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The dizzyingly confusing world of NFTs has emerged in the fashion industry as Tina Turner’s iconic Versace dress is immortalised through technology this month. For Miami Art Basel, the singer’s former stylist Wayne Scot Lukas has created a non fungible token which will be auctioned off by company ViciNFT from November 30.
According to a report from Page Six, the NFT will also include 111 images of supermodel and Donald Trump’s ex Kara Young modelling the dress (the first person to do so in 29 years), original sketches and notes from Lukas and Versace, and a chapter from Lukas’ upcoming memoir about the origins of the dress, titled “Simply the Test.”
Lukas designed the dress with the late Gianni Versace.
“Tina wasn’t going to wear the dress because it arrived to opening night of her show in Paris so late. It needed a police escort to get to the venue,” Lukas told the publication.
He recalled the moment he saw it on stage for the first time, “I fell on my knees and cried. When she’s coming out of the floor [of the stage] and she’s in the dress singing her opening number with 69,000 fans singing ‘Simply the Best’ in French accents, I felt like I finally made it.”
For those unacquainted with the purpose (and allure) of an NFT, it is a form of directly purchasing for true ownership of the file, document or artwork. It is based on the premise that while you can screenshot or download an image, audio file or video that’s not yours, you can never have the rights to it.
Part of the sale from the Versace NFT will go to Christy Turlington Burns’ Every Mother Counts charity and Action Against Hunger.
Emily Ratajkowski famously auctioned off her own NFT earlier this year titled “Buying Myself Back: A Model for Redistribution”. Similarly, Cara Delevingne sold an NFT of a vagina monologue to raise money for her foundation “which supports women’s empowerment, Covid relief, LGBTQIA+ organisations, environmental causes, and fighting institutionalised racism.”
