Helsinki Fashion Week 2022 to focus on the future of phygitals

For its eighth edition, Helsinki Fashion Week is preparing to return with a particular focus on the connection, and disconnection, between the physical and the digital world.

Set to be held from August 5 to 7 in the Finnish capital, the event will explore the concept of ‘phygitals’, the meshing of both physical and digital products that has been increasingly favoured by designers over the past year.

In a release, the organisation said: “The lines between physical and digital are more blurred than ever. It isn’t a question of which one is better, but rather of how the two worlds can coexist in a mutually beneficial symbiosis.”

For the event, the fashion week will look into the questions of how to improve the physical world through digitisation and which part of this world should be included into “our new reality”.

It continued: “As physical presence can be considered a luxury in today’s world, it is also time to re-evaluate and reinvent physical fashion.”

Helsinki Fashion Week has explored similar topics in its past, diving into the digital fashion industry through collaborative designer residencies and partnerships with tech agencies.

For its most recent edition, the organisation partnered with Digital Village, a fashion-centred metaverse platform, to research the life cycle of digital fashion and allow attendees of the event to take part in the platform’s world.

Designer applications for Helsinki Fashion Week 2022 are now open and will consist of in-person fashion shows, the event said in an Instagram post.