Fashion houses are moving into the realm of NFTs and the Metaverse despite the downtrend. What for?

Despite the fact that the cryptocurrency market as a whole is currently showing a downward trend and most coins are losing value rather than gaining, many large companies remain committed to the development of Web 3.0 technologies and in particular non-interchangeable tokens.

Fashion house Prada, for example, recently announced its next Timecapsule NFT collection. Not only will it give access to unique virtual items, which will be released with a limited edition of 50 pieces, but it will also give token holders the opportunity to attend events. So the new token holders will be able to easily visit Milan and, by special invitation, go to fashion shows and exclusive unique tours by Prada.

In addition to Prada, other fashion houses such as Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Moncler are also expressing their interest in NFT collections. Prada has created a division called Prada Crypto, which will focus on attracting new customers who are no strangers to the world of non-exchangeable tokens. Apparently, the previously mentioned Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Moncler also realised that Web 3.0 technologies are the future and decided to develop towards NFT tokens.

The new technologies will allow the fashion whales to recreate the desired images in virtual worlds as well, which will greatly help to attract additional audiences and as a consequence, customers and new money. In this way, not only is the world of the cryptocurrency market changing, but also the consumer experience.

It is worth noting that one of the starting points for the development of virtual worlds and metaworlds was the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. At that time, too, savvy investors could make money on virtual currencies at a time when the entire global economic system was undergoing a major blow. At that moment people think that development of metaworlds is just a matter of time and sooner or later the border between real and virtual worlds will become thin.

Against this backdrop, many major corporations began to keep up with the times and, in addition to investing in cryptocurrency funds and tokens, began to consider beautifully playing around with virtual worlds. That's how virtual things started to appear, and brands started releasing non-interchangeable tokens that would create a unique image of users in virtual worlds and could draw attention to companies.

Not only sportswear brands like Adidas, Nike, Reebok and others, but also major fashion houses like Prada, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and so on have developed strategies to work on non-exchangeable tokens.

In addition to simply attracting attention and promoting their brand, blockchain technology has been able to automate some processes and, as a result, reduce costs. Such examples include Twitter and Discord, which have already set up marketing departments dedicated to customer engagement, paying less money than before. French carmaker Renault has even been able to move its real-life car manufacturing plants into the industrial meta-universe they have created, and cut some costs by 50% and even 60%.

Gucci, Tiffany & Co, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Moncler and others have also recently entered the chase for the big piece of cake called NFT tokens. Gucci and Prada have already managed to make their mark among lovers of non-interchangeable tokens. Prada announced the release of its seventh collection on December 1, which, as previously said, will be limited to 50 pieces. Gucci, on the other hand, released its 10KTF Gucci Grail collection in the first quarter of 2022. The pieces have been created through a collaboration between the brand's creative director Alessandro Michele and digital art mastermind Wagmi-san.

Dolce & Gabbana distinguished itself by its collaboration with Web 3.0 company UNXD and Chainlink for the successful re-presentation of the DGFamily Glass Box.

Moncler has joined the list of fashion houses that use NFT collections to promote their brand quite recently. A couple of months ago, representatives of the company announced a partnership with one of the platforms that are known in the Web 3.0-technology industry. Now they can safely be called a full-fledged partner of Arianee. The fashion house was also able to successfully integrate the Arianee browser wallet into their economic system, so that Moncler customers can buy their digital goods.

Nevertheless, despite all the news of various large companies entering the non-interchangeable token industry, there is now a clear trend of a drawdown in the NFT token sector. The reason for this can be primarily attributed to the global downtrend. There are exceptions in the form of the Bored Ape Yacht Club or CryptoPunks collections, but in general non-interchangeable tokens do not show the most comforting results. However, this will change once the cryptocurrency market returns to an uptrend phase.

This state of affairs has also affected the value of many NFT tokens, including top brand collections. Items from Gucci Grail's 10KTF collection, which we mentioned earlier, have lost five times in value. If at the start the value of one such non-exchangeable token was 1 Ethereum (~$2,800 at the time of release), now the buyer of such an item will be able to afford the pleasure at a price tag of ~$570 (0.52 Ethereum). The reason for this is the decline in both the value of the item in ETH equivalent and Ethereum itself, which has fallen from $2,800 to $1,100. A similar story happened with the Dolce & Gabbana collection called Glass Box and NFT tokens from Tiffany & Co.'s NTiff set. Situations like this have been increasingly evident in the non-interchangeable tokens market this year, with sales on OpenSea dropping fivefold over 2022.

Various analysts and experts believe that apparel and luxury tokens will account for at least 10% of the metatable and NFT token market by 2030. As has been said many times, even though the non-exchangeable coin sector is now in decline along with the rest of the crypto market, it is not too discouraging from user interest.