Weekly Round Up Sept 17
It was a pretty big week in terms of digital fashion, here are the top stories IMO. Well … maybe Bryan Boy’s Telegram isn’t a “top story.”
Vogue Italia and the Dematerialised announce digital capsule for Milan Fashion Week
The World of Vogue Talents opens its (digital) doors23 September 2021. The Digital Capsule Collection is 5 brands selected by Vogue Talents - Vivetta , Marco Rambaldi , Federico Cina , Cormio , Niccolò Pasqualetti. They are launching, on the Dematerialised, digital versions of some items of their collection, sold using crypto or fiat currency. Stay tuned next week for my review of “The World of Vogue Talents.”
Does this mean Italy for the win? Dolce also launching their digital fashion items that week, too. This is a lot of support for digital innovation and I’m impressed. There’s also a number of references to the sustainability of digital fashion which is a really interesting perspective for the industry to take - we can all agree fast fashion is unsustainable for the earth, possibly unethical, but it’s part of the necessary economic engine. With digital fashion, does it have to be?
Wes Gordon and Carolina Herrera launch a digital dress to coincide with the runway show.
What was cool about this? They took a look from the runway show (Look 45) and made a digital version. For me, this is one of the most interesting (but not THE most interesting, we’ll get to that) things you can do with digital fashion NFTs.
What wasn’t cool?
First, it requires downloading its own app, via Tribute Brand (“a contactless cyber fashion company”). This is an annoying hurdle given the other technology out there. Secondly, in video, the dress looks really amateur in a way that it doesn’t in the still shots. Lastly, it was hardly up to the level of elegance and wearability from the runway show. Maybe that’s ok for the digital world? Also I’m too old to care about Charli XCX but that’s probably my fault, not CH’s.
Farfetch and DressX launch digital fashion pre-order tool
By rendering digital pieces on influencer models, Farfetch is selling collections that don’t exist yet. Influencers picked from 20 designs for next season that were digitized, DressX and Threedium made it happen technically, and then the influencers were captured “in” the clothes.
This news isn’t totally new but I think worth a mention. This supply chain optimization is THE most interesting near-term digital fashion innovation in my opinion, helping brands manufacture and manage inventory in a more efficient and inherently less wasteful model.
Rebecca Minkoff and the Dematerialised launched her digital outfit NFTs
These three outfits (with two more to come) sold out in 9 minutes, priced at 250-500 eu, editions of 10.
That is a bit surprising to me, it’s not an insignificant sum. Who was buying these looks? Karl Lagerfeld’s mini avatar sold out in 49 minutes. I think Karl has more fans than Minkoff, but maybe I’m wrong. The chat on Telegram/Discord leads me to believe these are people who are waiting for Lukso’s cryptocurrency to be widely available and then they’ll be able to sell these for more than they paid but not necessarily due to the designer value. I’m still exploring that idea since they paid in Euros.
What’s cool is that these NFTs give the owner unique brand access, maybe VIP events. This is one of the really special parts of NFT fashion, because each transaction is unique and transparent, the brand can connect with the owners directly. Particularly as these channels evolve, I think that will be a cool evolution, to grow digital fashion beyond the items and into brand activations.
L’officiel Vietnam
A digital cover! For print! This is pretty cool. Artist and avatar Ninocence on the cover, in a digital Dior outfit. DressX is the platform behind this collaboration, but it doesn’t appear to be a drop or available to buy.
Creative Director @alexfox_alexfox
Stylist @tigrebia
3D Artist @NINOCENCE
Model @NINOCENCE, DASHA @chaospov , RAVEN Avatars @liliumlabs
Mechanical 3D sculpture Butterfly 00 ZHANG @aio0o0o0
Wearing @DIOR
Digitalized and dressed by @dressx
A digital digital cover, not the print version. From their site “Honoring the many lost lives that resulted in 2020 being one of the deadliest years for the global trans community, Sampaio simultaneously unveils a collaborative new NFT digital art piece in the form of a dress, designed by digital artist NERI (Gia Djahaia). Developed directly on her body as she memorializes the fallen angels of the community, the CGI dress will be sold as an NFT this week as the proceeds from the sale of the dress are donated to LGBTQIA+ charities, in partnership with blockchain leader, LUKSO.” (which is the blockchain that powers the Dematerialised).
Digital fashion week
Do I have anything to say about this? Maybe not. I didn’t see a lot of artistry that I would consider fashion. Possibly the nascency of the medium affects the designs. And maybe the background of people who are the most competent at digital design is different than that of fashion designers. It’s a lot of futuristic, Hunger Games Capital type stuff. Though I did see these dresses on DressX (marketplace for digital fashion, partnered with Farfetch) that were what one might call “wearable.” Possibly the first iterations I’ve seen of “wearable” digital fashion.
Tom Ford and I are on the same wavelength.
A sentence I wish I could write more often. From his show notes… “Increasingly people don’t dress in fashion for day, but only for night, or for social media. Instagram may actually be what saves fashion in the end.”
I think the clear application for wearable fashion NFTs is Instagram, that’s the opportunity for mainstream adoption. Until Zuckerberg manages to turn Facebook into a metaverse company.
Glenfiddich Teams up with Stephanie Fung to Release NFT Wearables
A bit random, but actually pretty interesting designs, so way to go Glenfiddich, thanks for supporting digital fashion and artists (truly not being sarcastic, I know it can be hard to tell).
Bryan Boy has a crypto telegram
Telegram is one of the two apps people obsessed with crypto trading go to chat about what’s going up, what’s going down, and what to HODL (“hold” for those of you not up on the lingo and who are eagerly awaiting my glossary). And one of those obsessives is Bryan Boy. He launched a channel and it turns out a lot of his fans are also interested in crypto. Not sure what commentary to add here, I’ll let you digest this.