Similarly, the events of the big PFP collections, like Bored Ape Yacht Club and World of Women, were done almost entirely with tokens. “Token-gated all,” Arianee founder and CEO Pierre-Nicolas Hurstel said at the end of the week. (Arianee worked with fashion business in a members-only NFT to provide token-gating at an event in South Beach).

Prada invited owners of its October Timecapsule NFT release (which paired a limited-edition luxury shirt with artistic NFT) to join celebrities, CEOs and influencers at the Faena Forum for “Prada Extends,” a curated event by an electronic musician and Prada collaborator. Richie Hawtin, also known as “Plastikman”, among other aliases. (Prada previously invited a member of the Crypted community to attend an elaborate experience during Milan Fashion Week.) It’s worth noting that many in the crowd were Prada-wearing, but most hadn’t been able to get their hands on October’s Crypted drop, because they sell out so fast, according to multiple attendees, which certainly isn’t a terrible result for the brand.

Emphasis on the physical and the digital.

Community rewards have expanded beyond access to physical events to include physical goods and, naturally, face-to-face meetings. Attendees at the World of Women gala, whose awards ceremony included an award for digital fashion design, were treated to a surprise performance by electronic duo Sofi Tukker. Digital fashion and design was an important element because World of Women “recognizes that digital identity, through fashion and design, must be portable, customizable, and represent the full digital footprint of each user on Web3 and beyond.” says Diana-Luk Ye, World of Women’s partnerships manager. Plus, she notes, World of Women is the first female-centric NFT brand to make its way into the mainstream, so it’s important to empower digital identity in new ways.

Balmain presented a metaverse world and a project with visual artist Alexandre Arrechea inspired by the Villa Balmain of the 1950s; digital animations are combined with physical masks made of Swarovski crystals.