When Alice Delahunt launched SYKY earlier this year, she did so with the intention of empowering emerging designers in the fashion industry.

SYKY, pronounced “psy-che,” is a new Web3 platform designed to help creatives looking to sell physical and digital versions of their designs, as well as provide a space to trade products, share news, and chat.

After raking in a $9 million Series A directed by Alexis Ohanian, Delahunt is ready to let SYKY fly, and to go along with the release he’s releasing an exclusive NFT: “The Keystone.”

Holders of “The Keystone” will not only have access to the exclusive space for SYKY members, but also access to exclusive events, ideas and first designer releases.

Embodied in their devotion to their creative community, SYKY is also reserving 50 editions of the 987 NFTs on sale especially for their aspiring designers.

Delahunt is no stranger to the industry, having previously been director of digital and content at Ralph Lauren and director of social media at Burberry. She hopes this experience will help SYKY’s success, and also her ability to be part of a larger renaissance she sees taking place between fashion and technology.

“At Burberry, there was a very small group of photographers shooting for the fashion industry, then all of a sudden the iPhone came along and anyone with connectivity could post their work and get a following based on merit,” Delahunt recalls.

“A creative economy emerged that altered traditional photography,” he adds. “Now, the people on Instagram dominate the content industry. I think the exact same thing is going to happen with luxury brands.”

Similar to the life cycle Delahunt described for the iPhone and Instagram in Web2, Web3 is going through its early adoption phase to early majority.

Its early consumers paid absurd prices for NFTs simply because of their status, which is part of why it makes sense that luxury brands have led the market through 2021 and 2022.

For this cycle, Delahunt predicts a similar shift between emerging designers in the fashion industry and web3.

“When we look at luxury homes today, there are a relatively small number of them, right? Within 10 years, I think names will emerge [suddenly and] come to fruition [within a] year or two,” she says.

“We’ll discover the next Ralph Lauren or Coco Chanel, and SYKY democratizes access so that talent moves up based on merit.”

For its first round of designers, SYKY is focusing on digital fashion, which provides less risk for newcomers to test and iterate on products without having to create samples.

According to a survey conducted by Roblox and Parsons School Of Design, 70% of Gen Z respondents who play Roblox are inspired by the physical style of their in-game avatar.

75 percent also said they would buy digital fashion, with a quarter of participants saying they had spent between $20 and $100 on a single digital product.

“The more people have access to become the designer they dream of, the more talent will design and the more creative the world will become,” Delahunt says. “Whether it’s the digital, physical or augmented world, that’s a net positive for humanity.”