In recent years, various technologies such as the metaverse have rapidly been introduced in the fashion industry. Among them, the company that became a hot topic by announcing an NFT collaboration with the up-and-coming designer Victor Weinsanto, known as an apprentice of Jean-Paul Gaultier, and the K-POP female group "LIGHTSUM" at this year's Paris Fashion Week is BNV (Brand New Vision), founded in 2016.
The company researches and develops new technologies that can be applied to the traditional fashion industry, including 3D product creation, tokenization, launching, community building, and metaverse-compatible wearability.
With a vision to "lead fashion from physical reality to the metaverse and define a new space where virtual fashion can flourish," the company is gaining attention as a bridge to the transition from the real world to the digital world.
This time, we interviewed Richard Hobbs, CEO & Founder of BNV, about the future utilization of fashion and technology.
The Background of the Notable Collaboration
Please tell us again about the collaboration between Victor Weinsanto and LIGHTSUM at Paris Fashion Week.
Fortunately, we had an investor from the Korean entertainment industry who proposed, "Let's do something that's not being done elsewhere." Since we are from the fashion industry, we brainstormed various ideas through this channel. Consequently, we linked the promising young designer, Victor Weinsanto, with the newly-formed group LIGHTSUM.
Victor is undoubtedly on a star-bound trajectory and will become a big name, and hopefully, LIGHTSUM will follow suit. However, the K-POP industry is unpredictable, and one of its fascinations is its dramatic transformations, with gossip and surrounding noise being of utmost importance.
When we approached Victor, he agreed instantly.
The entire LIGHTSUM group joined from Seoul, and Victor from Paris, for a Zoom meeting. Victor showed costume sketches of the members and progressed with the work, all in a digital environment, making it a very interactive and creative process.
Later, during the KCON festival where LIGHTSUM was performing, Victor flew there, rented a studio for a day, and created amazing video content using his costumes.
The collaboration work (refer to the top image of the article) not only drew attention from the fashion industry but also from various media outlets.
Initially, we thought of launching the brand in Paris, but due to complexities and high costs, we developed holograms instead. We transformed each member's avatar into a hologram, dressed them in costumes designed by Victor, and displayed these holograms (some life-sized) in the "Dover Street Market" in Paris during Fashion Week.
In essence, we demonstrated that cutting-edge fashion, Korean culture, and Web3 could be realized in both digital and real-world settings. It received extensive media coverage, and we were thrilled by the large turnout.
When token sales start, we plan to offer attractive perks. You can not only acquire the token itself and the wearable version but also concert tickets and more, making it a compelling story that "NFTs can do much more than just right-clicking on a JPEG."
Recent examples include collaboration products with Tommy Hilfiger, Coach, Michael Kors, and Vivienne Tam.