Fashion Week
Rebecca Minkoff's NFT Show Is The Future Of Fashion
“You’ll play your video game in your new outfit, then that same outfit will arrive at your house.”
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, questions about the future of New York Fashion Week — and the industry at large — were hard to escape. Some wondered whether Fashion Week could even maintain relevance in such a rapidly changing landscape.
“I definitely get annoyed when people say that,” Rebecca Minkoff tells Bustle. “There’s an entire industry and ecosystem that their livelihoods depend on these fashion weeks. Nothing is ever going to go fully digital.”
Still, Minkoff sees value in the intersection of fashion and technology, recently becoming the first major American designer to enter the burgeoning NFT space, according to WWD. NFTs, or “non-fungible tokens,” can be used to represent different types of art, like photos, videos, audio, and digital versions of fashion designs.
“I do think the worlds are going to merge even more,” Minkoff says. “As we’re exploring these NFTs, there’s a world where you’ll have your avatar in the metaverse. You’ll go shopping, play your video game in your new Rebecca Minkoff outfit, but then that same outfit will arrive at your house.”
Investing in new kinds of technology enables Minkoff to reach an ever broader audience with her designs, which include wardrobe staples like leather jackets and little black dresses featuring edgy details from studs and chunky chains to zippers, and fringe.
Even if you’ve never visited New York City to visit the Rebecca Minkoff boutique, you can still get a sense of what it’s like to shop there, thanks to augmented reality.
“There are creative ways for these worlds to blend more seamlessly and just create new customer retail experiences,” Minkoff says. “That’s where the true opportunity is.”
On Sep. 10, the veteran designer presented “I Love New York,” a capsule collection that draws inspiration from the city that help shaped her eponymous brand.
Complete with punky combat boots, fitted jumpsuits, and the signature Rebecca Minkoff leather jacket, her new “I Love New York” collection is both a tribute to and summation of everything she’s built over the last 20 years. (The brand was officially established in 2005, but Minkoff began producing her own designs in 2001.)
“It’s taking a lot of classic items, making them oversized, and embellishing them with things the brand is known for, whether it’s stones, eyelets, or zippers,” she says. “And even though [my signature] Morning After bag started 16 years ago, we thought, let’s bring it back in all shapes, sizes, and colors.”
This season, she partnered with Magnum Ice Cream to design a new accessory: a limited-edition, custom insulated handbag that has all the classic Rebecca Minkoff touches — plus the ability to keep ice cream cold. “And when you’ve eaten it all up, it’ll continue to hold things, but in a fashionable way,” the designer says.
An ice cream cart passed out frozen treats at the presentation, which operated as a gallery-style event where various NFTs of the designs were on display and sold off.
“We wanted to be [among] the first American brands to sell NFTs,” Minkoff says. “Each print is being sold as an NFT and proceeds from the sales of that are going toward female-founded companies impacted by the pandemic in New York City. [I wanted to] support things I feel passionate about.”
Now more than ever, Minkoff says, people want to know what you stand for as a brand. “I think about trying to approach everything we do through that lens. So, that when you close your eyes, you know the aesthetic, the values, and the brand promise of what you’re getting by supporting that designer.”
