Dolce & Gabbana is stepping into Web3.
Dolce & Gabbana is stepping into Web3.
Text: Zizi Strater
Text: Kevin Ponce
NFTs have entered the fashion world—are you ready for it? inBetweeners, a “global community focused on spreading love & positivity”, Dolce & Gabbana, and UNXD, the curated marketplace for the best of digital luxury and culture, have announced their collaboration on a new “NFT Drip” collection.
Dropping the digital lineup exclusively on OpenSea, the marketplace founded and headquartered in New York City back in 2017 that has been regarded as “the world’s leading peer-to-peer marketplace for NFTs”, an estimated 2,000 digital bears will be up for grabs—each custom designed by artist and one of the founders of inBetweeners Gianpiero D’Alessandro—as each bear gets outfitted in one of 21 unique products from the Dolce & Gabbana vault. Aiming to fuse the world of luxury fashion with new modern iconic art, the NFTs will come to life with exclusive Dolce & Gabbana garments for holders to match their bears, along with owning a physical print of the collectible itself.
Serving as the second installment of a collaboration that celebrates the work between the two Italian groups, the Dolce & Gabbana and UNXD x inBetweeners Drip Collection was certainly a long time in the making, as Dolce & Gabbana co-founder and designer, Stefano Gabbana explains “An exclusive Gianpiero and Dolce & Gabbana collaboration has been nearly 10 years in the making and were excited to bring it to life through the inBetweeners x Dolce & Gabbana & UNXD Drip Collection. With physical and digital collectibles, the Drip Collection introduces a new era in the world of luxury fashion and art that spreads peace, love, and happiness around the world.”
Having been established back in 1985, the Italian house, which has made a rather infamous splash in the luxury fashion sector of the industry, can now serve as a modern example of how fashion can evolve for current times.
Although the art is digital, each inBetweener bear is one of one—having been hand-drawn by D’Alessandro, a graphic artist and creative visionary born and raised in Naples, Italy, who, in addition to leading inBetweeners (a “global crowdsourced community” that has created an NFT collection of an estimated 10,777 bears that live on the Ethereum blockchain) serves as the sole cartoonist and illustrator at DrewHouse, a brand co-founded by none other than renowned pop star, Justin Bieber. “Since my childhood, I have always thought about using art to enter a different reality where everything is happier – and the inBetweeners x Dolce & Gabbana NFT Drip Collection does just that,” Gianpiero explains. “I’m excited to see how our NFT collection will be received and to continue pushing the boundaries of fashion and technology.”
“The union of high fashion and NFTs creates a perfect canvas for self-expression and unlocks a new method of building community in both the digital and physical worlds,” says Shiva Rajaraman, VP of Product at OpenSea. “This collaboration is groundbreaking, and OpenSea is honored to bring the vision of Dolce & Gabbana to life alongside Gianpiero’s vibrant art to create a new community of loyal fans and collectors in web3.”
The Drip NFT Collection drop is in partnership with OpenSea, the world’s first and largest digital marketplace for crypto collectibles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), where the project was minted on the homepage on Tuesday, December 13 at 3:00 pm EST.
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