Dolce & Gabbana set a new NFT fashion record, according to the New York Times, by selling a nine-piece collection of virtual and physical clothing for 1,885.719 Ethereum cryptocurrency, or about $5.7 million. The auction, which took place in late September in collaboration with digital luxury marketplace UNXD, lasted roughly a week.
Three men’s coats and The Impossible Tiara were among the four surviving digital items. The virtual pieces were produced using sketches by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the label’s designers.
The IRL experience linked to this collection is magical. As just one example, this striking photo captures the opening night dinner during this year’s Dolce&Gabbana Alta Moda couture event in Venice. This is what winning bidders can expect: digital, physical, experiential. pic.twitter.com/naKehB0kdn
— Dolce & Gabbana (@dolcegabbana) September 19, 2021
The collection is considered the most sophisticated NFT clothes developed thus far. The pieces have improved in value by 10%, and are now valued at $6.1 million at current market rates.
“These prices are not surprising,”The NYTimes quotes Nick Jushchyshyn, Drexel University’s programme director for Virtual Reality and Immersive Media. “You have world-renowned designers creating something absolutely unique, with attention to detail. It is beyond what you expect to see in a typical digital rendering, and it’s a one of one.”
The Doge Crown, which features seven blue sapphires and 142 diamonds, sold for $1.25 million, making it the collection’s most expensive sale. According to Aaron Wright and Megan Kaspur of Red DAO, a renowned NFT collecting community, this auction was “a ‘big boom’ moment” for fashion NFTs.
Dolce & Gabbana and UNXD have more fashion NFT projects in the works. The brand plans to introduce a crypto community for NFT fashion buyers called DGFamily, as well as digitally-handcrafted NFT jewel boxes.
Pranksy, a well-known NFT collector, told the New York Times that NFT fashion is only getting started, since new generations of buyers “place a larger value on the virtual than previous generations.”
Dolce & Gabbana isn’t the first fashion house to sell non-traditional clothing. Non-fungible tokens are non-exchangeable tokens that are created using blockchain technology and represent a piece of digital artwork such as films, music, and, of course, fashion. NFTs serve as a digital proof of ownership for buyers, but NFT original creators maintain copyright and traceable creatorship, as well as a share of any future sales. Each NFT has been demonstrated to be unique and reliable.
