The Nessa Dress: Making The Unseen Visible
Threedium · Metaverse Fashion Week · 2022
A digital wedding dress by Natalie Trevonne — the project that made room for a blind designer’s imagination at the first Metaverse Fashion Week.
Project facts
- Natalie Trevonne
- Natalie Trevonne · Ernest Spicer · Xander Simms
- Creative Director · Digital Storytellers Ink
- Threedium · Unlimited3D
- Content & Product Manager
- 3D assets, AR filters, renders, and the film
- Making The Unseen Visible
- Metaverse Fashion Week · Decentraland
- –
- The Threedium Plaza
- Vogue Business · Essence · Partners for Sight · Black Girl Nerds · ABC7
01 / The Brief
The project began as a creative-director collaboration.
Before my later Threedium work, Natalie Trevonne, Ernest Spicer, and I developed The Nessa Dress through Digital Storytellers Ink. I was Creative Director on the original project team, shaping the concept with Natalie and Ernest as it moved toward a wearable digital-fashion experience.
Later, at Threedium, I served as Content & Product Manager within Unlimited3D’s product-and-content production scope. That later scope included the 3D assets, AR filters, renders, and the film Making The Unseen Visible — but it does not replace the original creative-director role.
Natalie Trevonne · AR Filter · The Nessa Dress
02 / The Story
A blind designer.
A 3D dress.
The first Metaverse Fashion Week.
Natalie Trevonne lost her vision at 18. She became a fashion designer anyway — and her premise was that fashion had never been built for her to experience. Natalie and Ernest Spicer were friends and collaborators. We developed the original project through Digital Storytellers Ink before I later connected the team with Threedium, moving the idea from a creative collaboration toward an enterprise-scale production.
The Nessa Dress made Natalie, in the words of Essence (opens in a new tab), the first blind fashion designer to create her own NFT wedding dress, and it was shown at the first-ever Metaverse Fashion Week.
03 / The Production
Producing the 3D dress, AR filters, renders, and film.
AR Filter — The Nessa Dress · Sparkle Effect
3D Render · Unlimited3D
3D Wireframe · In-Browser AR
04 / NFT.NYC & MVFW
NFT.NYC 2022, with Natalie Trevonne and Ernest Spicer.
NFT.NYC 2022 · 4th annual NFT.NYC · Supported by Polygon Studios & MoonPay
Xander Simms · Natalie Trevonne · Ernest Spicer · More stages
Threedium presents Cathy Hackl · First official Chair of Metaverse Fashion Week
05 / Dress in dimensions
From an expressive concept to a wearable world.
The Nessa Dress existed across multiple forms: an early expressive concept, Natalie’s physical-world visualizations, real-time 3D production, and a Decentraland wearable. These supplied process materials make that progression visible.
Interactive 3D wearable
Drag to orbit · Scroll to zoom
06 / Film & voice
A project built in full voice.
Two first-party records hold the story in motion: the project film moves from Natalie’s intention through the 3D and AR work, while her interview speaks directly to creative imagination, representation, and community. Both films include sound and only play when you choose.
Project film · 1:57
Making The Unseen Visible
Natalie’s project story, the rotating 3D dress, an AR visualization, and the final render.
Natalie Trevonne interview · 2:25
Designing without sight
Natalie reflects on making her imagination visible, disability representation, and showing up for her community.
07 / Metaverse Fashion Week
The Threedium Plaza, Decentraland.
The Nessa Dress went live in the Threedium Plaza at the first-ever Metaverse Fashion Week (Decentraland, March 24–27, 2022), alongside boutiques for DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, Paco Rabanne, Etro, and Charles & Keith. Before the event, Vogue Business (opens in a new tab) reported that the avatar of Cathy Hackl, the event's chair, would wear the Nessa dress; Black Girl Nerds (opens in a new tab) later reported that it did. Decentraland saw about 108,000 unique attendees across the week, according to Glossy (opens in a new tab).
The Nessa Dress wearable · Threedium Plaza · Decentraland · Metaverse Fashion Week · March 2022
The wearable is still live: it's on sale in Decentraland's marketplace, in the “3Dium x Nessa Dress” collection, first listed on the opening day of Metaverse Fashion Week (March 24, 2022).
See it in Decentraland (opens in a new tab)08 / On the record
The Nessa Dress, in the press.
Vogue Business reported that the Metaverse Fashion Week chair's avatar would wear the dress, and Essence profiled its designer. Threedium's launch was covered from Decentraland's own channels to the fashion trade press. These pieces are about Natalie and the dress. At launch, Natalie thanked me by name in her own announcement (opens in a new tab), alongside Ernest Spicer, Michael Toner, and the Threedium team.
The Nessa Dress · Natalie Trevonne
- Previewing Metaverse Fashion Week: Digital fashion's big experiment (opens in a new tab)Names Natalie Trevonne's Nessa dress and reports that MVFW chair Cathy Hackl's avatar will wear it. Members-only.Archived copy of the Vogue Business piece (opens in a new tab)
- Disabled AF: How to Build Inclusivity into the Internet of Tomorrow (opens in a new tab)Natalie is the guest; the episode was sponsored by Threedium.
- Natalie Trevonne Shares How She Became The First Blind Fashion Designer To Create Her Own NFT Wedding Dress (opens in a new tab)Profile of the designer, published the week of the premiere.Archived copy of the Essence piece (opens in a new tab)
- The World's First NFT Wedding Dress and Its Designer (opens in a new tab)
- Meet Natalie Trevonne: The First Blind Fashion Designer to Create Her Own NFT Wedding Dress (opens in a new tab)Reports that Cathy Hackl's avatar wore the dress.
- Blind designer proves fashion is limitless (opens in a new tab)Profile of Natalie; notes that Essence and Vogue Business picked up her story.
- Blind Fashion Designer Natalie Trevonne Just Launched Her Own Brand (opens in a new tab)On NYI, the brand Natalie and Ernest Spicer built after the NFT wedding dress.
Threedium Plaza · Metaverse Fashion Week 2022
- Threedium Hosts Global Brands During Metaverse Fashion Week (opens in a new tab)Announces the Threedium Plaza, built with Renovi Studios.Archived copy of the Business Wire · Threedium release piece (opens in a new tab)
- Metaverse Fashion Week is here! (opens in a new tab)
- Threedium opens virtual shopping mall in Decentraland (opens in a new tab)
- Threedium and Craft Worldwide Host GM Experience During Metaverse Fashion Week (opens in a new tab)
- MVFW - Threedium Mall Opening (opens in a new tab)The event listing for the Threedium Plaza's opening.
- 'Gamify more, reward players': Metaverse Fashion Week's producer on the lessons learned (opens in a new tab)Source of the event-wide figure: about 108,000 unique attendees.
- Metaverse Fashion Week to return next year (opens in a new tab)Names Threedium among the returning 3D asset creators, with its own luxury mall.
- Decentraland
- Renovi Studios
- Craft Worldwide
- DKNY
- Tommy Hilfiger
- Dolce & Gabbana
- Paco Rabanne
- Etro
- Charles & Keith
- Privé Porter
- Casablanca
- General Motors
09 / Threedium, then and now
The platform kept building.
I was Creative Director on the original Nessa Dress collaboration with Natalie Trevonne and Ernest Spicer through Digital Storytellers Ink. Later, I was Content & Product Manager at Threedium while it built and positioned Unlimited3D. These are the company's milestones, not mine: context for where that platform has gone since.
- 2017Founded in London. threedium.io (opens in a new tab)
- 2022Joins La Maison des Startups LVMH, the LVMH accelerator. Business Wire (opens in a new tab)
- 2022Builds the Threedium Plaza with Renovi Studios for the first Metaverse Fashion Week in Decentraland. Business Wire (opens in a new tab)
- 2023Returns to Metaverse Fashion Week with its own mall, hosting Clarks. Decentraland (opens in a new tab)
- 2023Raises an $11M Series A co-led by Interpublic Group (IPG) and Olma Partners. Pulse 2.0 (opens in a new tab)
- 2023No. 30 on the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50, with 962% four-year growth. Fast Forward (opens in a new tab)
- 2025Named an AWS Retail Competency Partner. AWS Partner Network (opens in a new tab)
- 2025Becomes an official 3D content creator for Amazon. Cyprus Business Now (opens in a new tab)
- 2026Selected, per investor Kinisis Ventures, as one of 10 companies to present on the NVIDIA GTC main stage. Cyprus Mail (opens in a new tab)
10 / The Question
“Not whether the render is beautiful — but whether it actually works for the person on the other side of it.”
The Nessa Dress raised a question I've worked on ever since. It's the same question I bring to every AI system and every content pipeline I build. Does it actually work for the human on the other side?
11 / Quick answers
The Nessa Dress, in brief.
- What is The Nessa Dress?
- An NFT wedding dress designed by blind fashion designer Natalie Trevonne. It was produced as a 3D wearable with Threedium and shown in the Threedium Plaza at the first Metaverse Fashion Week in Decentraland, March 24–27, 2022.
- Who designed it?
- Natalie Trevonne, with digital artist Ernest Spicer of Ignis Studios as her collaborator.
- What did Xander Simms do?
- He was Creative Director on the original collaborative project team with Natalie Trevonne and Ernest Spicer, developed through Digital Storytellers Ink. Later, at Threedium, he was Content & Product Manager within the Unlimited3D product-and-content scope, including 3D assets, AR filters, renders, and the film Making The Unseen Visible. At launch, Natalie thanked him by name in her own announcement (March 14, 2022).
- Who covered it?
- Before the event, Vogue Business reported that the avatar of Metaverse Fashion Week chair Cathy Hackl would wear the dress (March 22, 2022). Essence (March 25, 2022), Reader's Digest Partners for Sight, Black Girl Nerds, and ABC7 New York covered Natalie and the dress. Those pieces are about the designer and the dress, not about Xander.