FASHION CLAIMS THE INDIVIDUAL'S RIGHT TO VALUE THE EPHEMERAL'. Coco Chanel. Based on this famous phrase of the French couturier who revolutionised fashion, we are going to explain the relationship between fashion and the NFTs within the Metaverse.
Today's Fashion and Beauty/Healthcare industries are global economic powerhouses and are constantly facing new and different challenges beyond the simple protection of their designs and branding.
This is why, on many occasions, the need has arisen for highly specialised professionals who know the sector, the actors and the functioning of the business and the chain from its origin to the point of sale.
As a consequence of this need, the legal discipline of Fashion Law has experienced a boom in recent years.
What exactly is Fashion Law?
This is the legal speciality that encompasses all the legal disciplines that affect the fashion and beauty industry in order to provide a complete legal service to the professional in this sector. Within this concept we include: Manufacture, Design, Logistics, Confection, Storage, Transport, physical or digital sale of garments and accessories, as well as their recycling.
Also in this broad concept of fashion we would include the auxiliary industry such as: Photography, Modelling, Events, Catwalks, Magazines among others.
In legal terms, we deal with Intellectual Property, Commercial Law, Labour Law, International Law and Taxation.
Fashion Law and NFTS
In this context of change and constant progress and evolution we are going to talk about fashion law and NFTS.
NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS' (NFT) are digital assets that have been assigned a specific value by users. The NFT is a non-fungible, unique and unrepeatable cryptographic token (a digital asset) created with Blockchain technology.
NFTs can function as proof of authenticity and ownership in the digital world. NFTs are records on a blockchain whose value is associated with digital assets such as images, videos, brands or products and can be purchased. Fashion and luxury companies see them as a new business avenue.
Fashion is an expression of our identity, an identity that many seek to translate beyond the physical world, creating an opportunity for fashion to become virtual.
The Digital Fashion Marketplace
There is already a market that seeks to translate fashion into digital. Some examples could be the cases of Balenciaga, which has introduced its products in Fornite, or Vans, which has created 'Vans World' within the gaming platform Roblox; or the success of the virtual garments that the London studio RTFK acquired by Nike, which sold virtual trainers for more than 3.5 million euros in minutes.
In the same way, fashion firms such as H&M are betting on presenting their new collections in the Metaverse or AZ Collection, which is the name of the new launch of the Inditex company with the Asian textile brand designed so that the users of the Metaverse Zepeto can dress their avatars with the fashion of the Spanish firm.
The high profit margins are interesting anyone involved in fashion, not least cosmetics brands such as Givenchy, Gucci and Nars, which have already been able to experience these new worlds by partnering with Nintendo's 'Animal Crossing'.
These brands have already introduced their first series of non-fungible tokens, which could multiply rapidly.
In order to be as close as possible to their customers, and to offer them an interactive experience, brands could also rely on their own Metaverse to increase the number of live shopping sessions, a practice exploited all over the world.
LegalRegulationof NFTs and the Projection and Promotion of the Fashion Industry
At this point in our post, we are going to go a step further and delve into the legal regulation of NFTs and the projection and impulse for the fashion industry from the point of view of expert Blockchain lawyers. (From creation to sale).
Copyright is a set of rights granted to the author who has created an original work. These rights protect the author's personal interests and give him or her the opportunity to make an economic profit from the exploitation of the work.
A distinction must be made between ownership of an NFT as a unique token and ownership of the content of that NFT. When a content-linked NFT is purchased, no rights are transferred to the purchasers. The purchaser does not acquire the intellectual property rights, but receives a licence to use the content, although the transfer of industrial property rights could also be expressly agreed as in any other work.
An NFT, as we have said, is a unique and exchangeable digital object, which thanks to Blockchain technology becomes non-fungible.
The virtual object, whatever it is, acquires an original and authentic character as its ownership is verifiable and certified. The interest for the owner of an NFT is to exhibit social status. In this sense, digital fashion opens up a completely new field of activity, as they have the possibility to sell their fashion not only in the real world, but also in the virtual world (especially in video games), where clothing plays an increasingly important role.
In metaverses, players can create personal avatars, shop, attend fashion shows... The possibilities are endless. The relationship between fashion and NFTs has only just begun.
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