It happened! Someone (allegedly) double sold a fashion NFT!
The moment meta X moda has been waiting for....
The drama of the fashion metaverse world.
I stumbled upon this tweet, implying that an NFT by a digital fashion designer has been sold twice. And I’m excited, as only someone with a fashion metaverse newsletter can be, because of the major question embedded in this brewing story. What is ownership? What is unique? What is fashion? But as I dug a little deeper, it seems the question I hadn't asked was, what is interoperable?
It seems the Digitalax magazine version of the Lengha Choli, a dress popular among desi women, was an MP4, eg a video file. The more recently sold piece was actually “wearable” in AR, created with vntana software, this being the key differentiator.
But it’s pretty clearly the same dress. This probably isn’t the first or last time we’ll hear this story. But it does underscore a substantial truth about the traditional fashion industry, which is to say brand equity doesn’t happen overnight. The brands that sell good for far more than their intrinsic value, e.g. Louis Vuitton, Chanel etc. have spent decades if not centuries promoting and protecting their brand. How will this work in digital fashion, where replication has (basically) zero cost. The first Dolce and Gabbana crown took thousands of digital-artist man hours. But the second one didn’t.
The latest version, in AR.
The first, in Digitalax’s magazine.
I wouldn’t say the fact that it’s “in AR” makes much of a difference when we are buying art. But I’ll be pondering that excuse for a while.
Another fun fact, the second NFT was bought by Red DAO, one of the DAOs working in the fashion space, buying things like the Dolce and Gabbana crown. That is to say, a sophisticated buyer.
If only it was all as fun as Pokemon Go
Here’s an interesting WIRED article from the creator of Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go wrote the book on AR, making everyone’s phone a portal to a second, digital world overlapping our normal one. Unsurprisingly, the creator has some thoughts on whether the “metaverse” be AR or VR? The answer to the below question makes me think he’s a little naive. We all wish the populace wanted to get outside and socialize IRL, but it seems like most of us are pretty happy in front of our screens 24/7.
WIRED: Why do you call the metaverse dystopian?
John Hanke: It takes us away from what fundamentally makes us happy as human beings. We’re biologically evolved to be present in our bodies and to be out in the world. The tech world that we’ve been living in, as exacerbated by Covid, is not healthy. We’ve picked up bad habits—kids spending all day playing Roblox or whatever. And we’re extrapolating that, saying, “Hey, this is great. Let’s do this times 10.” That scares the daylights out of me.
Snooze
The Dematerialised, one of the premier fashion NFT marketplaces, has another drop coming. Much like the nightclub/90s boots from their last drop, I’m not super-enthused by this one. “Experimental activewear.” An oxymoron? The Karl Lagerfeld figurines were good PR, but I’m not sure what happens next. In general, a lot of the fashion and beauty NFT buzz has died down. Perhaps the fall’s NFT, and crypto-mania is waning a bit as brands try to figure out how this plays in terms of real revenue and consumer usage. Stay tuned for more thoughts on the evolution.
