The excitement is the same: pondering-yet-defined-scroll through page after page of fashion e-commerce sites. Looking for something for a special occasion, I settled on a shimmery amethyst and fringe two-piece from Beyoncé’s favorite Dundas. A little further than I would normally go, but I think it’s a good time to be adventurous.
It’s the dopamine release that comes with “make an offer” that intensifies immediately after it’s accepted – view mine. The only thing that’s different? There will be no tracked package to open, no textile to touch or try. Far from physical, this look is a matter of pixels, an immutable fashion mark (NFT) designed to be worn only in a digital space.
Like a Birkin and a waiting list, fashion and the metaverse are perfect and inevitable partners. Both ride the zeitgeist, privilege exclusivity and confuse the masses – and the big fashion houses are getting in on the action. In 2021, users sent more than $44.2 billion through NFT markets, a huge increase from $106 million in 2020.
Gucci was one of the first luxury brands to enter the NFT universe. The Italian fashion house’s NFT was in the form of a four-minute film inspired by its Aria collection and was sold at a Christie’s auction for $25,000 in June 2021. They have since created branded cities on the Roblox metaverse gaming platform and collaborated with digital artists to release further NFT collections. Burberry launched NFTs worn for its NFT character Sharky B (in the crypto video game Blankos Block Party), which generated more than $375,000 in sales.
Dolce & Gabbana set records after launching a nine-piece NFT collection during Venice Fashion Week for a total of $5.7 million. In January, Balmain released its NFT collaboration with Barbie, creating a “figital” product including three different digital dolls dressed in monochromatic pink looks finished with the house’s signature monogram print. It launched with a co-branded physical collection of dresses, tops, jackets and shoes.
The Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, which runs Paris Fashion Week and Haute Couture Week, recently teamed up with Arianee, a leading NFT platform for the luxury and fashion industry, to create NFT that can to be exchanged during Paris Fashion Week spring/summer 2022 menswear shows and other haute couture exhibitions.
Meanwhile, Prada, Richemont and LVMH joined forces to create the Aura Blockchain Consortium, offering tracking solutions to their customers.
Like perfume, makeup and accessories, NFTs can allow greater entry-level access to the world of high fashion, offering customers a new way to experience the exclusive domain.
Balenciaga / Two weeks
Crypto Fashion Weeks and Metaverse partner with brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Tommy Hilfiger and Etro, and major fashion stores including Gucci and Off-White, which are now accepting crypto payments. Looks like everyone is getting in on the action. But if you’re anything like me, you might think that although people are busy with NFTs, you’re not really sure why or how.
So what are non-fungible tokens? Like Bitcoin, NFTs are considered a form of cryptocurrency. Unlike Bitcoin, they are not “fungible” (exchangeable for other goods that have the same value). NFTs are unique, one-of-a-kind and cannot be duplicated, redeemable only when purchased by their current owner. An application called blockchain analyzes and tracks the activity between each NFT buyer and seller, tracking the logistics and movements of NFTs.
“At the moment, only a small number of people [about 360,000 globally] own NFTs, so brands entering this space are actually doing so either to connect with their consumer who is already playing, or looking to emphasize their position as an innovator in the market wider,” says Melbourne-based luxury business commentator Petah Marian.
“Trend lines suggest that we are likely to spend more time in metaverse-style spaces in the future, which [indicates] that digital commodities like NFTs will gain importance. As the industry progresses, digital goods are likely to have a deeper intrinsic value as they have more connections to the real world.”
Neuno, an Australian startup and digital platform, encourages its audience to buy, sell, collect and trade NFTs from collaborative designers such as Glenn Martens and Diesel. She has also worked with bodies such as the Australian Fashion Council to help eight designers bring their NFTs into the metaverse, and with shoe designer Giuseppe Zanotti for Metaverse Fashion Week in Decentraland.
On the platform, consumers will be able to use their fashion NFTs in a variety of ways. For example, if you were to buy a dress, you would be able to try it on virtually, as well as wear your gaming avatar in the same piece.
“The transformation of traditional fashion into its metaverse counterpart, which we call “metafashion”, happened and continues to happen very naturally, supporting the overall change in the way we live and explore the world around us,” explains Natalia Modenova, a co-founder. (with Daria Shapovalova) of the digital fashion platform DressX.
“We have already become ‘avatars of ourselves’ across multiple social media channels, messaging and streaming services. Digital fashion is designed to dress our digital selves. We believe that in the future every fashion brand – luxury, haute couture, streetwear, everyone – will own a digital fashion line and every person will have a digital fashion wardrobe; we call it the metacloset.”
Gucci/Antoni Tudisco
With a goal to “digitally clothe one billion people,” DressX had to respond to its users’ rapidly growing interest in NFTs within the first few months of early-mid 2020. Since then, the company has dropped multiple collaborations in the NFT space, including Jason Wu and crypto.com.
So high was the demand that she launched the first and only NFT marketplace for digital wearable fashion, a space where you can buy, buy, resell and “wear” NFTs – kind of like the Net – Porter of NFTs. The main goal of the platform is to provide an “infinite digital closet” for anyone and everyone who wants one for their digital presence and empower 3D and fashion designers to grow professionally.
Currently, the platform’s consumers are international – mainly from the US, Europe and Eastern European countries – with the main age groups 18-24 and 25-34, although Shapovalova is careful to note that digital fashion is used by people of all ages, genders and nationalities. They mainly come from social media like Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, as well as gaming, video calling and XR (augmented and virtual reality), groups she says are “growing fast”.
“Freedom [the] The creations of the digital fashion industry will definitely influence the way people consume and use fashion,” says Shapovalova.
“While some people use digital clothing simply to experiment with their looks or enhance their old photos, others use it as an opportunity to be the person they’ve always dreamed of being. [of].”
According to Sasha Wallinger, a former marketing executive who specializes in translating fashion into different modalities and who worked on the Gucci x Superplastic “SuperGucci” NFT collaboration for Gucci’s 100th anniversary last year, this new group of consumers is simply seek to express themselves and how they live in the world with what they wear in the digital space. They are interested in developing “digital twinning” and creating a persona, almost like a designer.
“In Fortnite, the Balenciaga hoodie was huge,” Wallinger says of Balenciaga’s digital-to-physical collaboration with the online video game Fortnite — the first time the platform allowed a high-fashion brand into its universe. Players can dress their avatars in the new Balenciaga collection, as well as shop the collection at Balenciaga brick and mortar stores. “Like with fashion, there’s still this drive to show and share, we’re just showing and sharing in different ways,” she says.
Balmain/Barbie
Wallinger, a woman in an all-too-often male-dominated field, underscores how important it is for more of us to “commit” to the metaverse.
“I really advocate for women to be informed about even just one component of Web3: augmented reality, virtual reality, graphic design — there are so many phenomenal female artists who have a legacy in the NFT space.”
Indeed, smart contracts allow artists to be truly compensated for their work for the first time, in a culture that spans decades of copy/paste and uncredited work shared on social channels. Web3 spaces are also, Wallinger explains, very inclusive.
“LGBTQ+ and gender fluidity happens freely in these spaces, a huge component for women and non-binary individuals entering these ecosystems and feeling free to be who they are in many ways,” she says.
So for those of us who have been reticent to dip our toes into the NFT pool until now, what’s the right way? “You just have to buy them. There are no two ways about it,” says Wallinger.
“Choose a project that resonates with you. I look for aestheticism and how it relates to who you are as an individual, just like if you were buying an item of clothing or an accessory in real life. Just go for what you want.”
This story originally appeared in the September issue of Marie Claire.
