BLK DNM releases the first ‘connected fashion’ garments as part of FW 2023
New York, New York, October 4th, 2023, Chainwire
BLK DNM releases the first ‘connected fashion’ garments as part of FW 2023
- 72 leather jackets embedded with blockchain-enabled ‘digital garment IDs’ herald an era of intelligent, responsible fashion.
- The tech grants each item a unique identity for authentication, membership to BLK DNM Society and a ‘forever refund’ policy – with more features to follow.
- ‘Connected fashion’ encourages more responsible and less wasteful behaviors.
Swedish-American fashion brand BLK DNM today reveals the first apparel embedded with blockchain-enabled hardware, marking the first instance of ‘connected fashion’: garments that exist both physically and virtually, each aspect ‘twinned’ via technology.
72 of BLK DNM’s signature leather jackets, in 7 different styles and released as part of the brand’s FW 2023 collection, have been fitted with a ‘digital garment ID’ – an undetectable chip that gives each physical item a unique and recordable identity in the digital world, enabling a host of responsibility- and value-driving features.
The 72 jackets, across seven different styles, will retail between $1,490 and $2,490, released in drops across NYC, Chicago, LA, and Stockholm from the 5th October.
Via the ‘digital reflection’ of each physical item, maintained in the virtual world, the first features to be introduced are:
- Authentication of each garment as genuine, eliminating the possibility of fakes and counterfeiting
- Invitation to BLK DNM Society, a community of BLK DNM owners connected digitally via their garments
- A cashback ‘forever refund’ on each item at any point in the garment’s lifetime (which is designed to be almost infinite) – be it in five years or five decades – with the cash value based on how well the item has been treasured and maintained
The technology has been purpose-built by BLK DNM’s parent company, Swedish blockchain innovation firm ChromaWay.
The Future of BLK DNM’s Connected Fashion
Subsequent collections will introduce more items to BLK DNM Society through embedded digital garment IDs. Additional features that will be activated incrementally across all connected fashion-enabled garments (both new and existing) include:
- A record of each individual item’s lifecycle and story tracked on the blockchain, including owners, events and places worn, repairs and alterations – enabling the item to accrue emotional and monetary value over time
- Rewarding responsible behaviors of treasuring and caring for garments long-term, such as refurbs and second-hand purchases
- Voting rights within BLK DNM Society, granting influence over the brand’s future direction
- Each item acting as a digital ticket for entry to events
Toni Collin, CEO of BLK DNM, comments: “Each of these 72 jackets is a piece of history. With their release, technology begins to empower consumers to cherish and prolong their clothing, against the backdrop of an industry driving waste and overproduction. We hope that this puts pressure on clothing producers to be more transparent about and mindful of the impact they are having on what goes to landfill – there is no excuse now not to meet supply and demand, when you and your customers can work together to track and treasure every garment. As an industry, we need to wake up.”
Henrik Hjelte, CEO and Co-founder of ChromaWay, comments: “We are enormously excited after many months of hard work to see the future we envisioned for the fashion industry beginning to take shape via our technology. Today, connected fashion is born via the iconic craftsmanship of BLK DNM’s team and the technological prowess of our engineers. But the capabilities of the tech now are just the beginning, and we cannot wait to reveal and introduce more features to all connected fashion items as time goes on.”
About BLK DNM
BLK DNM is a Swedish-American fashion brand that specialises in timeless tailoring, leather and denim of extraordinary quality. Following its 2023 relaunch as an entry-luxury fashion house under the stewardship of new Creative Director Jessy Heuvelink, BLK DNM’s focus on both enduring craftsmanship and aesthetic timelessness encourages customers to love and treasure each item for decades and across generations.
About ChromaWay
ChromaWay is an industry leader in blockchain technology and specializes in creating and deploying cutting-edge, scalable blockchain solutions for both businesses and governments. The company, which was established in 2014 and has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, has been at the forefront of driving widespread adoption of blockchain technology. Its flagship product, relational blockchain Chromia, enables developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) with a relational database model that offers unprecedented scalability and flexibility.
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