NFT fashion collaborations: Virtual fashion, real demand

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Everyone reporting on the arts scene in the context of the pandemic is duty bound to speak in hushed tones to acknowledge that the current situation has forced countless closures and deterred young creatives from embarking on a career in something they are passionate about.

Still, despite the gloom, the retail reality at the country’s leading department stores has actually been quite positive of late, with early sales figures from the clearance sales at the start of the new year putting the likes of Sogo & Seibu Co. and Takashimaya Co. on a 150% increase in earnings year on year. Even Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings, which did better than most to weather the storm last year, posted a 130% increase in earnings year on year.

It is interesting to look at what consumers are buying. Compared to last year, stores have observed that visitors are stocking up on white shirts and suits now that many are back in the office, with overall fashion sales up on the whole.

Naturally, the department stores have yet to return to pre-COVID figures, with clearance sales earnings at all three chains trading at 20-30% less than they were in early 2020.

However, it’s still a pretty good result given the lack of the inbound duty-free shoppers and, while there is a long way to go, recovery doesn’t look to be completely out of reach when more than 6,500 people lined up to get into the Isetan Shinjuku department store in Tokyo on Jan. 2.

Collectibles appear to be center of attention in fashion circles these days, with investors steering clear of bulky, delicate streetwear items that generally fall in value over time.

FRUITS NFT

Enter the world of nonfungible tokens and their ability to put a price on just about everything. While NFT fashion collaborations are now so de rigueur they barely warrant attention, creatives are still fumbling around trying to find a sense of value beyond the monetary.

In the absence of being able to assemble a large collection of physical items, the idea of digitally collecting fashion appears very attractive. But given that fashion is a transitory medium of evolving trends, shoppers seem largely unmoved by the idea of buying an NFT of a jacket they are going to replace next season. The projects that tend to succeed are those that embrace that transitory nature, allowing people to own a point in fashion history — not fashion present.

Take, for instance, the auction earlier this month of seven NFT that are related to the inaugural issue of Fruits magazine, published in 1997. The NFT items are scans of the uncropped original photos that would be used in the magazine — iconic pieces of Harajuku fashion captured by street fashion photographer Shoichi Aoki.

The clothes worn by the subjects themselves are likely worthless, but as a nostalgic snapshot of those on the ground in Harajuku in the 1990s, or those who discovered them abroad through Phaidon’s “FRUiTS” 2001 compilation book, they clearly have a personal value further validated by the financial value. The seven NFT fetched 3.65 ETH (around ¥1. 4 million, or roughly ¥200,000 each) and are now circulating on the market.

You can still find physical copies of the magazine’s inaugural edition for much less than that, or just be a wag and download the image file, but that is missing the point of what is going on here.

Fashion suffers from severe “buyers’ regret” at times, with people looking back and laughing at the clothes they used to wear that meant the world to them at the time. Being able to see a satisfying monetary value sitting next to your memories is a shortcut to a sense of fulfillment.

 | METATOKYO
| METATOKYO

This is only the start of a digital metaverse project that will probably prove baffling and exhausting to people who only just found out what an NFT is. In short, through a Fruits collaboration with Harajuku-based Asobi System, Paradeall and Fracton Ventures, a virtual Tokyo has been created on the new MetaTokyo platform. To buy in, you will need a pass that is purchased as an NFT, and that then gets you access to member-only content and events on the platform. The current price is 0.05 ETH (just shy of ¥20,000) on the OpenSea platform.

The cost of entry is largely insignificant compared to technology literacy required to access this virtual world, but the prospect of being able to walk through the streets of late ’90s Harajuku is sure to encourage some to get involved.

Of course, there is a lot of cynicism that surrounds these kinds of projects, especially given the sums of money that can be involved with NFT, the ecological impact of the blockchain model, and the risk of the servers that host the NFT and related projects being discontinued.

However, there is some sense of need being answered here, and, even if it doesn’t last, it will ultimately become another part of fashion history.

MetaTokyo: https://metatokyo.xyz

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