion Days with her then business partner. The fashion week quickly became the largest in Eastern Europe, with Modenova as COO of the company. After the war started by Russia in 2014, the partners set up a showroom in Paris to introduce Ukrainian brands to the market. In 2018, Shapovalova relocated to San Francisco to complete her MBA and plunged into the city’s vibrant tech scene, coming up with the idea of merging fashion with the metaverse. Modenova moved to Los Angeles, where the two founded DRESSX, recently shortlisted for LVMH’s 2022 Innovation Award.

DARIA
SHAPOVALOVA

What was your last experience in the metaverse, and what did you wear? 

 

N

M

I was selecting the outfits for my avatar on Meta when they ­re­leased the Avatars Store. It was a warrior queen outfit, one of the best-sellers that we have for our photo dressing experience. We ­also provide this outfit on Roblox, the online gaming platform. Now I’m using it as my personal sticker on Instagram instead of an emoji, to react to stories posted by friends. 

 

D

S

Same for me—it was while I was working with Meta. We’re very honoured to show and sell our collections there. Oh, and I recently purchased some fashion NFTs. Overall, working with DRESSX means that I’m in the metaverse every day.

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How would you explain to your grandmother what you’re doing?

 

D

S

Well, I don’t have a grandmother any more, but my parents are in their 60s, and they definitely understand! Maybe because I’m talking about it every day (smiles). So basically, we’re selling and designing digital assets and clothing that can exist only in digital reality. But when we launched two years ago, it was really quite tough for people to embrace the concept, because usually fashion starts with the notion of the product. And we broke this notion by saying fashion can start with the non-existence of the product. Gamers have already known this for ages. As long as 20 years ago, you could already buy some digital products in the gaming world. So we were basically just taking this concept and marrying it with the new fashion reality, where we say that digital goods for fashion brands will become an entry level for introducing the brands to new generations. Therefore, we also have a partnership with Roblox. A lot of kids are discovering DRESSX and other brands on platforms like ­Roblox. Like my nine-year-old son, David—he bought his first Adidas trainers on Roblox, not in real life. This is the new generation that will have purchasing power in 10 years from now.

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What gave you the impetus to switch from real to virtual fashion?

 

D

S

Back in Ukraine, I read every article I could find about founders in Silicon Valley who built something in the tech industry. I was completely fascinated by it. As far as I was concerned, it was evident that all innovations happen at the intersections of different industries. So I wanted to immerse myself in this tech environment and meet some of those founders to understand their way of thinking. 

 

N

M

We both studied at the Kiev Institute of Journalism, worked in media and fashion and we ran several companies together. When Daria moved to San Francisco, I was shuttling between Kiev and Paris, where we were hosting a showroom for the hottest emerging fashion brands. We also worked together on the Fashion Tech Summit, a kind of educational networking event. So we were delving deeper and deeper into the tech industry, exploring how it could be applied to fashion.

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Was it easy to find investors for the DRESSX startup? What is your annual turnover now?

 

D

S

We don’t announce our revenues because we’re a private company. In terms of investors, the concept was quite a breakthrough. Obviously, working with venture capital investors is always a complex process, but we managed to choose very good advisors and raised several rounds of capital, probably with more to come in the future.