Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Philipp Plein, and Tiffany & Co. are all looking into the cryptoverse.
During Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week, Philipp Plein brought the metaverse and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) into his London store. Innovation in technology and fashion that is always changing have always gone hand in hand, but there is still room for more.
People have paid millions for land in virtual worlds since the beginning of the metaverse. Why not clothes? The fashion industry is always coming up with new ideas and starting new traditions.
The metaverse takes away the physical part of fashion, but it’s a new way to put beautiful pieces on an avatar and use them digitally. Lokesh Rao, the CEO of Trace Network Labs, said that a digital avatar can wear any kind of clothing, regardless of style, material, or use.
As most people know, the fashion business is very exclusive. With Chanel’s bag quota or purchase requirements and the long waiting list for a Hermès Birkin or Kelly, the fashion industry is influenced by exclusivity, price, outfits, and who you know.
There’s nothing better than getting a piece you’ve wanted for a long time, opening the box, putting it on, and loving it. Luxury is limited and driven by passion.
Start new habits
Brands should be proud of their past, but they should also change over time. It’s hard to get new users and keep the ones you already have interested.
Indr Viltrakyt, who started the Web3 fashion business The Rebels, suggested that members of the community work together to make digital wearables and share commercial rights, profits, or royalties.
Viltrakyt said that digital collectibles can show how interested a brand’s fans are in it. These would be open to everyone, not just people who have a lot of followers and are interested in a brand.
With the Bianchetto Tabi Boot, Maison Margiela could sell digital items that can be worn. The boots can be worn both in the Metaverse and in the real world by diehard fans.
The CryptoPunk NFTiff collection from Tiffany & Co. is only available to people who own CryptoPunk.
For 30 Ether, CryptoPunk owners can buy a physical copy of their most expensive NFT (ETH). This isn’t just for powerful people, and it can continue online into the new era of Tiffany’s little blue box, which is a well-known brand symbol.
Non-fungible digital fashion
The Ethereum Foundation says that NFTs are “tokens that show ownership of unique items.” “Digital assets never deteriorate,” said Viltrakyt.
Without proper care, a lot of fashion items, like the Birkin, which has “outperformed the S&P 500 over 35 years,” can be stolen, broken, or worn down. Digital assets stand out because, “like some ultra-exclusive, non-tangible experiences,” they don’t need to be touched to be valuable.
Archive pieces are hard for people who aren’t collectors or caretakers to get, especially if they need to be kept safe. Sometimes brands show their archives in Paris or Milan for a limited time, but it’s usually a private event. Through NFTs and blockchain-based NFT museums, brands can use the fact that non-degrading assets are unique.
Viltrakyt said, “If an NFT gives you direct access to Chanel archives or the creative director of Hermès, it signifies the special status you can have or even upgrade with time.” The NFT will never run out, and it will always be possible to do something luxurious and exclusive.
She also suggested making a fashion bond where NFT can be traded for a luxury item. “For example, if you are a Hermès client and would like to purchase a deed for your daughter to redeem it for a one-of-a-kind bag on her 18th birthday, you can do it seamlessly as an NFT,” she said.
“Paper certificates burn; servers crash and lose data; but blockchain does not lie, and a nonfungible token like that would be 100x more liquid, verifiable and longer-lasting than any traditional document.”
Use e-commerce and technology
Even though it’s fun to try on, touch, and walk around clothes in a store, e-commerce is already on its way to becoming the main way to shop. The metaverse can be as fancy as buying a Kelly in Paris. “After COVID, 99.99% of brands, including Hermès, sell online,” said Viltrakyt. Customers and brands can both benefit from technology.
Viltrakyt thinks that Web3 and virtual reality are still in the testing phase in the fashion industry because “we don’t have solutions to make a digital garment ‘fit.'” The digital wearables era will start when smartphones have depth sensors that are “good enough” and AR technology that can “fit” any item perfectly on anyone.
A modeling agency in Los Angeles called Photogenics has already tried out this technology by making avatars of models’ faces from 3D scans of their faces. In the metaverse, the models and their avatars can be used as models.
Our online identities are shaped by the things we wear. If you move to the metaverse, your identity there is just as important as it is in the real world. People add their own embroidery to clothing to show who they are. This idea will be important both online and off, as Viltrakyt said.
“The virtual presence can be an extension of one’s physical self and personality, or it can be something completely different from who a person is in real life. I think we’ll be seeing a mixture of those two concepts. We’re not there yet with technology. The fashion industry has shown over and over again that our creativity shows how we can leverage all of this potential in the fashion industry.”
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