Less than two months ago we wondered if Gucci was among the fashion houses ready to jump on the non-fungible token (NFT) bandwagon. After all, the fashion house had clearly showed an interest in virtual reality and video games releasing in March a pair of AR sneakers, and creating designs for Sims 4 and Pokémon Go 4, and avatars on the 3D social media app Zepeto. We didn't have to wait long for the answer as Gucci released this week its first NFT that is currently part of an auction at Christie's.
After Christie's auction of Beeple's purely digital work with a unique NFT set a record in March, selling at $69,346,250 USD, NFTs have multiplied, proliferating like mushrooms in different fields - from art and music to interior design. The popularity of NFTs proves that there is a cryto wealthy generation rising and those who are part of it do not see any obstacles in dealing with cryptocurrencies and crypto wallets.
But, in the case of fashion houses showing an interest in NFTs (and there are quite a few out there - Sydney-based fashion collectibles platform Neuno is developing for example NFTs for five luxury fashion houses), it proves that NFTs are not perceived as brand dilutive (after all, they exist in a different realm from your usual physical luxury pieces), and they are actually conceived as something prestigious (Gucci's NFT auctioned by Christie's also proves this point).
In May Christie's launched two new NFT sales - "Andy Warhol: Machine Made" and "Proof of Sovereignty". The former featured (it closed yesterday) five unique NFTs of digital works created by Warhol in the mid-1980s and recovered from obsolete floppy disks in 2014.
The five works - two self-portraits, his signature flower, and Campbell's soup can motifs, and a rendering of a single banana on a blue background - were created in a paint program on Warhol's Commodore Amiga personal computer in the mid-1980s and only existed as digital files unreadable by modern computers.
The works were turned into NFTs authorised and minted exclusively by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (in this case no other NFTs will be minted from these five digital works restored from Warhol’s originals, so this sale marked a rare opportunity for collectors). The most successful artwork was Campbell's Soup Can that went for USD 1,170,000, followed by a self-portrait that sold for USD 870,000.
Proceeds from this sale, after any appropriate offsets for carbon emissions associated with the minting process, will benefit the Foundation and provide annual funding for The Andy Warhol Museum.
"Proof of Sovereignty" is instead a curated NFT sale by Lady PheOnix, a respected voice in the new media landscape. In this case the sale (on until June 3) brought together 20 artists, among them Nam June Paik, considered the grandfather of video art, Marguerite deCourcelle, also known as "Coin Artist", Joshua Davis, Claudia Hart, Lethabo Huma, Kesh, Tamiko Thiel, Jenny Holzer and Gerald Laing Estate.
Part of this auction, Gucci's first NFT is an artwork taken from "Aria", its latest fashion collection, launched in April with an eponymous film codirected by Gucci's creative director Alessandro Michele and award-winning photographer and director Floria Sigismondi, and inspired by the theme of renewal after the shadow of winter has passed (a reference to seasons, but also to the dark times we went through during this year of pandemic).
The starting bid is $20,000, according to Christie's website, that describes this piece as marking "a historic moment for the storied brand", and the NFT as a work of art characterised by a "dream-like landscape and effervescent energy".
The purchase price for this lot can be paid in the cryptocurrency Ether and must be made via a digital wallet transfer of Ether to Christie's. Gucci will donate all its proceeds to UNICEF USA in support of UNICEF's participation in COVAX, an initiative aimed at ensuring global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
There are actually some lessons we can learn from these auctions: Warhol's NFTs were derived from original and previously unseen works by the Pop Art master; the other NFTs included in the second auction are also more original compared to Gucci's as they were created by proper artists who specialise in new media. Gucci's NFT is just a looped video (length: 00:04:05 minutes; resolution: 1152 x 1152 pixels), extracted from the "Aria" film presentation, as if the fashion house just wanted to release something as soon as possible to prove they were there before others.
The quickest way for a fashion house to release a non-fungible token is probably digitising a design or an extract from video, film or advertising campaign that already exist (and they naturally have a lot of archive materials). But you wish that fashion houses opting to go down the NFT path would maybe try and do something more extraordinary and unique, opting for example for exclusive collaborations with digital artists or for digital fashion designs with some unique features (think garments or accessories that can transform into something else).
Christie's sale features for example some great examples going from RTFKT Studio's futuristic golden and purple sneakers created in collaboration with prominent shoe designer, Guy Marshall (behind the basketball phenom's first signature sneaker, the Kobe 1) to an exclusive artwork entitled "F473 (FATE)" by Coin Artist, the game designer and CEO of one of the earliest NFT game companies, Blockade Games.
This is not a static NFT that remains in a wallet on one network, but comes alive and it is accessible across Ethereum and the Polygon layer 2 Network. This NFT is essentially a foundation to spawn thousands of NFTs on Polygon that create a bespoke NFT collecting game that is unlocked only after the initial sale of the "F473" artwork. The spawned assets allow for temporarily altering the aesthetics of the core artwork, as well as altering the overall gameplay. The core of the experience centers around a physical painting, which contains a hand-painted private key giving access to a cryptocurrency prize that will be revealed upon the auction's conclusion. The purchaser of the NFT will also own and determine the fate of the physical painting.
So the first lesson to learn from these auctions is dedicated to fashion houses currently working on their own NFTs that should definitely create something more exclusive and original, possibly with artists who are knowledgeable in this field.
Which brings us to the second consideration inspired from the fact that Gucci's NFT is an extract from the "Aria" film. If you're an artist working for a fashion company on a special project not linked with NFTs, for example a print for a collection, a film, runway props and advertising campaigns, always check the contract they have prepared for you and in case ask if they plan to create NFTs from any aspects of the project you're creating for them. If the answer is yes, make sure they add to your contract specific terms that regulate any possible NFTs derived from your work.
Looks like NFTs are just the tip of a much bigger iceberg as developing them will require new jobs and professions, some of them also linked to the legal aspects surrounding NFTs.
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