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The marriage between fashion and crypto is being consummated, with leading brands making a renewed push into the industry. Balmain and Burberry are the latest fashion houses to explore the metaverse and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
Burberry, a British luxury fashion house, is striking a deal with Mythical Games’ Blankos Block Party to build its own metaverse world. The new partnership will add more characters and in-game items to Blankos Block Party.
Luxury brands join in on NFT craze
Last year, Burberry collaborated with Mythical Games to release a Burberry-branded Sharky B character and corresponding accessories. This year, the fashion giants are planning the release of a character that closely resembles a unicorn called Minny B. According to reports, the character will be emblazoned with Burberry’s signature and will sport accessories like a boom box and a gold horseshoe chain.
The Burberry metaverse takes the form of a floating virtual oasis and is scheduled to come live on June 22. Previous holders of Burberry’s in-game merchandise will have early access to rare items with free digital bucket hats already earmarked for holders of Sharky B, a Burberry character introduced in 2021.
“We are on a learning curve, so there’s a huge amount of value in how we learn to engage with the community and new creators and how that relationship evolves,” said Rachel Waller, Burberry’s leading executive. “There is a huge amount that we measure in terms of what we measure in terms of what we are learning. That’s where the partnership becomes really important for us.”
Mythical Games co-founder Jamie Jackson has hailed the partnership as one that will help the luxury brand get new customers. “We know our consumers, especially younger consumers, are super interested in this space anyway,” said Jackson.
Balmain follows closely behind with its NFTs
Balmain, a French luxury powerhouse, is embracing NFT with a collaboration with Jeff Cole to create artwork for the new Balmain Unicorn sneaker. The NFTs will be used as part of a marketing campaign for the sneakers. The designs will make their debut at the NFT.NYC conference in Balmain’s Madison Avenue boutique.
Olivier Rousteing, the sneaker’s designer, expressed delight over Cole’s NFTs. “I couldn’t be more pleased with the final artwork. Jeff clearly understood the spirit of our new unicorn has much more to do with the elusive beauty and rare strength of the legendary creature than with any literal interpretation of its shape,” Rousteing said.
Gucci extended its partnership with Roblox and has unveiled plans to collaborate with the Sandbox as it tries to gain a foothold in the cryptoverse. Balenciaga and TAG Heuer have joined the exclusive list of fashion brands that have begun accepting cryptocurrencies as payment in their outlets.