Just over a year ago, a Kate Moss NFT led the fashion industry‘s charge to enter the world of non-fungible tokens as the latest marketing venture. It’s been a whirlwind year with brands such as Gucci, Burberry, Balenciaga and Dolce and Gabbana all jumping on the NFT bandwagon. The rollout for the next phase of this new medium is starting to surface, with several partnerships over the past month indicating how each industry player wants to get in on the action.

Digital becomes brick and mortar

NFTs live in the digital world in places like the Metaverse. But it doesn’t stop at the actual physical stores hosting their sale in person. Selfridges in London has just launched a project with the French Maison Paco Rabanne. Tony’s retailer has taken the founder’s innovative and somewhat radical 1966 concept of “12 Unwearable Dresses” into today’s version of a futuristic tool, reviving all 12 styles as NFTs. The dresses, recently shown at Decentraland

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fashion week, will be available online and with a physical presence inside the store. A screen in an immersive space highlights Op Art works by Victor Vasarely and physical pieces from the Spring 2022 collection will be available for customers to view all 12 dresses. Customers can pay via crypto wallet or credit card and a custodial wallet can be used which contains a layer 2 blockchain framework.

French department store Printemps has opened to house DressX, a virtual closet founded by Daria Shapovalova and Natalia Modenova in 2020 that creates digital clothing, NFTs and AR

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looks that generate no waste, carbon footprint or chemicals during production. The digital platform dips its toes into the physical world with a “phygital” pop-up. Activation, in store until May 18^and, includes five digital pieces in Printemps’ signature green, allowing a real-time clothing experience presented on a human-sized interactive screen. Guests can try on and record videos of themselves wearing the computer-generated garment by choosing from the unique collection or an archive of AR outfits. Getting people to try on virtual clothes in a physical setting can also serve to convince skeptics to explore this new technology.

DressX announced new partnerships almost every two weeks beyond the Printemps pop-up. They recently collaborated with American Eagle for three digital jeans styles to mark “Earth Month” from April 25th to May 2nd.^n/a. Each pair has its unique water pattern, like cascading waterfalls, which demonstrates the possibility of digital clothing. Earlier this month, the platform teamed up with popular Gen Z social game Roblox for a Metaverse portable collection. DressX has also teamed up with Italian cross-reality curator Xbinary to breathe new life into a selection of sculptural “artwear” pieces by American artist Kris Ruhs from the Fondazione Sozzani archives. Originally featured DressX Xbinary Genesis Jewelry NFT drop at a DressX event at 10 Corso Como during Milan Fashion Week.

NFTs can be more than valuable works of digital art. Some of them have jobs, such as those dubbed “utility NFTs”. Enter ORIGYN, a Swiss foundation “dedicated to identifying, authenticating, and unlocking the credentials of ownership of valuables.” In layman’s terms, the platform, which has funding from Paris Hilton and Bill Ackman, uses utility NFTs containing blockchain technology to trace product genesis and trace previous ownership – given the market’s popularity of pre-owned luxury watches, their recently announced partnership with WatchBox, a collectible luxury watch marketplace. The partnership will allow buyers to be even more reassured about the legitimacy of their purchases.

NFT FUND ME

Others use NFTs to help with fundraising efforts. In the winter issue of Ac Magazine, photographer Fred Siegel captured 14 octogenarian residents of the Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) such as Lee Meriwether, Corrine Conley, Johnny Gunn, Maggie Abbot, Anthony Lawrence, Toni Smith Lawrence, Alan Sloan, Sally Sloan, Kay Weissman, Susan Germaine, Susan Nathe, Toni Sawyer, Wini Hammond and in a warm and playful prop shoot. Former entertainment industry models were dressed in pieces from brands including Shinola, Ted Baker, Marchon and Collection 18, including Kurt Geiger London, who sponsored the shoot. The images will be available as collectible digital artwork NFTs on the Black Snow platform. Proceeds from the fundraiser will fund the many services MPTF provides to serving and retired members of the Southern California entertainment community.

“We embraced the idea of ​​filming when we found out that MPTF was celebrating its 100th anniversary, and it was the perfect time to celebrate non-traditional role models,” said AC President Karen Giberson. “At the same time, we were watching the evolution of the NFT market and thought there might be an innovative way to use the images from Ac Magazine to raise funds in support of MPTF’s 100th anniversary, bringing the NFT collection project.”

A TEACHING MOMENT

As the technology is new, other players in the industry are recognizing the need to educate traditional creatives. To help pave the way for American designers curious and new to the tech form, the CFDA has partnered with 5Crypto, a global web3, cryptocurrency, NFT, metaverse, and blockchain marketing practice; The sandbox

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metaverse and polygon

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Studios, a service that helps developers build decentralized applications on their platform by providing Web2 and Web3 teams with a suite of services such as developer support, partnering, strategy, go-to-market, and integrations techniques, to guide American fashion into this new frontier, creating a Web3 model for the industry.

“This is a remarkable opportunity for the CFDA to lead the American fashion industry into the future of commerce and creativity,” said CFDA CEO Steven Kolb. “Our mission is to position our members as leaders in global fashion and retail innovation through digital strategies to support growth and expansion. With support from The Sandbox and Polygon Studios, the CFDA is about educating and empowering business leaders for generations to come.”