I recently watched the movie House of Gucci directed by Ridley Scott. Seeing Adam Driver play Maurizio Gucci married to the crazy (or just insanely ambitious - with emphasis on the “insanely”) Patrizia Reggani played by Gaga, I was inspired to enter the Gucci Vault once more to try and understand what exactly this strange web2-wannabe-web3-but-not-really-so-we-are-going-to-still-call-ourselves-a-creative-collective-until-we-find-out-what-it-is-we-want-to-be space is. Confused? Me too.
My forte is digital fashion and as much as I love the Vintage suede handbag plucked from the 1970s (which costs £1 940 btw), the neon UNA collection and the printed sneakers by Vans and Imran Potato all featured on the Vault’s site, I headed straight to the “Metaverse” section. There, I found a very quaint - and by quaint, I mean modest - area dedicated to web3. I had 4 options to choose from: 10KTF Gucci Grail, Superplastic, The Sandbox and Discord. So I dibble dabbled a lil in each.
A sip from the Gucci Grail
Digital artist and 10KTF digi-shop owner Wagmi-san (pictured right) and Gucci Creative Director Alessandro Michele (pictured left) have “collaborated” on a collection, dubbing it the Gucci Grail. I had a browse and wasn’t too blown away.
Bored Ape Yacht Club and their Mutant counterparts feel a tad overdone; Toadz and World of Women too (no shade being thrown here. Oath). Styling them in Hawaiian shirts and cowboy hats felt a bit, well, boring.
However, owning one of these bad boys will apparently grant you a Gucci Grail Mint Pass which opens more doors to other creations. Not too sure what these are or could be yet, though. I selected a few of my favourites, in any case.
Gucci Grail WOW #2020
Price tag at time of publishing: ETH 2.99
Classic Hawaiian-print shirt with neon pink background scattered with lumo green and pastel purple palm trees, this particular World of Women PFP defines maximalism. The gem-encrusted gold choker hints at D&G’s signature royal Catholicism motifs.
Gucci Grail Mutant #5032
Price tag at time of publishing: ETH 0.974
Dressed like a jockey, this Mutant is off to the races in a dapper, regal-purple, button-down jacket with crisp-white collar. Typical British and I love it. Attached to the jacket is a mini branch still in bloom with letters spelling out “Gucci” amongst the leaves. Yes, the melted facial expression is toxic but this Mutant is welcome to high tea any day.
Gucci Grail 0N1 #3420
Price tag at time of publishing: ETH 420.69
At the time of writing, this PFP has the most expensive floor price. Cowboy hat, Zoro-esque eye mask plus the bright blue and yellow floral Hawaiian shirt complimented the paler blue skin tone (matching the little devil on the shoulder - cute). A thicker, pale gold-toned necklace appears to be hugging this ON1’s neck with the same green jewels and monochrome striped cross as seen previously.
Plastic surgery - I mean, SUPERGUCCI
Alessandro Michele takes a deeper dive into the metaverse, “collaborating” with Superplastic’s synthetic artists Janky and Guggimon on a phygital collection called SUPERGUCCI. You can own one of the 500 figurine NFTs in the metaverse and receive a physical, 20-odd cm sculpture (apparently handmade in glorious Italia).
SUPERGUCCI Trip #32
Last offer at time of publishing: ETH 11
Ceramic florals from ears to sneakers, a green baseball cap with a black chin strap and a psychedelic background - I don’t hate it but is it Gucci? This particular collection really made me question who Gucci is as a brand. It’s definitely Superplastic - a brand renowned for flamboyant figurines. But that means we’re only halfway there with SUPERGUCCI. The collection displays the same figurine but juxtaposed on different backgrounds, such as stars, blossoms and even eyes.
All of the aforementioned Gucci Vault NFTs are available on OpenSea.
Sandbox and Discord - my my, what can I say?
Gucci has purchased a chunky piece of land in the metaverse platform, Sandbox. I made an avatar to have a tour of what was happening with their virtual real estate and was disappointed. There was nothing to see besides their position on the map.
I had fun making my avatar, though. I mean, I’m wearing pixelated sneaker boots - totally amay!
I then headed over to the Gucci Vault Discord server. After jumping through the usual hoops of verification and agreeing to community rules, what appeared to be a progressive space actually seemed to have fallen flat - as one user rightly expressed.
One of the moderators on the channel seemed a bit offended by this community member’s particular view and ushered them to check out the #journey thread if they weren’t satisfied. Not much was happening there either.
Sure, I got some vague clarity as to when the Gucci Vault would appear in Sandbox (the second half of this year, apparently but still not sure of when exactly that is) but I seemed to get the same rehashed narrative that was already available to me on their website ie “This is the creative vision of Creative Director Alessandro…blah, blah, blah”.
Again, not completely hating on Gucci for trying but to me, it just seems like they are web3-washing. The concept of the Vault has been around since 2021 and I don’t feel much progress has been made in the metaverse side of things. To me, it lacks originality and brand direction. It left me feeling rather scattered and prompted me to truly question Gucci’s place in the metaverse, as well as them as a brand. That is problematic.
It brings round the question once again as to whether these luxury brands are being genuine in their ventures to transition to and engage in digital fashion as a movement and revolt against the old, unethical and unsustainable practices they have been so entrenched in for centuries.
Or, as I suspect, do they see this merely as a fad and an extra revenue stream thus attempting to keep alive the “old ways” by cloaking them in pixels and code? Hopping onto what others are doing in the space in hope of poaching followers of some seriously talented web3 artists will run the risk of these poachers being hunted themselves. Unauthenticity is easier to spot in web3. Dressing up popular NFT PFPs in your signature cowboy hat is not really a creative collab, Alessandro.
Sorry Gucci, I’m just not feeling it. Let’s bring Patrizia back. Jokes.
Enter the Gucci Vault here and more specifically, the Metaverse side of it here.