PRIDE is all about liberty, self-love, acceptance, and expression. We love ourselves a little more when we are rocking an epic garment, as fashion intrinsically ties into our identity. We are now granted liberties that surpass anything that fashion has given before with the availability of digital fashion like the most recent drop by Amber Jae Slooten and her digital fashion house The Fabricant. Slooten, alongside the iconic Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter /superstar Pabllo Vittar, Nicola Formichetti of NicoPanda, and artist Blake Kathryn, is enabling buyers to convey style without leaving a scar on the environment. Their digital garments are never brought into the physical world, forever living in the digital space that newer generations now exist in more than reality. We can now embody a variety of new elements to express our individualities while cleaning up the fashion industry too!

Presented by Nifty Gateway and Playboy, the collection boasts bold rainbow colors, beautiful variance in textures, and cool eye-catching animations. Go check it out for yourself! Although the collection sold out quickly, you can still view it in cool animated form and listen to the futuristic soundtrack. (That’s right musicians — You can now overlay your music into these digital fashions too!) The collection stays true to the unique playfulness we think of when we see people express their PRIDE style. Just like the purveyors of the event are doing by disrupting stigmas and previous social norms, this new form of apparel is shaking up what we once believed about our appearance.

dressx.com

 

Fashion is on the threshold of evolution and the future is looking… Simple. Clean. Sustainable…Yet also vibrant and bold, with a variety of never explored variants. Imagine wearing a simple robe IRL, but on your social media, you’re wearing an ornate gown made of materials previously foreign to the clothing production process.  With digital fashion, we are unconstrained by the same guidelines we’ve had to follow in the past. Unburdened by excess waste, the overhead of brick and mortar storefronts, or shipping logistics. Not to mention the overall pollution caused by the fashion industry (more than almost all other industries btw,) we are free to explore new realms of design. No longer are there rules eliminating certain elements in fashion due to lack of functionality.

While many are just learning about NFTs, Slooten has been utilizing the blockchain since at least 2019 with her release of Iridescence, a breathtaking digital gown that was never stitched or brought into the physical realm, but was still highly regarded and admired in the fashion world. With her ideas and wearables like the ones you can find on DressX, we are liberated to stylize in various ways never explored. DressX is a platform used by several designers and sustainable fashion advocates like Amber, to display their latest digital fashions for sale, alongside several others. The items are available for sale using FIAT currency and can be uploaded directly and superimposed onto the photos of your choice to be “worn.” Slooten is no rookie to this highly sustainable realm, she has actually been creating these designs for years already. “Fashion is a language we speak, it’s something we wear but it communicates in such a big way.” She shared on the TedEx stage, “Now this message of fashion was one I wanted to tell, but I came into school and I could not believe how physical things still were. I had to sew outfits day and night… and I thought why are things so physical, when the digital world permeates our daily life so much?”

Quantrum Boots
Photo Quantum Boots

I recommend giving Dressx a spin if you don’t know what the digital fashion hype is about yet. For now, you upload photos and place outfits accordingly, but with advancements like AR glasses, we could eventually have these adorning our bodies as we walk around, only visible to those with the appropriate eyewear. How cool would it be if our earthly environments were sleek, chic, and minimal until you put on your glasses activating a beautiful digital world full of spice and variety like we’ve never seen thus far. Sounds pretty nice to me, but what are your thoughts? Reach out at our NFTs.WTF Twitter and let us know!

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Pinkwashing: A term used to describe the action of using gay-related issues in positive ways in order to distract attention from negative actions by an organization, country, or government. [ Sarah Schulman, The New York Times, November 23, 2011

Super Rare Pride

 

SuperRare, one of the Largest invite-only NFT marketplaces is quite respected in the metaverse.  Unsurprisingly, earlier this Pride Month, like almost all other companies in the space, SuperRare announced their virtual pride programing. What came as a surprise to myself, and fellow LGBTQ+ folks in the community was that after what most assumed to be their “initial” post, their “pride programming” simply stopped…

Their Instagram post on June 14th, halfway through pride month, mentioned that they would “be donating 100% of [their] commissions earned between June 14-16 to @outintech 🌈.”

Now before getting too deep into analyzing this, I want to mention that I have nothing but respect for Out in Tech and similar international organizations that champion LGBTQ+ working professionals. However, given that this event was and is the only LGBTQ+ fundraising effort made by SuperRare this month, it feels like a quota made to be filled. 

First of all, SuperRare processes millions of dollars in trades annually. Even though they only take a 3% fee on transactions, they recently raised over 9million USD in their series A round alone. While it is “nice” of them to offer a portion of their profits to a queer-centric organization during pride month, it doesn’t feel like enough. Especially considering that it was only for two days out of the month and that this was one of their only pride activations. And the only one with a direct monetary donation or incentive. 

This is extra unfortunate for me, as I previously quite liked SuperRare as a platform despite the exclusive nature of their marketplace. However, as a decentralized organization in the DeFi space, I believe that companies have an obligation to do better. We need to move past the “old boys club” of the traditional art market and put in the work to truly champion diverse artists from around the world. Any platform that hasn’t gone out of its way this month to highlight and champion LGBTQ+ and BIPOC voices, in lieu of Pride Month and Juneteenth, is simply out of touch. And I don’t believe that they have a place in this ecosystem. 

I should mention that this wasn’t the only thing that SuperRare did.  The same day they put out a tweet with a blog post highlighting a few LGBTQ+ artists on their platform and also released a poster celebrating 50 years of pride.  However, it all stopped there – and it’s simply not enough!  These efforts, even in aggregation, are super lacklustre — and seem to be a sheepish attempt to compensate for primarily promoting white cis male artists on their platform. All one needs to do is go to their Instagram profile to see their one single pride-related post followed by going back to regular programming.  They even went so far as to “balance out” their rainbow post with a rainbow piece of art (with no mention of pride month of course).

 

Now am I trying to vilify SuperRare? Not at all. I would just like to issue this as a public statement to SuperRare and all other major players in this space to DO BETTER! We are a decentralized community. We exist internationally and represent a rainbow of races, creeds, gender expressions, sexualities, belief systems, and so much more. This shouldn’t be perceived by big companies as a burden, but an opportunity! And we have already seen it starting. Companies like Decentraland have gone out of their way to create Pride parades, and entire pride month calendars in partial replacement of physical events still closed due to covid restrictions. 

These kinds of large organizations going out of their way to champion marginalized communities is exactly what we need in order to make the decentralized art world a better place to be a part of. I really hope that SuperRare and other organizations take this article to heart and reflect on how they can be better allies to the members of their workforces and communities at large. 

I would love to follow this article up with a conversation with any representative from SuperRare that might be so brave as to hop on a recorded zoom interview with me-

If interested, email me at david@nfts.wtf

 

Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈

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Users from around the world gathered Friday, June 11 to celebrate Decentraland’s (DCL) inaugural Pride Parade. Music, parade floats, and dancers filled the newly built ‘Rainbow Road.’ The event was dazzling, but most spectacular of all were the droves of avatars sporting the latest DCL fashion. 

Just weeks before the event, DCL enabled their ‘Wearables Editor.’ This allowed designers to create their unique in-game collections and sell them as NFTs on the DCL marketplace. A handful of quality collections were approved and released the day of the parade.

 

DCL-Pride-Rainbow-Road-Fashion-Kiosk-DCL-Pride-2021.png

 

Users lined up in front of kiosks to purchase their new items. Some 30,000 active users were given free wearables from the DCL Pride Collection. MetaZoo International hosted a drop party before the parade releasing their genesis collection. By the time the parade started, all in attendance were showing their pride with newly minted outfits.

Here are some of the best styles spotted during DCL Pride 2021;

DCL Pride Electric Pride Helmet PlusLove Tiger Warriors Torso Wonderzone Pride Pink Shorts Retro One Kicks

Helmet: Electric Pride +Love Collection

Top: Tiger Warriors Torso, Wonderzone Pride Spring 2021

Shorts: DCL Pink Pride Shorts

Shoes: MetaZoo Intl. Retro 1 Kicks

 

Hat: MetaZoo Intl. BlackCat Hood

Top: MetaZoo Intl. BlackCat Hoodie

Joggers: MetaZoo Intl. BlackCat Joggers

Shoes: MetaZoo Intl. Retro 1 Kicks

Eyewear: MetaZoo Intl. Tinted Glasses

Accessories: CZ Mecenary MTZ Exo-Blades

I managed to speak to MetaZoo Intl. founder ‘iZoo’ about their successful drop. “The drop was very exciting, long overdue, but worth the wait! Wearables on layer 2 now are a total game-changer as there is no minting/gas costs. The collection was well-received by the community and we are already thinking about new collections!” said iZoo.

Hat: Casino Visor Community Contest

Eyewear: MetaZoo Intl. Tinted Glasses

Mask: Meteorite Dustmask

Top: Polygon Thunder Jacket

Trousers: Hiroto Kai Pride Pants

Shoes: MetaZoo Intl. Retro 1 Kicks

 

Top: Flamingo Party Outfit

Top: Pride Love Wins T-Shirt

Mask: Floral Skull Halloween 2019

(Photo courtesy of Null PC)

Top: Full Body Swimsuit – Pride Parade 2021 Collection

Shoes: Left- Atrati X RTFK Sneakers, Right- Polygon Thunder Sneakers


I had the chance to speak with ‘Null PC’ who’s swimsuit design was a big hit at the parade.  “I knew once the opportunity came that I wanted to make something people wouldn’t forget, and I don’t think you can forget the image of someone in a lime green Manakini once you’ve seen it.” said Null. “The wearables tool is one of many aspects that enable creators and collectors to contribute to the community and help Decentraland progress and reach its full potential.”

 

Top: Hiroto Kia Fire Kimono

Trousers: Hiroto Kia Fire Kimono Pants

I asked artist and designer, Hiroto Ka, about using the new wearables editor in DCL. “I thought the design process was difficult at first to understand the geometry of a moving avatar and how the clothes move alongside their gestures. But after amazing help from the design committee, I was able to nail down my design and understand fully how it works. My next step for my wearables is to create more rare and more common style Kimonos and Japanese attire.” said Kai.

Left: Cybermike Cybersoldier Set

Right

Headwear: Wonderbot Head, Digital Alchemy Hair

Top: Pride Love Wins T-Shirt

Trousers: Pride Sport Pants

Shoes: Pride Rainbow Shoes

Accessories: DC Nifty Blocksmith Drone

The parade was electric! Celebrations carried on throughout the night with live music and giveaways. With successful drops from each designer, it appears digital fashion is thriving in Decentraland.

 

 

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