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Mmerch — the Web3 “neo couture” brand started by Colby Mugrabi — is back with its second drop of one-of-one pieces tied to NFTs and art. At a time when splashy Web3 fashion drops have quieted, the new collection of hoodies is made in collaboration with people spanning generative art, Web3 and luxury, including an auction at auction house Christie’s and a launch party at Swarovski.
The algorithmically generated physical hoodies are inspired by a well-known Cryptopunk owned by DJ and digital art patron, Daniel Maegaard, who goes by “Seedphrase” and collaborated on the project. (Maegaard’s CryptoPunk #8348 is the rarest among the popular collection of 10,000 profile picture NFTs.) Each hoodie is connected to a digital identity (an NFT). Ownership also comes with digital artwork by AI artist Claire Silver (who also holds an iconic Punk), whose video works portray each individual hoodie; 22 of the 322 hoodies available include Swarovski crystal cord ends set in sterling silver, two of which are set in 14-karat white gold.
Mugrabi, a fashion and art journalist-turned-entrepreneur, launched the company in October with the aim to combine generative art (meaning pieces made in part using generative AI), NFTs and on-demand manufacturing. Since then, it has received $6.4 million in funding from those including Christie’s Ventures, and endorsements from fashion world personalities including Marc Jacobs and Tory Burch, who both attended the brand’s April pop-up store and launch party, which celebrated Mmerch’s inaugural collection.
While the momentum toward Web3 and NFTs among the fashion set has faltered, Mugrabi sees opportunity to push towards a long-term vision in which people own unique physical pieces whose digital identities come with extra perks. This drop has the backing of a number of influential personalities among Web3 fashion and digital art collectors — Seedphrase is one of the Via Guides working with Louis Vuitton and Claire Silver has collaborated with Gucci. Seedphrase says that he has received interest from the Cryptopunk community. “That is one of the greatest things about the punk community — Punks support Punks — and it’s a little shielded from the market dynamics and fluctuations that we have recently experienced,” he says, referring to the relatively low value of cryptocurrencies since the gold rush a couple years ago. “This is also a great opportunity to get some Claire Silver artwork,” he adds. (Silver is perhaps most well-known for selling 500 digital dresses for a total of $1.2 million in 12 seconds.)
“Cryptopunks are the quiet luxury of the NFT space,” says Mugrabi, who also brings considerable influence in the traditional art and fashion scenes. In addition to Jacobs and Burch, those who attended the April event — held during the NFT.NYC Web3 conference — include designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler, designer Diane von Furstenberg, Moda Operandi founder Lauren Santo Domingo and The Row’s Ashley Olsen; this is in addition to artists such as Tom Sachs.
“It was the ultimate convergence of worlds, in a way I truly believe that few individuals can do today,” she says. This blend is by design, she adds. “One of my main goals is for the brand to be a creative conduit between worlds.”
Investor and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, who straddles both fashion and technology, is a key example. “Mmerch embodies this vision with its innovative use of generative design and AI,” Kloss says. “Colby’s approach creates one-of-a-kind pieces at scale, eliminating excess inventory, and ensuring transparency through blockchain. I’m excited to support someone who is collaborating with artists and technologists to help shape fashion’s future.”
The intricate drop process of the Mmerch Seedphrase Collection follows a timeline that will be familiar to NFT collectors: to begin, five of the “ultra-luxe hoodies” (the ones with Swarovski cord ends) will be sold through an online Christie’s auction starting 25 September. (Bidding at Christie’s will likely range between $1,000 and $10,000, depending on the piece, Mugrabi anticipates.) Then, an “allowlist mint”, meaning the sales window for the list of people who have early access to purchase, is on 1 October, followed by a public mint on 2 October. During a preview of the project, Mugrabi was still unsure of the final prices, given the volatility of the value of Ethereum, which is the cryptocurrency used on this drop; she estimated that they would be priced at the ETH equivalent of $750.
The artwork — and with it each specific hoodie design — is revealed only after the NFTs are sold; some of these pieces will be the ones with the Swarovski cords. Then for a limited time, buyers can elect to sell their NFT on the secondary market or “claim” their physical piece and specify their size, through 18 October. Once that moment ends and the hoodies are claimed, the physical hoodies are produced, and are expected to be delivered by early December. Each hoodie includes an NFC-chipped logo that grants access to future perks, such as Mmerch speaker series events (and owners of the first collection can access the collection’s launch event at Swarovski’s Fifth Avenue store in New York).
Mmerch items are modularised, meaning that individual pieces in each garment — such as the hoods, the sleeves and the pockets — are cut and assembled separately, enabling them to each be a one-of-one piece. Using AI, the Mmerch team is able to specify how “rare” each hoodie trait is, which borrows from the world of PFP NFTs, where some traits are more rare and final output is made through generative AI. Similarly, Mmerch can break each collection into the number of sleeves and hoodies that needs to be in each colour. Some hoodies are many different colours — again, inspired by Seedphrase’s Punk — and some have fewer colours.
“Fashion as hardware” (meaning items with interactive digital identities), on-demand manufacturing and generative AI are all hot topics in the industry, and Mmerch is the rare company to combine them. All the different aspects of the business appeal to a range of curious friends in Mugrabi’s network. “I’ve been interested and excited to see which element of the brand people respond to from the fashion side, whether it’s how to create one-of-one at scale, or being delighted by the quality of the physical, or interested in the blockchain. Different facets speak to different areas of interest from friends.” The first drop of 960 hoodies for about $500 each sold out in three and a half days, she says. This — plus the added boost of the Cryptopunk community — gives her confidence. “I’m going into it incredibly bullish. We’ve had a number of collectors in the Cryptopunk community, and this feels like a true evolution of the original idea.”
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