Sandbox exhibition curator Darnell-Jamal Lisby and CFDA CEO Steven Kolb bookending exhibition looks … [+]
To celebrate its sixtieth anniversary, The Council of Fashion Designers of America is making its metaverse debut with an exhibition in The Sandbox alongside a collection of commemorative NFTs.
The seven one-of-one experiential NFTs include representations of contemporary American brands: Coach, Diane von Furstenberg, Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Vivienne Tam, Wes Gordon for Caroline Herrera and Willy Chavaria. The Vivienne Tam NFT artwork features a traditional Chinese silhouette done in a motif created from Bored Ape Yacht Club PFPs belonging to her friends.
While opening bids start at $15,000, all the NFTs come with bonus utilities involving ‘money (normally) can’t buy’ opportunities such as fashion show tickets and backstage meet-and-greets.
For example, the Tommy Hilfiger NFT includes an all expenses paid trip to the brand’s upcoming fashion show plus personalized shopping package of five items curated by Mr Hilfiger himself.
CFDA 60 anniversary NFT of Vivienne Tam dress by BNV.
The NFTs which will be auctioned on CFDA.bnv.me December 12-16, have been brought to life by BNV, the web3 platform which masterminded the collaboration between Paris designer Weinsanto and K-Pop outfit Lightsum debuted during September’s Paris Fashion Week. It has partnered with MoonPay enabling buyers to pay via credit card as opposed to crypto.
The CFDA’s 60th anniversary metaverse gaming exhibit, “Fashioning the Shades of American Design” launches in The Sandbox on December 19 and runs for a month. The 60-look retrospective is curated by fashion historian and Assistant Curator of Fashion of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Darnell-Jamal Lisby.
From Dapper Dan’s 1980s designs for Eric B & Rakim to a grunge look from Marc Jacob’s spring 1993 collection for Perry Ellis, garments have all been reimagined using The Sandbox’s voxelized language.
“Think of it as a mini MET exhibition in the metaverse with beautiful images and scenes recreated in a voxelized form,” says 5th Column founder and CEO Akbar Hamid whose creative consultancy concepted the event.
CFDA 60th anniversary voxelized Tommy Hilfiger NFT by BNV.
The goal, he added, was to “bring in the existing fashion community but also to reach the gaming community and introduce them to these brands.”
Fun Fact: The Spring 2019 Off White dress which features The Sandbox teaser image was subsequently altered for Beyoncé to wear for her “On The Run Tour 2”.
It all shows how web3 technologies can be harnessed to preserve fashion heritage, bringing it alive for new generations by talking to them in their own language — as per Gucci via its own The Sandbox pop-up last month and also by DressX which created digital mash-ups of L’Officiel magazine’s fashion archive earlier this year.
For its own part, BNV is soon to launch a 1×1 parcel in The Sandbox called “Infinite City,” both offering quest games and acting as a social hub for all things fashion — exhibiting recent brand collaborations.
Close-up of CFDA 60 anniversary NFT of Vivienne Tam dress by BNV.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephaniehirschmiller/2022/12/01/cfda-launches-sandbox-metaverse-show-bored-ape-nft-dress/