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Art Basel Miami Beach and Miami Art Week have become hotspots for fashion and pop culture, with the first week in December offering an early look at the industry’s marketing priorities going into the new year. This year, more restrained sentiment landed in South Florida, and the dominant Web3 presence seen over the past few years gave way to more diversified strategies. Going into the new year, expect brands to balance experimental tech buzz with practical, varied efforts.
It’s not that Web3 has faded from cultural relevance; it’s just now sharing space. LVMH focused on sustainability as well as diversity and inclusion through retail partnerships, curated art and panels, while other brands celebrated store openings and collabs with old-fashioned celebrity-laden cocktail parties. For many established brands, a sobered economic climate means that unproven experimentation isn’t worth the risk. This gives Web3 startups a moment to differentiate, and takes the pressure off of budding tech. This also means that tech and fashion slipped back into their lanes.
Store openings had a moment: Diesel, which has readily embraced NFTs, token-gating and digital goods, put its efforts into its Miami Design District store opening and new retail design concept, with high-profile attendees including hip-hop artist Aurora Anthony, rappers Saint Jhn and Lakeyah and reality TV star Jordyn Woods. PatBo also opened a new Miami store with a performance by Sophie Hawley-Weld of Sofi Tukker and an appearance from supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio, who collaborated with the brand on a capsule (designer Patricia Bonaldi did mention she was designing with generative AI). Birkenstock also opened its new store. Hublot unveiled its latest watch during a glamorous dinner that invited VIP clients and influencers for a first look. Louis Vuitton exhibited limited-edition bags created by architect Frank Gehry; the most exclusive design — 10 editions of a silver metallic bear for $36,000 — sold out to collectors in less than 24 hours.
Parent company LVMH hosted a series of events that highlighted its recent partnership with the Miami Design District to convert to 100 per cent renewable energy in the 22 LVMH stores within the shopping district — including Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Berluti, Tiffany Co., Bulgari and Hublot — by 2025, in addition to other sustainability-minded efforts. Through a programme with energy provider Florida Power Light, the company faces a higher upfront cost, but over time, it stands to save money on energy as the rates won’t change in the future. In a conversation explaining the impetus for the project, Anish Melwani, chairman and CEO of LVMH Inc. North America, said that a company that depends on the natural world to make its products faces an existential crisis if they are threatened. (LVMH has recently signed similar agreements in China and the Middle East.)
Craig Robins, CEO of real estate developers Dacra Development, said that other major luxury groups and brands had also expressed interest in the programme, highlighting something that tech, sustainability and diversity efforts have in common: all players need to participate to achieve success. “This is about LVMH being a leader in this, which we have been for decades. We continue to lead and we are thrilled for people to follow us,” Melwani later told Vogue Business.
Web3 is relevant, but separate
Two events on Wednesday night at Soho House’s Miami Pool House highlighted the ongoing divide between fashion and Web3: a velvet rope on the left controlled a line of attendees at a Ssense party celebrating an exclusive Marni launch; a velvet rope on the right name-checked guests to a party celebrating a new physical product launch between Web3 sneaker brand Rtfkt and crypto hardware wallet company, Ledger. Attendees to the Ssense and Marni party included musician James Blake and models Yvesmark Chery (pictured at top) and The Clermont Twins; just next door, Ledger CXO Ian Rogers — the former chief digital officer of LVMH — and Rtfkt co-founders Chris Le and Steven Vasilev hosted Rtfkt collectors and Web3 influencers including Rug Radio founder Farokh Sarmad and artist Jen Stark.
Shiseido opted for multiple events that bridged both worlds. During the day, it hosted a cocktail party on a yacht to promote its new skincare products. Later that evening, it unveiled a total of 1,872 commissioned generative artworks from four artists, inspired by the brand’s products and sold as NFTs via the Art Blocks platform; the works were part of the opening party for Gateway Miami, which hosts programming focused on Web3 culture during the week, and included digital works displayed by Christie’s, among others.
Syky founder and CEO Alice Delahunt reiterated her thesis that digital fashion, while still facing scepticism from traditionalists, will be as transformative as digital fashion photography. The Web3 fashion startup hosted an intimate lunch to coincide with the launch of its second fashion NFT drop, with guests including Cabana Magazine co-founder and Red Eye agency co-founder Gianluca Reina, digital artist SamJ and art curator and NFT advisor Afrodet Zuri. A three-piece collection called “Interlôr Vol.1: Awaken” was designed by artist Leonel Piccardo, who goes by Glitchofmind, one of the 10 emerging brands chosen to participate in the Syky Collective. (The first was during London Fashion Week.)
Indeed, Glitchofmind said that fashion photographer Tim Walker has been a core inspiration in his work, which weaves together fantastical characters and surreal settings. This was the first time that the artist had been to Miami. The merging of cultures, collectors and industries was an important draw. “It is the perfect event where traditional and digital art merges in a very unique way,” he says. “My aim was to showcase editorial digital fashion as another form of art, and kick-start a new age of fashion editorial photography, where digital fashion meets storytelling.”
The cryptocurrency crash has left NFT startups scrambling for revenue and positive public relations. Earlier this month, phygital fashion startup Cult Rain announced that, due to inability to raise additional funding, it was forced to cease operations. NFT community World of Women didn’t follow-up its inaugural awards gala, held in Miami Beach last year, with a second gala. But with the hype quietened, fewer, more intimate events were able to offer a small reprieve.
Boys Club lead advisor and “Context” podcast host Blake Finucane says that the sentiment going into the week was one of trepidation. “All the gallerists I spoke to were worried about sales and attendance, but everyone seems to be pleasantly surprised.” Finucane was encouraged that digital, blockchain-based art was highlighted in the conference’s programming, and found a spirit of optimism. It helps that crypto and NFT prices are rising. The Boys Club event included digital Tarot card readings and selfie opportunities. “I know I’m biased,” she says with a laugh, “but there is no other group in crypto that attracts such a fashionable, feminine-leaning crowd.” Overall, she adds, “it felt really good to be around people who stuck around during the bear market and are still here.”
Web3 tech, like sustainability, doesn’t exist in siloes and developers are holding out for a future reality in which cool projects and artists aren’t burdened by the explanation of “NFTs”. “I hate that word,” said Andreesen Horowitz’s Chris Lyons, who is the president of Web3 media at the storied investment firm (and was wearing a pair of NFT-connected Dior sneakers). Lyons spoke on a panel hosted at the LVMH Culture House, which displayed curated works by artists of colour, women and those with disabilities. The discussion was hosted by LVMH’s Corey Smith, head of diversity and inclusion, North America, with speakers Nelly Mensah, LVHM’s head of Web3 and metaverse, artist Latashá Alcindor and People of Crypto co-founder Simone Berry. Smith revealed that in the last year, LVMH had generated 1,000 tech jobs that didn’t previously exist. Mensah said that art-led projects are a way for LVMH brands to experiment with new technology in a way that is brand safe — while the tech is invisible.
Innovations in tech, inclusivity and sustainability all share the need to ultimately be commonplace, as well as in the background. LVMH’s Melwani told Vogue Business that is why the LVMH brands participating in the new Miami Design District sustainability programme wouldn’t be broadcasting it to their consumers.
“The core of luxury is to build desirability. When you’re talking about stuff like this, it’s not dissimilar to the art we have in our stores,” he says. “We have beautiful art — but do we advertise that? No. But if somebody comes in and goes, ‘Oh, wow, I love that bench’, does your sales associate know that it’s a [Claude] Lalanne bench? Of course they do. So the way to think about this is, this is what we do. It’s intrinsic to the business. If the customer has that curiosity, we’re there to tell that story. Sometimes the customer wants to geek out on stuff… and sometimes the customer wants to have a glass of champagne and have a great time and go on about her way.”
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