Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have enjoyed a breakout year, with third-quarter sales delivering an absolute exclamation point at $10.7 billion.
And yet, despite that eightfold increase from $1.2 billion in the second quarter, NFTs are just getting started if you believe advocates who predict use cases for the technology are about to stretch into new industries far beyond digital art.
The fashion industry is providing the latest mind-bending example of just that. Fashion juggernauts, like Dolce & Gabbana, have recently started experimenting with wearable, digital collectibles that are attracting astronomical prices. At a recent auction, a combination sale including a jeweled physical crown coupled with a digital NFT version sold for more than $1 million. Accompanying custom-made digitally wearable Dolce & Gabbana jackets also attracted more than $300,000 apiece in ethereum.
? UNXD and @DolceGabbana are proud to announce that The Doge Crown from the Collezione Genesi NFT collection sold for 423.5 ETH, or $1.275 million. In total, the collection sold for 1,885.719 ETH, or $5.65 million. Historic. Much more to come. ?https://t.co/anWLJ309Qs pic.twitter.com/gZ8CA0Wtym
— UNXD (@UNXD_NFT) September 30, 2021
Megan Kaspar, one of the members of the Red DAO group behind the winning bids for the items, explained to Yahoo Finance that the opportunity in digital fashion poses groundbreaking potential if AR technology can come to replace the need for physical clothes.
“The fashion industry alone is $2.7 trillion and we foresee that at least doubling over the next two decades because of digital fashion,” Kaspar said as she donned gold digital earrings during a Zoom video interview. “Digital fashion wearables give a new utility to fashion in general and it takes fashion to a sustainability level where all of the fashion that you're wearing, kind of like the earrings that I have on in the digital world, are not produced physically.”
That same promise has equally intrigued fashion companies looking to forgo the raw material and labor costs associated with producing physical clothing. It may seem like a far-off impossibility, but designers beyond Dolce & Gabbana are already experimenting by offering such wares right now.
1/
We’re still amped on last week’s historic UNXD x @DolceGabbana debut NFT drop, which sold for 1,885.719 ETH, making it the most successful digital fashion drop ever. There’s much, much more to come. Here, we recap the special collectors who now join the #DGFamily. ? pic.twitter.com/hcIJtD2OTn
— UNXD (@UNXD_NFT) October 4, 2021
DressX, a digital wearable marketplace startup that works with designers to offer 3D, AR garments, has already attracted millions in total backing from investors like Kaspar, despite only launching last year. The company boasts an app to let users “try on” different digital garments and has partnered with retail platform FARFETCH to let influencers promote digitized garments from the latest collections of Off-White, Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana, and others. DressX co-founder Natalia Modenova forecasts that while wearable NFTs for characters in games and digital worlds could also prove lucrative, even our current work-from-home life sets up nicely to use wearable NFT fashion today.
“The other use cases will follow and they are already popping up when you could wear some of the items in the gaming environment and virtual world, but it is way more limited,” she said. “We all have our own bodies and we don't need any kind of avatars to appear on the screen. We all have some kind of device which will help us show ourselves on the screen and that is why it opens up the biggest market and the biggest opportunity.”
Only time will tell if fashion NFTs enjoy an even hotter start than that of other digital collectible categories in 2021. Dapper Labs, the parent company behind NBA Top Shot, which sparked a frenzy of digital highlight collectibles and more than $700 million in sales activity, is planning to launch an NFL version soon. That alone could help provide a boost for a back-to-back NFT quarterly sales record.
Zack Guzman is an anchor for Yahoo Finance Live as well as a senior writer covering crypto, cannabis, startups, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.
Read the latest cryptocurrency and bitcoin news from Yahoo Finance
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.
Former 'Dancing With the Stars' judge and pro Julianne Hough proved she's the queen of fashion in her latest Instagram posts.
As cinemas continue to struggle, AMC Entertainment wants to sell its popcorn outside the theaters. The world’s biggest movie theater chain said Thursday it will begin selling its popcorn at malls, supermarkets, and convenience stores in the US next year, both as a freshly popped option and in microwaveable packages. With pandemic changing up consumer habits, the movie theater company will also start selling fresh popcorn for takeout, pickup, and delivery—ways of retrieving food that have boomed during the pandemic.
“Eternals,” one of Marvel's most ambitious efforts to expand its superhero universe, arrived in theaters with about $71 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates.
'9-1-1' star Jennifer Love Hewitt posted a new Instagram of her husband, Brian Hallisay.
At least eight people were killed during a crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston. Scott’s performances are known for being chaotic, with concertgoers encouraged to take part in things like mosh pits.
Marilia Mendonça has died in a plane crash at the age of 26. She was traveling to a concert at the time of the crash, which killed four other people.
Why Mark Zuckerberg is trying to teleport away from Facebook's problems
“No Time to Die,” the latest entry in the James Bond series, will be available to rent for $19.99 on digital platforms in the U.S. starting on Tuesday. An MGM representative confirmed the news to Variety. The 007 blockbuster will be available on all major platforms, including Amazon, Apple, Xfinity, DirecTV, Spectrum and Vudu. The […]
On Saturday night, Billie Eilish married goth to glamour and wore a textured all-black look to the LACMA Art+Film Gala in Los Angeles.
The metaverse poses many of the same challenges for parents as online video games, only much more so.
“Eternals,” one of Marvel’s most ambitious efforts to expand its superhero universe, arrived in theaters over the weekend with an estimated $71 million in ticket sales.
On Friday, Hailey Bieber stepped out in Los Angeles in an outfit featuring a Coach style cardigan, short shorts and Ugg boots with a front zipper.
I had no idea the Pitch Perfect cast was so close!View Entire Post ›
"MLMs are the worst."View Entire Post ›
‘I thought it was fascinating to hold that position as a young woman,’ comedian said
This whole metaverse thing hasn’t turned out exactly the way Seattle novelist Neal Stephenson thought it would when he came up with the idea 30 years ago. Back then, Stephenson was getting ready to write his breakout science-fiction novel, “Snow Crash.” He was musing about how expensive it was to buy the equipment for a computer art project he was working on, as opposed to how inexpensive it was to buy a television set and watch state-of-the-art programming. What would it take to make computer e
FOX 26's Denise Middleton spoke with an ICU nurse who was in attendance during the Astroworld music festival and assisted first responders at the concert, where eight people died and several other members of the crowd were injured.
Warning: There's about to be a lot of howling.View Entire Post ›
Almost all these movies had WAY darker endings.View Entire Post ›
The Puerto Rican singer's new relationship comes about after Mia Khalifa announced she and ex-husband Robert Sandberg split in July

source