net.art, but make it fashion
Flannels is a luxury department store which I first came across on a work trip to Darlington - a town in the North of England that you wouldn’t expect to see Gucci in. I liked the idea of bringing coveted fashion brands to towns that would never normally have access to them. So, I was confused when Flannels opened a store on Oxford Street in London, moments away from where Burberry and other brands they stock have their own flagship shops. When working with a client based in Soho I finally ventured in, and he showed me how in the bottom of the empty retail space is a huge basement room with incredible speakers and digital screens. It was built out as an exhibition space for digital art, and yet no one knew it existed. The link between the cerebral 3D-rendered art on display and the expensive accessories upstairs was even harder to decipher.
And then Beyoncé arrived.
As part of her Renaissance tour in London, Bey turned this usually-deserted store into a must-see branded experience complete with a queue down the street. Downstairs they were playing her latest album in the best sound I’ve ever heard her music (and yes I have seen her live multiple times) along with a looped video presumably from the upcoming album visuals. Upstairs merch from the tour was available along with some custom Balmain pieces and 16 couture looks inspired by the tracks on the album. Was this art or advertising? Undoubtedly both. The pieces were absolutely stunning, they dripped craft and concept. But, they will never be worn (by Beyoncé or otherwise), they were simply created to draw people into a store where they could buy into the experience with a t-shirt proving they’d been there.
This week Bey showed up again, this time at the Louis Vuitton Men’s SPRING-SUMMER 2024 show in Paris. (I can’t remember the last time we saw the Queen herself at a fashion show.) This was Pharrell’s debut as the new Creative Director for the label. The show featured a tonne of pixelated clothing and ended with a first look of an exclusive bag only available to purchase by those who have a soulbound Louis Vuitton NFT (worth a deposit on a flat). the NFT was launched a couple of weeks ago and out of the 201 for sale, only 93 have been purchased so far.
If you’re interested in what “soulbound” means or hearing a bit more about that collaboration, I would highly recommend this Boys Club podcast episode on the topic. The short version is, the ownership of the NFT grants access to exclusive purchases, this bag being the first.
Both these examples point to how brands can play authentically in the world of digital art. My top take-aways from these two case studies are…