The problem with fashion NFTs? You can’t wear them everywhere – Nike, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana may be cashing in on digital wearables, but users need to pick their metaverse

After a phenomenal debut in the NFT world – making nearly US$5.7 million from its Collezione Genesi mini collection late last year – luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana is now presenting a set of NFTs named DGFamily Boxes. The digitally crafted glass boxes act as virtual keys to the brand’s members-only digital universe, with the tiered black, gold and platinum options unlocking a series of increasingly exclusive phygital experiences. “The idea is to create a gated community,” explains Shashi Menon, founder of UNXD, the NFT marketplace that conceived and launched D&G’s NFT collections. “The DGFamily NFT will serve as an umbrella for a series of things that Dolce & Gabbana will do in the Web 3.0 space. Each one of the tiers corresponds to a different level of exclusive benefits that come in the form of drops. These will be unique to the DGFamily community.” Do we need fashion weeks any more? Luxury is moving into the metaverse One of the first drops will be a collection of digital-only wearables that D&G showcased during the first Metaverse Fashion Week in March. The second release, which will happen in June, is a digital and physical collection of T-shirts, hoodies and trainers that have been specifically created for this community. The drops come in the form of NFTs that can either be traded to someone else or redeemed for the physical merchandise. “They are not possible to purchase in any D&G boutique or e-commerce store,” adds Menon. The D&G drops will also include creations by InBetweeners, an NFT community created by artist and cartoon designer Gianpiero D’Alessandro, which found an unlikely fan and collaborator in pop star Justin Bieber. A key question, as fashion brands continue to invest in and create fashion NFTs and properties for Web 3.0, is where are buyers showing off their digital wearables? The reality is that there aren’t many metaverses that are ready and live, where one can wear digital fashion wearables Robert Hoogendoorn, fashion NFT investor Three of the nine pieces in D&G’s Collezione Genesi were bought by Red DAO (which stands for decentralised autonomous organisation), a group of 50 blockchain technology experts and designers. One of its purchases was The Doge Crown, an NFT costing 423 Ethereum in digital currency, the equivalent of more than US$1.1 million at the time. It included digital perks like a custom digital recreation of the piece in an open metaverse as well as a physical version. How are NFTs changing the art world? From new platforms to famous buyers Seven months on, have the Red DAO members strutted the D&G digital wearables in the metaverse yet? “The Doge Crown is custodied by UNXD, per Red DAO members request,” says founding member Megan Kaspar. A digital fashion aficionado, Kaspar has long engaged with digital wearables. “In Web 2.0 metaverse platforms like Instagram, I’ve worn AR [augmented reality] wearables like RTFKT trainers and Fendi try-ons supported by DressX,” she adds. “In Web 3.0 metaverse platforms such as Decentraland and Boson Protocol’s Portal, I’ve also tried several digital fashion pieces and accessories.” But she is in a minority – for now. “The reality is that there aren’t many metaverses that are ready and live, where one can wear digital fashion wearables,” says Robert Hoogendoorn, a fashion NFT investor. There is also the problem of poor interoperability: right now, a wearable for Decentraland can only be worn inside Decentraland. “I cannot wear every digital wearable I own in any metaverse of my choice – their use is limited,” he adds. “For example, Decentraland is one of the very few active and live, three-dimensional virtual reality platforms. [But] I cannot wear my digital Nike Cryptokicks inside Decentraland, at the moment. I suppose I will be able to wear them at some point.” NFT marketplace creators are well aware of the problems faced by buyers. “Interoperability is the holy grail of Web 3.0 – it’s what we hope will happen in the future,” says Olivier Moingeon, co-founder of the Exclusible NFT marketplace. “At the moment, you have two constraints. The first is technological – every platform has its own specifications. The second is the aesthetic. For example, if I have an avatar from [blockchain-based open world game] The Sandbox, I cannot take that character to Decentraland, even though both the platforms are on Ethereum. This constraint is because of the difference in the design of these platforms.” Significantly, D&G’s digital wearable collection is also made specifically for Decentraland, the virtual world launched in early 2020. We are so very early in the curve and it is going to be a number of years before it becomes truly easy Shashi Menon, founder, UNXD Despite the constraints with interoperability and limited active metaverses, the NFT marketplace business is still buzzing. According to a fashion tech report by McKinsey & Company, global spending on virtual goods reached more than US$100 billion in 2021, more than double its performance in 2015, with around 30 per cent of revenue attributed to virtual fashion assets. But are these numbers tempting you to buy your first digital hoodie? Shopping online for physical fashion is a breeze for those familiar with streamlined e-commerce stores. But currently, most notable NFT marketplaces accept only crypto wallets. And that means adapting to whatever cryptocurrency is accepted by the NFT store where you want to shop. “It’s not yet the shopping cart experience from traditional web shops, but it’s moving in that direction, ” says Hoogendoorn. How are Hollywood celebrities getting in on the NFT craze? An evolving trend in the Web 3.0 space is onboarding platforms that allow users to use common payment methods like credit cards to load up cryptocurrencies. Menon explains: “For instance, on UNXD, you can set up an account with your email address, rather than start by creating a wallet. The second thing is the process of purchasing crypto. “We already have Moonpay where you can buy crypto using your credit card.” Then there’s the term “gas fee”, which is not a fee for consumption of any kind of fuel. In the Ethereum world, this is a type of transaction fee, paid to cryptocurrency miners, for validating the transaction. Unlike transaction fees at traditional e-commerce stores, gas fees are not fixed but dynamic and sometimes competitive when the transaction traffic is heavy on the Ethereum network. “Gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain allow users to have priority access. Pay more gas fee and your order will be fulfilled faster. So you can imagine sometimes things go crazy – especially during the limited period sale of a much-awaited NFT launch. Recently, people paid 2 Ethereum (around HK$15,000) in gas fees simply to get their hands on a piece of virtual land in Otherside, a metaverse world made by Yuga Labs, the company behind the famous Bored Ape Yacht Club. Hoogendoorn says this was exceptional and usually gas fees do not reach such high values. “It can happen when you want to buy something, but your transaction does not go through because you don’t have enough cryptocurrency in your crypto wallet to cover your gas fees,” warns Hoogendoorn. “On other blockchains these problems aren’t that big at all, but the best and most valuable NFT assets exist on Ethereum.” For some digital-savvy fashionistas though, it’s this volatility – and exclusivity – that lures them over to the virtual world in the first place. “The vast majority of people who are interacting with NFTs today are slightly more technically savvy than the average consumer,” adds Menon. “We are so very early in the curve and it is going to be a number of years before it becomes truly easy.” Want more stories like this? Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and