Today the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) announced a collaboration with The Sandbox metaverse. The trade body plans to use the metaverse for a fashion exhibition as a retrospective celebrating its 60th anniversary. The showcase will highlight designs from houses such as Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta, and more.
Additionally, when the exhibition opens in December, a number of designers have agreed to create exclusive one-of-a-kind non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which will be sold to benefit the CFDA Foundation. The fundraising event, “Lighting the Path of American Fashion,” will feature designs from Diane von Furstenberg, Michael Kors, Wes Gordon for Carolina Herrera, Tommy Hilfiger, Coach, Willy Chavarria, Aurora James for Brother Vellies, and Vivienne Tam.
Attracting those big names is no mean feat. Particularly because designers are known for their attention to detail, and their designs will need to be reinterpreted to a voxel environment – the low-resolution pixelated avatars supported by The Sandbox.
“In celebrating 60 years since Eleanor Lambert founded the CFDA, we not only commemorate some of our biggest moments, but also want to use this milestone as an opportunity to look to the future,” said CFDA CEO Steven Kolb said. “The CFDA has always pioneered creative and innovative thinking, and with our first metaverse exhibition and NFTs, we are embracing this new era of digital transformation.”
Quite a few crypto firms were involved in arranging the event. 5Crypto was the creative agency, Polygon is the blockchain used for the NFTs, BNV is a fashion NFT marketplace, and Arianee provides a web3 platform for luxury fashion.
The luxury fashion sector is already exploiting NFTs and the metaverse in a big way. In a report last year, Morgan Stanley estimated that by 2030 luxury goods in the metaverse could boast revenues of €50 billion ($60bn). And that revenue comes with a far higher profit margin because the items are digital.
Decentraland, a web3 metaverse competitor to TheSandbox, had a virtual fashion week this last March. Some of the participants included Dolce & Gabbana, Estee Lauder, and Forever 21.
Examples of luxury fashion brands that have already launched NFTs include Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Bulgari and Jimmy Choo.
