NFTGo | NFT Fashion: Fans, Culture, and New Consumption

This article is authorized for republication by NFTGo. Original article here.

In recent years, the fashion industry has embraced the digital age, following the trends of the times. With changes in demographics, the main consumer group is gradually transitioning to Generation Z. Among the fashion brands exploring NFTs, there are globally renowned traditional fashion companies as well as emerging projects solely focused on virtual fashion. The fashion industry and NFTs have various ways of integration and strategies, from the basic combination of NFT IP in fashion to the transformation of virtual brands into reality. NFTs are subtly influencing the current economic model.

Currently, there are four main ways in which NFTs empower the fashion industry:

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1. Creation of digital brands based on NFT issuance, generating virtual products and experiences, such as RTFKT, BAYC, etc.;

2. Fashion designs for the metaverse, focusing on virtual clothing within the metaverse, such as The Fabricant;

3. Virtual experiences built on real-world fashion, finding new consumer groups through secondary design with PFP IP, such as Li-Ning;

4. Expansion of NFT consumption under luxury brands, gradually entering the NFT field leveraging their influence, such as Gucci, etc.

When NFTs are combined with the fashion industry, four key indicators are worth noting: Identity, Properties, Interactivity, and Scalability. By considering these indicators, we differentiate how companies in the fashion industry view the value and approach towards NFTs between Web3 and Web2.

In the Web3 fashion industry, NFTs play a central role in sales, exhibitions, collaborations, and applications. Projects aggregate fans through the power of digital IP, gather participants in the form of DAO, empower through airdropping digital fashion for use in GameFi and the metaverse. Rarity and secondary market trading increase the liquidity of the clothing itself. Physical and offline businesses in the later stages are merely complementary and far from necessary.

On the other hand, the approach of most Web2 companies is to utilize NFTs as a tool. Essentially, from production, sales to feedback throughout the industry chain, it is based on physical sales. NFTs serve as a marketing hotspot, driving new consumer traffic and brand upgrades. At this level, brand displays in the metaverse serve as a new marketing channel. Through the hotspot of NFTs, brand visibility is maintained, and new sources of revenue are created.

Web3 PFP vs. Native Fashion Brands Cultural Clash

Compared to traditional fashion and luxury brands, there are cultural differences in the way Web3 communicates.

Traditional fashion brands rely on annual fashion events and media coverage to convey their values "top-down" to the public, while Web3's new communication leans towards "decentralization" and "community culture." This is why we see the emergence path of popular culture for BAYC and Azuki as "bottom-up," filled with rebellion and symbols, which align more with the native culture of Crypto.

The popular fashion extracted from the essence of NFT attributes is more in line with people's consensus on Web3 trends. In comparison, "traditional fashion + NFT" seems more like a relic from a bygone era.

As the saying goes, out with the old, in with the new. New fashion is not grafted from classical aesthetics. In its early stages, it often carries a sense of "non-mainstream" and "rebellion," much like Beethoven in classical music or Van Gogh in 19th-century art movements.

Represented by brands like BAYC and Azuki, the streetwear culture is expanding from Web3 to Web2, such as organizing offline events and collaborations with streetwear brands. Benefiting from the native community culture, their fans are more loyal and culturally rooted than traditional fashion brands' customers, which is why traditional fashion brands always seem distanced from these native cultures.

Independent Brands Based on NFT Issuance

Currently, there are many brands specializing in digital fashion that are preheating through NFT issuance models, collaborating with other industries to bring new business opportunities.

RTFKT

Founded in 2019, RTFKT's name is derived from "artifact." It was acquired by Nike in December last year. In February, anyone holding Clone-X could receive the mysterious box MNLTH. Last Friday, RTFKT's MNLTH holders could burn NFTs to exchange for Nike Cryptokicks digital sneakers. Additionally, the sneakers can be customized with "skins." Currently, the highest transaction price is 73.3 ETH, with the floor price stabilizing around 2.54 ETH, slightly lower than in previous days.

Metaverse-Oriented Fashion Design

The rise of the metaverse and NFTs has driven a new digital economic ecosystem where virtual experiences and interactive economies become mainstream. A complete virtual identity can be expressed in various ways, such as avatars, virtual properties, and clothing.

As the metaverse's infrastructure improves and virtual avatars develop in online meetings, individuals can showcase their attire in the metaverse and virtual conferences, expressing themselves through digital characters and clothing. Metaverse platforms like Decentraland also have their own series of wearables or collaborate with other brands on fashion releases and sales.

Genies

Valued at $1 billion after a funding round in April, Genies allows users to create digital avatars and a series of digital wearables, owning intellectual property that can be monetized in suitable ways.

Republiqe

Republiqe creates unique digital 3D clothing and products, collaborating with brands to create custom digital avatars and models. Through partnerships with games and virtual platforms, Republiqe can proportionally dress virtual characters and real people.

The Fabricant

Many still remember Iridescence from 2019, the first purely digital dress sold in the blockchain world for $9,500. The Fabricant recently raised $14 million, focusing on creating digital avatars. Their positioning can be seen from the statement "ALWAYS DIGITAL, NEVER PHYSICAL."

Furthermore, some well-known fashion studios have launched their own digital clothing brands. For example, AuroBoros, originally a London-based fashion studio, debuted a purely digital clothing collection at London Fashion Week. Their "Bionic" digital series products are sold as NFT fashion on the Decentraland platform.

Virtual Experiences Based on Real Clothing

The combination of reality and virtuality mainly occurs in two ways.

One is purchasing well-known PFP NFTs and reselling them through secondary design. For example, Li-Ning released a fashion design based on BAYC#4102 and an upcoming pop-up store sale.

The other is that after customers purchase physical clothing, they can scan the accompanying barcode to obtain a virtual counterpart. For instance, Overpriced's hoodies are priced at $26,000 on the NFT platform BlockParty.

Expansion of NFTs by Luxury Brands

Gucci

As one of the early luxury brands to enter the NFT field, Gucci's first NFT collection was not based on its fashion products but a film inspired by their collaboration with Alessandro Michele, "Aria." This 4-minute film was sold at Christie's auction for $2.5 million.

Louis Vuitton

LV launched a mobile game called "Louis the Game" to commemorate the company founder's 200th anniversary, narrating the brand's history and culture. The game's Easter egg prize is a set of 30 Louis 200 NFTs created in collaboration with renowned NFT artist Beeple.

Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce & Gabbana unveiled 9 collections at Venice Fashion Week, collectively auctioned for $5.56 million. Buyers not only receive NFTs but also physical products and VIP access to D&G events. Additionally, Dolce & Gabbana plans to launch a $10 million "Cultural Fund" to promote NFTs in the fashion industry.

Digital fashion also has many display opportunities. With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, many fashion weeks have adopted online formats, making NFTs a new favorite at fashion weeks. "French Fashion" and the "Federation of Haute Couture and Fashion" partnered with the Arianee platform to create NFTs for exhibitors to use at the 2022 Paris Men's Spring-Summer Fashion Week, allowing users to browse exclusive fashion.

Currently, luxury brands in the NFT field maintain their positioning in the real world, whether in terms of artistry, price, target audience, etc.: high positioning, high-end consumers, high artistry.

Sustainability and the Future of Fashion

The creative director of The Fabricant once said, "The digital world is coming, and we are no longer bound by physical space, slowly entering a whole new system that has a more innate internal model closer to human instincts. It emerges from slow evolution rather than being controlled by central forces. What will a person become when freed from the constraints of the body? What does our identity mean when expressed with endless bits and bytes? We yearn to peek out and seek new worlds, and the windows to the new world are gradually being built. Human infinite potential is the driving force behind all of this."

Fashion actually represents an attitude, conveying a mindset. People's consumption behavior and psychology in reality will also transfer horizontally to the Web3 field, where the pursuit of rarity and personalization never stops. Attitude expression, identity recognition, and many other driving factors make virtual fashion increasingly important. The integration with NFTs is one of the entry points for fashion into the Web3 world.

Everything in Web3 is based on consensus. Whether it's digital assets or NFTs, they have a strong consensus foundation for everything to happen. Currently, the entire consumer industry is in a transition and chaotic phase of Web2.5, where the past economic growth momentum has gradually faded, and the market needs new consumption content and hotspots.

Good brands and stories also originate from consensus. Whether it's the entry of traditional fashion industry enterprises or the emergence of native digital fashion brands in the digital industry, they need to clearly define their positioning in the industry. From virtual to reality, reality to virtual, or purely digital virtual, one must consider the value of "virtual" itself.