NWO.ai's Weekly Pulse: Metaverse Fashion Week, The Oscars, and a new summertime side dish

Edited by Christian Thompson and Julia Myers

Hello Readers!

Welcome back to this edition of the Weekly Pulse! In this week’s pulse, we cover various topics ranging from the first virtual fashion week, The Oscars, and a possible new summertime side dish. We hope you’re excited, and let’s dive in!

I. The First Fashion Week in the Metaverse

For the first time, a fashion week was hosted in the metaverse and featured over 60 brands. Many prominent fashion players were in virtual attendance, such as Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana, and Estée Lauder. Metaverse Fashion Week was hosted on the platform Decentraland and was completely open and free to the public. Visitors could use MANA, Decentraland’s native decentralized cryptocurrency, to buy NFTs of fashion brands featured at the event.

NWO.ai has seen the conversation for Metaverse Fashion Week explode over the past six months, increasing by 627%. The novel idea is growing in popularity due to the involvement of luxury fashion brands. Tommy Hilfiger used this opportunity to showcase its Spring/Summer 2022 collection. Hosting a fashion week in the metaverse can change how fashion brands view these shows. We could see a shift in fashion shows from highly exclusive events to virtual shows that connect brands to their fanbase through the metaverse. Fashion brands now have the reach to show a global audience their latest looks and commoditize this through cryptocurrency. The future of fashion shows may very well be in the metaverse.

II. The Rise of K-Fashion: Seoul Fashion Week

Korean culture has been on the rise in recent years, with the explosion of K-Pop, K-Beauty, and, most recently, K-Film sectors. These sectors have drawn insatiable interest and have put Korean culture at the forefront of many industries. Now, South Korea is looking to take on the fashion world and elevate its fashion industry to a new level.

Over the past year, the conversation for K-Fashion has increased by 69%. Moreover, the future estimate shows significant growth throughout the year. In part, the  K-Fashion signal is being driven by the biannual Seoul Fashion Week (SFW), which the Korean government hopes will garner the same level of attention as some of the biggest fashion weeks in the world.

Some of Korea’s top fashion brands were on display at Seoul Fashion Week. Here you can see the comparison of 4 of the top Korean fashion houses and their growth over the past year. The future estimates for these brands are predicted to increase in the coming months, following the thesis that K-Fashion is on the rise. K-Fashion is beginning to establish itself as the next industry Korean culture taps into, and it will be interesting to see what heights K-Fashion can achieve.

III. The Slap Heard Around the World

This year’s Oscars were anything but ordinary, culminating in a slap that took the internet by storm. The Oscars' conversation has increased 948% over the past three months and has skyrocketed since the last Sunday. You may be wondering what has caused this drastic increase? The answer: Will Smith.

At the most recent Oscars, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head (as a result of alopecia). Although the altercation was brief, it stirred quite the commotion on the internet, gaining virality almost instantaneously. Although, the slap heard around the world may have come at an opportune time for the Academy. The Oscars have been struggling to garner viewership in recent years, with the 2021 Oscars recording the lowest viewership in the award's history. However, this year’s award show was up 58% from last year and drove 22.7 million social interactions making it the most social Oscars telecast ever. So who knew all the award show needed was a good slap in the face.

IV. Cool as a Cucumber?... Not Really

Kimchi is a Korean delicacy often eaten with meals as a side dish; however, during the hot summer months, many Koreans often swap out traditional kimchis for the cooling oi sobagi kimchi or cucumber kimchi. As a result, The conversation surrounding Cucumber Kimchi has increased by 302% over the past three months. The future estimate predicts an explosion over the coming months as the weather gets warmer, reaching a predicted impact score of 150 in late August.

Cucumber Kimchi is not as hard to make as you might imagine. It is actually one of the easiest kimchi to make as it does not require a long fermentation process. Most kimchi takes some time to ferment and develop flavor, while cucumber kimchi can be eaten the day you make it. Unfortunately, cucumber kimchi does not last as long as other kimchi, so you better be ready to eat it! Maybe you will consider featuring cucumber kimchi as a side dish at your next backyard BBQ this summer.

Here is a recipe for cucumber kimchi if you want to try it!

V. Manufacturers Pushing to Pass a Clean Energy Tax Incentives

The conversation surrounding Energy Tax has been blowing up over the past three months and has increased by 522%. Why is that? Recently, ongoing geopolitical issues have sparked debate around how the United States sources its electricity. This has given Congress the opportunity to support clean energy production in the US by granting businesses long-term clean energy tax incentives in federal budget reconciliation legislation. More than 100 manufacturers and producers have sent a letter to President Biden and other leaders in Washington in strong favor of these tax incentives due to the gained manufacturing capabilities.

Proponents of the legislation state that the long-term tax incentives will free up the manufacturing capacity needed to meet the growing demand for clean energy. This would drive domestic manufacturing and production, helping grow the economy and creating jobs. The conversation for Energy Tax and United States Energy has increased by rates greater than 500% over the past three months. The growing concern and discussion surrounding clean energy in the US will continue to drive this trend until the bill is voted on prior to its August target date.

We hope you enjoyed reading this week's pulse. Tune in next week for even more trends.

Cheers!

About NWO.ai
NWO.ai's predictive platform enables leading Fortune 500 companies and government agencies to anticipate and track global cultural shifts by aggregating, analyzing, and producing actionable reports on human-generated data. We are leveraging petabytes of external, noisy, and unstructured data from various sources –including search, social media, blogs, news, patent databases, SEC filings and we are continuously adding more sources. Our mission is to answer the what, when, and most importantly, 'why' behind a consumer trend and enable our customers to detect these shifts as early as possible.

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