NFT’s are the new buzzword on everyone’s tongue. For the uninitiated like myself, NFT’s (non-fungible tokens) are unique, collectible digital assets which hold value as a form of cryptocurrency. Essentially, they are like any other physical collector's item, but instead of receiving an oil painting on canvas to hang on your wall, for example, you get a JPG file. A recent example of this is the artwork by the artist known as Beeple which sold at Christie’s for an impressive $69.3 million. In the near future it’s not hard to conceive luxury brands releasing NFTs for original virtual goods, or for digital versions of physical goods shoppers have purchased, allowing them to take their real-world items with them into games like Fortnite.
Society has long assigned emotional value to physical objects that outweigh their material worth. Luxury items craft our identities, by enjoying an ownership over such items and turning them into extensions of ourselves we communicate our identities to others. NFT’s can make virtual fashion items as unequivocally unique as tangible products, solving the problem of absolute reproducibility of digital clothes. In this vain, the first auction of digital couture on the Ethereum blockchain took place earlier in the month.
Moreover, fashion brands can expand the field of products they can sell via NFT's, just like diffusion lines which provide a more accessible price point for the Gen Z's. An recent example of this would be Gucci’s $12 digital sneakers. Selling videos of its fashion shows and backstage photos as NFT’s wold also provide an additional revenue stream, yes, a digital asset can be copied, but the private key proving ownership of it is unique, which could therefore be purchased by a collector as an original work of art. NFT’s linked to physical goods can also help combat counterfeiting, serving as proof of authenticity. Additionally, they could have a transformative effect on the fast-growing resale market whereby changes in ownership can be accurately traced but also with providing brands with a percentage of royalties every time their product is sold in the secondary luxury market.
For now fashion NFT's are in their nascent stages whereby mainly GIF's of unique products can be bought and admired, much like art. And the current fashion NFT user experience lacks the polish expected by luxury fashion buyers. However, this is all pivoting towards a big change, thanks to companies like Sydney-based Neuno, who are hoping to turn the space into a Net-A-Porter rather than an Amazon. Their plan is to let users buy a NFT once and then have the ability to use it in multiple ways.
So while part of me sits here and wonders if the coming generations will have any value for my decades long collection of physical luxury items, the other more inquisitive part has just been mesmerized by a leather trench coat walking towards me as if an invisible superhero lurks within and signed up for early access to Neuno. Watch out (digital) world, my Birkin brandishing avatar could soon be on the loose!
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