Luxury and fashion companies regularly launch alternatives in crypto, NFT and Web3. Today a new one of these giants has the ambition to launch in this emerging ecosystem. This one is none other than Hermes and already plans to dress your avatars in the Metavers.
“The devil dresses in NFT Prada” – The luxury goods brand Hermès is known worldwide for its silk squares or its Kelly bag. Symbol of the French know-how, the group has decided to launch itself in the metaverse and is preparing to dress your avatars with the greatest elegance. After the prestigious auction house Sotheby’s, which recruits specialists in digital art, it is now a family business more than a hundred years old that invests in NFT. Sign of the times or opportunism? In any case, the time of shopping 3.0 has arrived and your avatars have no more excuse not to have class.
Hermès and fashion in the Metaverse
The luxurious Hermès company is not new. It was founded in 1837, a time when it specialized in the manufacture of saddles and harnesses. How could anyone have imagined in those distant days that this company would be one of the most prestigious today? And today, Hermès is even considering a new step with the Metavers and digital worlds.
Little by little, the luxury brand Hermès is preparing the ground for its entry into the Web3. After filing a trademark application covering :
– non-fungible tokens (NFT)
– crypto-currencies
– the Metaverse
Hermes filed another application on August 26 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The purpose is to cover downloadable software for viewing, storing and managing virtual goods, digital collectibles, crypto-currencies and NFTs “for use in online worlds.”
In addition, it has also filed trademarks for “retail store services featuring virtual goods” as well as for fashion and trade shows in “online virtual, augmented or mixed reality environments” and for “providing an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of virtual goods.”
All these elements finally leave little room for doubt in the future of fashion and ready-to-wear. A future that will be focused on dematerialization and digital universes.
With its ability to evolve and adapt, it has been able to export itself over the years and demonstrates it once again. Luxury 3.0 has its place in our world and Hermès has understood this. Nevertheless, you still have to be patient before having the possibility to redesign your avatar to your image.
NFT, fashion and business: brands invest in the Metaverse
Moreover, many luxury and ready-to-wear companies have already entered the small world of NFT. We could even attend during four days the Metaverse Fashion Week in Decentraland. It brought together such famous brands as Dolce & Gabbana, Etro, Tommy Hilfiger, Estée Lauder and Elie Saab. And according to data from Dune Analytics, Nike, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Adidas and Tiffany earned no less than $260 million from the sales of these famous NFTs.
And these stories of big money inevitably stir up envy and create new types of conflicts. Like the complaint filed by Hermès against Rothschild who had created – and sold – a collection of NFT Metabirkins. For the record, the Birkin is a very famous bag name that belongs to…Hermès! Is it enough to add “meta” in front of anything to have the right to use it in the metaverse? That will be up to the American courts to decide.
Welcome to these new worlds where your avatars will need houses, clothes, fashion accessories and a whole lot of other things. They will have hobbies, friends, but in this virtual reality as in real life, they will have to find a way to distinguish themselves from the others and to display external signs of wealth. For those who can afford it, luxury 3.0 will be the order of the day. For the others, we’ll just sip a NFT of Coke while window shopping.