Unsurprisingly, the cryptocurrency market has been dominated this year by non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The booming digital asset class generated more than $2.5 billion in sales in the first six months of 2021, demonstrating unprecedented financial benefits for artists, brands and content creators around the world.
The emergence of measuring devices has also affected the use of NFT as the world approaches visions of a future driven by augmented reality. In this way, NFTs demonstrate the convergence of culture and technology, which in turn has an impact on a number of key industries.
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In particular, the million-dollar luxury fashion sector is starting to pay attention to NFT. High fashion brands such as Dolce & Gabbana and Jimmy Choo recently launched their NFT collections, and designer Rebecca Minkoff became the first American designer to create and showcase the NFT collection during New York Fashion Week 2021.
Megan Caspar, CEO of Magnetic Capital and a member of Red DAO, a decentralized independent organization focused on fashion, told Cointelegraph that she considers fashion one of the most interesting categories of NFT:
The fashion industry, one of the largest in the world, generated $2.5 trillion in annual revenue before the pandemic. Red DAO’s thesis on digital fashion for NFT talks about the potential to at least double global income over the next two decades through the digitization of fashion and new opportunities. ”
While NFTs are still a very early concept for the fashion industry, Caspar explained that physical fashion has limitations today. For example, she pointed out that luxury goods will always have a secondary market value, but as the product declines over time, they lose their value.
However, digital fashion items will always remain intact, with additional potential for value growth if they are in high demand. Caspar commented that NFT digital fashion products can also be used virtually, as they recently explained during a video interview where they took virtual profits from NFT and other accessories.
Caspar also noted that, unlike physical fashions, digital objects can be used as security for customer data storage and community engagement. Caspar stated that high-profile designers currently have limited consumer participation: “NFT can be used to buy back physical items or to unlock upcoming fashion discounts. They can also provide access to special events. They will also be able to connect with customers through digital wallets, just like Like email.”
While Caspar realizes this use is still very early days, it believes that over time, more brands will start creating NFTs to realize these benefits. However, it is worth noting at the moment that many innovative luxury and high fashion brands have already started to show the potential of NFT.
Source: UNXD and Dolce & Gabbana.
Shashi Menon, publisher of Vogue Arabia in Dubai, founder and CEO of UNXD, the creative and regulatory platform that developed all digital assets for Dolce & Gabbana’s nine-part NFT group, told Cointelegraph that his team reached out to Dolce & Gabbana directly in April of this year. With the idea of launching an NFT group.
Menon shared that the opportunity was identified by the site to understand both the luxury fashion sector and the cryptocurrency world. “We have worked on both projects for many years and believe we can provide a unique perspective,” he said. Menon believes that the history of NFT and fashion is not about technology, but about culture, stating that both fashion and NFT are “ultimately forms of cultural expression”.
While culture may be the most important component in terms of branding, blockchain technology plays an important role in providing the unique benefits that NFT brings, such as stability and infinity. For example, Menon explained that the NFT Dolce & Gabbana collection, known as the “Collezione Genesi,” is historical for a number of reasons:
“It’s a deep dip – here we have one of the world’s most famous luxury brands debuting in the NFT Collection and it has been personally designed by the name’s founders/designers. This is also extremely rare as the collection contained only nine items. … These were made Items are once and will never be made again.”
Menon added that the craftsmanship and materials used in the physical creations were superb, which in turn meant spending a lot of time on digital artwork. “We were obsessed with the finer details of texture, fabrics, light, shadows, reflections and physics to achieve a stunning photo-realistic result.
