The problem with fashion NFTs? You can’t wear them everywhere – Nike, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana may be cashing in on digital wearables, but users need to pick their metaverse
- Since the first Metaverse Fashion Week, brands have been hurrying out virtual fashion collections – from Nike Cryptokicks and DGFamily Boxes to Burberry’s Mythical Games collab
- The Doge Crown NFT may have sold for US$1 million – but there are some huge tech challenges to owning and ‘wearing’ digital pieces that still need ironing out
After a phenomenal debut in the NFT world – making nearly US$5.7 million from its Collezione Genesi mini collection late last year – luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana is now presenting a set of NFTs named DGFamily Boxes. The digitally crafted glass boxes act as virtual keys to the brand’s members-only digital universe, with the tiered black, gold and platinum options unlocking a series of increasingly exclusive phygital experiences.
“The idea is to create a gated community,” explains Shashi Menon, founder of UNXD, the NFT marketplace that conceived and launched D&G’s NFT collections. “The DGFamily NFT will serve as an umbrella for a series of things that Dolce & Gabbana will do in the Web 3.0 space. Each one of the tiers corresponds to a different level of exclusive benefits that come in the form of drops. These will be unique to the DGFamily community.”
One of the first drops will be a collection of digital-only wearables that D&G showcased during the first Metaverse Fashion Week in March. The second release, which will happen in June, is a digital and physical collection of T-shirts, hoodies and trainers that have been specifically created for this community. The drops come in the form of NFTs that can either be traded to someone else or redeemed for the physical merchandise. “They are not possible to purchase in any D&G boutique or e-commerce store,” adds Menon.
The D&G drops will also include creations by InBetweeners, an NFT community created by artist and cartoon designer Gianpiero D’Alessandro, which found an unlikely fan and collaborator in pop star Justin Bieber.
A key question, as fashion brands continue to invest in and create fashion NFTs and properties for Web 3.0, is where are buyers showing off their digital wearables?
The reality is that there aren’t many metaverses that are ready and live, where one can wear digital fashion wearables
Three of the nine pieces in D&G’s Collezione Genesi were bought by Red DAO (which stands for decentralised autonomous organisation), a group of 50 blockchain technology experts and designers. One of its purchases was The Doge Crown, an NFT costing 423 Ethereum in digital currency, the equivalent of more than US$1.1 million at the time. It included digital perks like a custom digital recreation of the piece in an open metaverse as well as a physical version.
Seven months on, have the Red DAO members strutted the D&G digital wearables in the metaverse yet? “The Doge Crown is custodied by UNXD, per Red DAO members request,” says founding member Megan Kaspar.