To celebrate our 60th anniversary, the CFDA is looking to the future – via the metaverse and Web3.

Our milestone moment will come with a curated retrospective of American fashion in the metaverse as well as commemorative NFTs for auction to benefit the CFDA Foundation Inc.

To bring both initiatives to life, we worked alongside The Sandbox with guidance from Polygon Studios, and in partnership with creative consultancy 5Crypto.

​​“In celebrating 60 years since Eleanor Lambert founded the CFDA, we not only commemorate some of our biggest moments, but also want to use this milestone as an opportunity to look to the future,” CFDA CEO Steven Kolb said. “The CFDA has always pioneered creative and innovative thinking, and with our first metaverse exhibition and NFTs, we are embracing this new era of digital transformation. CFDA is grateful for the partnership support from The Sandbox, Polygon, and 5th Column & 5Crypto.”

The metaverse exhibition, called “Fashioning the Shades of American Design,” will feature 60 looks from the CFDA’s six decades curated by fashion historian and Assistant Curator of Fashion of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Darnell-Jamal Lisby.

Lisby selected iconic looks from designers such as Ralph Lauren, Patrick Kelly, Donna Karan, Naeem Khan, Tracy Reese, Oscar de la Renta, Anna Sui, Stephen Burrows, Thom Browne, and Tory Burch. The designs will be reimagined in a voxel environment with the aim to educate, entertain, and foster community worldwide.

The exhibition will be organized by five themes: Illuminating Fantasy, Illuminating Romance, Illuminating the Avant-Garde, Illuminating Understanding, and Illuminating the Soul.

“This exhibition highlights just a snippet of the wide breadth of contributions to American fashion. Creativity fueled by our incredible cultural diversity is what I hope comes across in the exhibition, highlighting one of our greatest strengths that set the foundation for global contemporary fashion,” Lisby expressed.

The exhibition will open in December 2022 in The Sandbox.

“What an honor it is to be working with the CFDA to guide iconic American fashion brands into the metaverse. This milestone celebrates more than 60 years of iconic designs and also paves the way for the future of fashion,” said Akbar Hamid, Founder & CEO of 5th Column & 5Crypto. “Our vision at 5Crypto and with this partnership is to empower and educate Web2 brands on the limitless opportunities Web3 presents and create special moments that bridge the gap between consumer and crypto.”

Additionally, the CFDA has asked select designers to create eight exclusive 60th anniversary creative designs and experiences to be minted into NFTs.

“Lighting the Path of American Fashion” will be a fundraising initiative featuring iconic moments as NFTs for auction, with proceeds benefiting the CFDA Foundation.

Powered by Polygon Studios and brought to life by BNV and Arianee, each NFT comes with unique utility perks that will allow unprecedented access.

Brian Trunzo, Metaverse Lead at Polygon Studios, said: “It’s inspiring to see a global industry titan like the CFDA embracing digitization and Web3 technology to drive the fashion industry forward. Polygon is delighted to provide the infrastructure to make the CFDA’s foray into Web3 as seamless, cost-effective, and sustainable as possible.”

Arthur Madrid, CEO & Co-Founder of The Sandbox, added: “The metaverse is the new frontier of expression, where avatars will be an extension of our digital identity. Our mission is to empower players and creators to become more creative, easing access to self-expression thanks to our no-code tools. We truly hope to inspire the next generation of fashion designers to imagine, design and bring to life NFT collections that combine expression and utility and will be playable in the metaverse!”

The CFDA will also be partnering with MoonPay to utilize their white glove concierge service to facilitate the NFT purchases. The NFTs will launch on CFDA.com the third week of November, following the 2022 CFDA Fashion Awards.