Balmain brings barbie into the digital age with nft

In 1945, after World War II, Piere Balmain together with 60 famous French designers at that time such as Cristóbal Balenciaga, Nina Ricci, Jeanne Lanvin together built a fashion tour, called Théâtre de la Mode, to revive the fashion industry.

Balmain brings barbie into the digital age with nft

Because of the scarcity of post-World War fabrics, the designers chose to model as tiny mannequin dolls to save materials. These dolls were toured throughout Europe and America to promote the couturiers. At the show that year, Pierre Balmain alone designed more than 200 costumes for more than 20 dolls.

Nearly 80 years after Théâtre de la Mode, Olivier Rousteing , the creative director of the Balmain fashion house, repeats history when he shakes hands with Mattel, the creator of the Barbie doll. This combination is considered by fashionistas to be a harmonious intersection between pop culture and fashion.

In addition, Balmain and Barbie also launched commemorative NFTs together. The event also marks the first time the famous doll brand has entered the digital art field.

With her hourglass figure and bouncy blonde hair, Barbie is the epitome of a perfect figure. Since its debut in 1959, Barbie dolls have always been the figureheads of fashion and beauty trends. President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Steven Kolb, once shared: “Barbie has had a great influence on American fashion and culture.”

The cooperation between Mattel and the French fashion house in early 2022 is not only grateful to designer Pierre Balmain. The event also reflects the new future of Barbie, as the image of the famous doll is diversified.

For this Balmain x Barbie collection, Mattel has released six dolls. Barbie and Ken both represent different cultures, with different skin colors, eye colors and hair. In particular, one of the two Ken guys in this collection is shaped like the creative director of Balmain, who has Ethiopian blood.

To convey the spirit of Barbie, Olivier Rousteing used Barbie’s signature pink color scheme for the entire design from Balmain.

Along with the Barbie girls and boys, Balmain also designs collections for adults. The limited-edition Balmain x Barbie ready-to-wear collection also features Barbie’s signature pink tones, combined with Balmain’s Labyrinth maze motifs and Marinière marine stripes.

Recently, blockchain and NFT (Non-fungible token) have been strongly applied by the fashion world. Balmain x Barbie does not ignore this hot trend.

For the first time, works related to Barbie dolls are made in NFT format for auction with the collection. The doll company offers three one-of-a-kind pieces, including images of Barbie and Ken in Balmain’s costumes.

The auction was officially listed on mintNFT on January 14. The successful auctioneer owns not only NFT avatars, but also one of three unique Barbie versions.

Reincarnation of the Nike Air Force 1, through limited editions

In 2022, this shoe officially hits the 40-year mark. How did the Nike Air Force 1 model stay popular for so long? The answer lies in limited editions, handshakes with artists or brands that have the potential to cause hypebeast effects.

These include the handshake between Nike and the streetwear brand Supreme, Virgil Abloh’s Off-White; or with influential artists such as footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, rapper G-Dragon and singer Billie Eilish . To date, the AF1 shoe style has been produced with more than 1700 different color codes.

Similar to the Air Jordan, rare versions of the Air Force line also have a transfer price in the second hand fashion market many times higher than the original retail price.