The nine piece non-fungible token (NFT) collection from luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana, Collezione Genesi, sold for a total of $5.65 million on the UNXD digital platform. The most expensive piece went for $1.275 million.
As a luxury brand, Dolce & Gabbana’s clothing and accessories prices are on the high end. Online, the cheapest boots are priced at more than $500 and most cost well over $1,000. The fashion brand also produces one-off haute couture items that sell for thousands of dollars, often handmade and tailored for an individual client.
Consistent with its branding, the NFT collection was extremely scarce, enhancing its exclusivity. All nine NFTs were one-offs and featured both a physical item designed by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana and a digital high-design video. The pieces included clothing items for men and women and “museum-grade” jewelry collections.
The result of this scarcity is a multi million dollar sale of nine digital pieces. The initiative also highlighted Dolce & Gabbana’s awareness of the current technological space and its efforts to adapt and integrate into the developing fashion industry, which is becoming more digital by the minute.
“It’s not about nostalgia,” said Dolce in an interview for Luxury London. “Tradition and innovation have been two essential topics for us since the very beginning – when we first started, we were transported by innovation; then we discovered that we still needed our roots. We wanted to understand, in an era like this, where there is a new digital generation, how we might be able to talk and have a better dialogue with our experiences, traditions and the handmade, and combine all of this with innovation. Also, tradition has no meaning if there’s no innovation, and vice-versa. Just as there’s no Dolce without Gabbana!”
This particular auction was a success for Dolce & Gabbana. It was conveniently around the time when Vogue Singapore released its September issue on the topic of NFTs and their impact on fashion, which likely contributed to the buzz and trendiness of digital assets in the industry.
Meanwhile, other brands are making use of NFTs to promote new products, revamp digital strategies, or showcase to consumers they are keeping up with digital trends. Fashion brand DKNY is promoting its new logo through an NFT launch. DC Comics is rewarding consumers with a digital asset for registering for its online event, and Neopets is looking to revitalize its popularity, starting with the drop of an NFT collection.
