CFDA turns 60 with Sandbox Metaverse exhibit, Bored Ape NFT dress and more
Sandbox Exhibition Curator Darnell-Jamal Lisby and CFDA Director Steven Kolb view the exhibit … [+]
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 created in a motif created from Bored Ape Yacht Club PFPs belonging to her friends.
While opening bids start at $15,000, all NFTs come with bonus tools 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 a five-item personal shopping package curated by Mr. Hilfiger himself.
CFDA 60 anniversary NFT by Vivienne Tam dress from BNV.
The NFTs that will be auctioned at CFDA.bnv.me 12-16. December, has been brought to life by BNV, the web3 platform that developed the collaboration between Paris designer Weinsanto and K-Pop outfit Lightsum that debuted during Paris Fashion Week in September. It has partnered with MoonPay which enables buyers to pay with credit cards as opposed to crypto.
CFDA’s 60th anniversary metaverse gaming exhibition, “Fashioning the Shades of American Design” launches at The Sandbox on December 19 and runs for a month. The 60-look retrospective is curated by fashion historian and assistant fashion curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Darnell-Jamal Lisby.
From Dapper Dan’s 1980s designs for Eric B & Rakim to a grunge look from Marc Jacobs’ Spring 1993 collection for Perry Ellis, all the garments have been redesigned with 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 Fifth Column founder and CEO Akbar Hamid, whose creative consultancy created 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 that features The Sandbox teaser image was later 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 speaking to them in their own language – as per Gucci via its own The Sandbox pop-up last month and also by DressX as created digital mash-ups of L’Officiel magazine’s fashion archive earlier this year.
For its part, BNV is soon launching a 1×1 pack in The Sandbox called “Infinite City”, which both offers mission play and serves as a social hub for all things fashion – and showcases recent brand collaborations.
Close-up of the CFDA 60th NFT by Vivienne Tam dress from BNV.
