On the tailcoats of NFTs come DAOs, a new type of organization looking to disrupt the fashion industry.
If you’ve been scrolling through Twitter, you may have seen the buzzword ‘Web3’ that “crypto bros” have been using lately. It’s also something that creatives and artists have been taking seriously, and it seems like it will inevitably take a firm place in our near future. Web3 is a decentralized form of the internet as we know it today, where users own their data instead of having them stored in large data centers owned by tech giants. In the early days of the internet, we had Web1—a way to democratize access to information, but a very disorganized and overwhelming place. Then, we had Web2, where the likes of Google and Facebook emerged, bringing some order to the internet and making it easy to connect with others and make transactions online. Over the past few years, Facebook (which has since rebranded to Meta) has become dogged with scandals and privacy concerns. Many feel that these companies have too much control over the internet and our lives. The solution? Web3.
Web3 differs from Web1 and 2 because blockchain technology allows people to control their data. Using a crypto wallet, users can scroll through social media, reply to emails, and do their online shopping while all their activity is recorded publicly on the blockchain.
At the beginning of 2021, we saw NFTs become a buzzword in the crypto world; the next trend to go mainstream will be DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations). These are groups of people with a shared purpose who, for example, will put their money together to buy into an investment. The DAO group PleasrDAO who bought the sole-existing copy of the Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin over the summer for $4 million, will now receive royalties every time the song is used commercially. DAOs have also formed as groups that manage projects together rather than make investments, as in the case of Friends with Benefits, an exclusive creative members’ club, and HerStory, a DAO that funds projects by Black women and non-binary artists.
DAOs differ from traditional organizational structures because they are non-hierarchical and decentralized. All members of a DAO are co-owners of that organization, who make decisions by voting. There is no hierarchy, no CEO, only automated code.
Another example of a DAO is Red DAO, which invests in digital fashion. Earlier this year, they purchased the Doge Crown from Dolce & Gabbana’s Collezione Genesi, the first-ever luxury fashion NFT collection, for almost $1.7 million. They also won an auction on two jackets from the collection for over $427k and $388k. All 3 NFTs included a digital recreation of the garments in a metaverse world of the buyer’s choosing. A physical version of the Doge Crown was also included.
Other forms of fashion DAOs are also emerging, which may soon compete with traditional brands. One such example is the Global Designer Network, made up of nearly 100 independent fashion designers who host weekly calls to teach each other how to create fashion pieces for the metaverse and skills in 3D design, gaming, and physical clothing. Many fashion designers in the web3 space anticipate that DAOs similar to this could become the next Prada or Gucci in both the metaverse and the physical world.
Although the metaverse isn’t yet fully developed, it is rapidly taking hold in the fashion world. Although we don’t know what the metaverse will look like, a virtual ‘real estate’ plot was sold just two weeks ago for $2.4 million. The land is part of the Fashion Street district of Decentraland and will be used to host digital fashion events and shops. Proto-metaverse worlds from the 2000s (before the word metaverse was coined) like IMVU and Habbo Hotel are looking to capitalize on the hype. IMVU launched a crypto token called VCoin this year and held a two-day digital fashion show with brands such as My Mum Made It and Collina Strada.
Despite its increasing ubiquity, the extent to which digital fashion will proliferate the industry is still up for debate, with brands showing reservations about its ability to compete with real-world clothing. As we will—for the foreseeable future at least—still need to clothe our bodies, we can assume digital fashion will remain an added fantasy rather than an alternative to the tangible art form.
Images courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana.
