NFTs are transforming the concept of aesthetics in art, photography, and fashion by converting all forms of physical creations into digital versions. Photo sharing across the internet has been widespread for many years, but the practice has become extremely popular across social media platforms. People share photos to fulfill their emotional needs. But now, NFTs have helped to uncover the enormous monetizing potential of the most innocuous habit. The story of the digital artist Beeple (real name Mike Winkelmann) is the stuff that makes a modern fable. Beeple’s non-fungible token (NFT) photo collage named ‘Everyday: The first 5000 days went under the hammer at Christie’s auction in March 2021 and sold for an astronomical sum of $69 million. Not only artwork photos, and the fashion world is under the spell of non-fungible tokens that resulted in the emergence of NFT fashion.
What is NFT fashion?
Fashion has always acquired physical forms of expression as humans wore and displayed various creations of fashion designers in clothing, jewelry, footwear, and other accessories. Catwalks on the ramp and the beauty pageants are the most prestigious events for displaying the creations of super artisans and fashion designers. Such events provide a platform for creators who can popularize and sell their products. All this will now change as NFTs have become a significant disruptor in the fashion world. Fashion designers are adopting a new business model by selling digitized versions of their creations termed nft projects. The NFT fever is gripping the fashion world, and brands gradually gravitate towards it.
Fashion enters the virtual world
Virtual Reality is a territory without boundaries, and fashion has started exploring it for business. The NFT wave creates a tsunami of sorts that has made valuable collectibles and artwork more accessible to people while massive money changes hands. NFT collectibles are the latest craze, and now it is the turn of fashion to ride the NFT wave. Fashion designers no longer need models to display their creations but instead use virtual reality media to engage with the audience who pay with NFTs to acquire the items of their choice. The fashion industry is trying to uncover the potential of the technology behind NFTs.
NFTs have fantastic potential to generate sales
Karl Lagerfeld, the renowned German artist, fashion designer, and creative director who has a long line of products like handbags, shoes, clothing, and more under his belt, made a foray into the digital world on September 10, 2021. He organized a sale of 777 pieces of various items priced at 77 Euros apiece and collected 58,829 Euros with NFTs in just 33.77. Overwhelmed by the response of the audience and the earning so much money in less than a minute, it was a dream debut for Karl in the virtual world. He now plans to take up other NFT projects soon.
Nike has announced its takeover of RTFKT (pronounced artifact), an NFT studio to use the digital platform for diversification and speeding up business growth. NFT project drops or project implementations are happening faster, and the acquisition of rtfkt studios has been the most talked-about NFT event of the month.
Understanding the relationship of NFTs with fashion is critical
Although the exploits of Karl Lagerfeld might sound highly inspirational and more fashion brands might rush to explore their potential with NFTs, it is critically important to understand the dynamics of the relationship between NFTs and fashion. The intensely physical nature of the fashion industry puts it in a different plane than other industries familiar with selling digital goods that can adapt to NFTs faster. Traditional fashion brands have always remained faithful to the physical form of display and resisted the lure of going digital. Most fashion brands are traditional and prefer to operate from the comfort zone. Consequently, those observing the digital space closely and trying to make sense of it are yet to understand NFTs and how they can be relevant for an industry that thrives on the physical display of goods.
Why everyone is rushing for NFTs seems intriguing to the fashion brands that need some more time to decide if it is worth taking the plunge in nft fashion.
