Chanel NFTs – Does the future of Chanel lies in the metaverse?

Would you buy Chanel NFTs?

Since the announcement of Meta, formerly known as Facebook, the metaverse concept and NFTs has gotten more and more mainstream. Not so mainstream that most people are actually buying NFTs and plots of land in the metaverse, but enough so that the luxury market pays attention to the new trend.

Before diving further into why and when will Chanel release it’s Classic Flap or maybe the Chanel19 or the iconic blazer into NFTs let’s first establish what an NFT actually is.

What are NFTs and why would one buy a Chanel NFT?

NFT or non-fungible token is, according to Wiki a ” a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger.” You might have heard about extremely expensive NFT art such as Crypto Punks, Bored Apes, etc that are selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In fact, one of the most expensive NFTs, the CryptoPunk #7523 was sold for a whooping 11.75 million dollars.

The reason why NFTs have any value is because you’re buying the only verifiable version of that piece as minted by the artist. There can be millions of copies, of course, but only one original. In that way, it differs from a real-world Chanel bag, in the way that each one will be unique and one of a kind. Similar to buying an original painting. There are millions of copies of the Mona Lisa, however there’s only one original and obviously the original holds much more value than any copies.

We have to put a huge disclaimer here: NFTs, especially when we talk about art or luxury items – they have no intrinsic value, rather the value is given by the community. The more people desire a certain NFT, the more it will go up in value. Sort of like real Chanel bags – if no one finds value in a Classic Maxi Flap, then the brand couldn’t sell it for almost 10.000 USD.

If you look on OpenSea which is the main market place for NFTs you can see that there are already “Chanel” items for sale. Some seem like simple screenshots of Chanel’s catalogue, other are a bit more subtle and don’t use the Chanel name even though it’s pretty obvious that they’re imitating a Chanel bag – for example this NFT of a Classic Chanel Flap by nftclassicbag. The bags are priced at 0.05 ETH each, which at the moment means approximately 3.700 USD. The artist has a collection of 10.000 unique bags made on the Ethereum blockchain in their collection in varying colors of the background, chain and bag itself. 

Other Chanel NFTs that you can find on OpenSea seem to be just straight up pictures with little modification made.

The NFT world is still in its infancy which is probably why they are still allowed to be sold on the platform even thought it seems to be infringing on Chanel’s Trademark. Another luxury bag NFT piece, the Meta Birkin has already received a cease and desist letter from Hermés, according to its creator, Mason Rothschild – thus it’s safe to assume that Chanel would take similar action for the CC NFTs listed above.

In our opinion, these NFTs created by a third party to fill in the Chanel brand love will probably not hold their value well and we would guess they will be pulled out at one point. The question is, will Chanel create their own NFTs any time soon? Other luxury brands, such as Dolce and Gabbana have already created their own NFT collection. D&G set a record sale of almost $ 6 million for their first NFT collection which consisted of 9 pieces of virtual and physical products. Looking at Chanel’s popularity, we’re going to make a not-so-wild assumption that them releasing a NFT collection will result in great sales for the fashion house as well as a stronger appeal to Gen Z. We can only hope that Chanel will come up with an NFT collection, maybe even at more affordable prices.

Can you wear Chanel in the Metaverse?

Now that we’ve (sort of) understood what NFTs are, let’s look at the metaverse.  According to Wikipedia, the metaverse

“is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. In futurism and science fiction, the term is often described as a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual and augmented reality headsets.^“

Imagine being in the metaverse a good portion of the day, including for work, school or socialising. It does sound a bit sci-fi indeed, but to be fair is not that different to our lives now, where we work from home online, attend zoom meetings and zoom weddings. But I digress, the point that I’m trying to make is that you need or want to have multiple outfits and multiple bags and accessories in the metaverse as well. Therefore, one could theoretically buy Chanel or other designers in the metaverse as NFTs.

The advantages of buying virtual Chanel are that 1. they are sustainable since they don’t require much to be produced 2. they have no wear and tear 3. they can be collected and be potentially sold for a profit

The advantages for Chanel to sell NFTs could be: 1 .low production costs, 2. appealing to a new generation 3. expanding to a global market with minimal resources needed

It does seem like a win-win for both Chanel and it’s clientele for the brand to expand its offering to the metaverse, however, as much as we’d like for the fashion house to join the NFT craze, we have our doubts that it will happen soon. For one, Chanel hasn’t typically been an early adaptor when it comes to technology. For example one cannot buy a Chanel bag online yet, but you can buy items online from most other luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior and even Hermès (bar their most popular bags).

Is your future Chanel collection made out of NFTs?

One might think, I get all this..but WHY? Why would someone buy a Chanel Classic Flap in the form of an NFT instead of actually buying the real thing?  Well, the answer can vary.

For one, since the prices of the classic flap have increased dramatically over the last years, many people are buying them as an investment as opposed to actually wearing them. In this case, if you believe that the metaverse and NFTs are here to stay it makes sense to buy the virtual asset as well. Furthermore, it can be about signalling wealth and status online. In a world where metaverse rules over real life, and you spend your working hours as well as socializing hours online, most of your physical assets are deemed irrelevant.

Here’s where purchasing “skins” or clothers and accessories from luxury brands can fill that gap. We’ll be the first to admit that this all sounds too out there, too futuristic and it’s hard to imagine living our lives like this. However, history has showed that with technology, we rarely go back into the offline, but we typically spend more and more time in the virtual world. So watch this space, as we’re going to uncover and review not only the best physical luxury bags, shoes and jewelry but also the new, virtual ones.