The paparazzi came out in full force for the annual Met Gala in New York City last weekend, but the biggest runway was the Metaverse. The Bored Ape Yacht Club, a project popular with fashionistas like Paris Hilton, recently sold $300 million worth of virtual real estate, while established brands like Gucci and Adidas have been selling their non-exchangeable tokens, or NFTs, faster than ever before. can be printed. The huge demand for branded digital assets has created a virtuous cycle, particularly in the fashion world.
As Meghan McDowell wrote for Vogue Business last month, “Evaluating the relative and sustainable value of fashion NFTs is not as easy as tracking the resale value of physical luxury goods, where high prices reflect market value. Most brands are tracked by Vogue Business have seen resale value at least double including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Burberry and Adidas.”
Given that Gucci’s first NFTs retailed for around $25,000, and big-brand NFTs typically retail for thousands of dollars, digital fashionistas are doing a lot. But it’s not always about quick money. For the most part, NFT buyers are interested in fashion — or brand — and never intend to sell. This is because NFT is increasingly becoming attached to utilities that give owners special access to communities and other facilities. In other words, VIP status.
Aria Noir, a fashion label that makes “clothing by designers for designers” recently announced a new digital clothing NFT project that will mix art and fashion. Rap artist Jalal is one of the brand ambassadors of Aria Noir. He said that the digital token is not an extension of the Aria Noir brand because of its philosophy. “The metaverse is a whole new world,” he says, “and everyone should explore the world as much as they can.”
Printing NFT was popularized by artists like Beeple, whose famous collage sold at auction for $69 million more than a year ago. In 2021, Sotheby’s sold hundreds of millions of dollars in NFT, which was generally paid for in ETH, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain. This year, there’s Fashion Week on the Metaverse, complete with a lavish afterparty on yachts attended by NFT owners — or, at least, their avatars.
But Jalal says that Aria Noir will avoid money grabbing with what he calls “McFashion.” The brand’s customers are usually much younger and, therefore, more tech-savvy than older brands like Hermes, Gucci, and Burberry. With blockchain technology becoming more creative and sophisticated, Aria Noir saw an opportunity to do something in the Metaverse that would not be “conformist.”
“What makes life so beautiful is that it is full of surprises,” said Jalal. “Of course, there are bad things that might happen in the Metaverse, like greed and conformity, but there’s also the potential for so much innovation and connection. In designing a new universe that’s still in its infancy, we’re coming up with something that doesn’t yet exist, which is definitely exciting.”
Jalal will take inspiration from the music and luxurious materials, the hallmark of Aria Noir clothing. How to digitally translate luxury and beauty, he said, was a challenge he wanted to explore. While the media has largely focused on the prices of NFT artwork, and now virtual real estate, future NFT utilities like Aria Noir may be shorter — entry to Jalal’s concert, for example, or access to a dinner party full of exciting events. creative. Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder. Digital assets are only limited by technology and imagination.
Eventually, Aria Noir was able to create the so-called DAO, or Digital Autonomous Organization. On the cutting edge of virtualization, DAO uses smart contract embedded NFT to create communities from scratch. Once community members purchase tokens, they are entitled to vote on proposals that affect the entire community. They can even submit their own proposals. Depending on how the contract was written, proposals may be accepted automatically after a certain number of token holders vote yes, developing the community without centralized intervention and possibly lightning fast.
For now, Aria Noir fans may be content to show off their digital outfits on the Metaverse, or online profiles. After all, as the Met Gala made clear once again this year, the better part of fashion is in sight.
