“This is quite a departure in many ways. This, for me, is a really important moment. It's a different time, but we are moving into a different space, so therefore I think that it is worth it.”
The iconic fashion photographer has worked with the top luxury brands and models for decades. Now, he’s expanding into NFTs and digital art, and encouraging the fashion industry to push beyond their fears to embrace a new creative tool.
When British fashion photographer Nick Knight foresaw how video would add a new dimension to photography in 2000, he started SHOWstudio to explore the new possibilities of the internet, such as fashion film, audience participation and live streaming, and went on to produce films, CGI campaigns and immersive content for top luxury brands. Twenty years later, Knight is once again following his foresight, this time tapping into a technology that he believes will eventually be more culturally influential than fashion photography: Web3.
“You need influential and foresighted people to say, ‘Let's get behind a new medium, and let's do something brilliant with it and not try to hold on to the past’ — especially in fashion, which is all about the future,” Knight says.
Today (15/12/22), Knight’s inaugural NFT project, called ikon-1, is available to the public after two years of incubation. Following a sale to a preliminary “allow list” yesterday, made up of early community members who registered in advance, for ETH 0.15 (about $200), the mint is now open to the public for ETH 0.2 (about $260) as of 5pm GMT today via a new dedicated website.
“This is quite a departure in many ways. This, for me, is a really important moment. It's a different time, but we are moving into a different space, so therefore I think that it is worth it.”
Ikon-1 encompasses a total of 8,000 one-of-a-kind artworks, created in partnership with model and Instagram star known as Jazzelle (who also goes by Uglyworldwide), whose Knight-created avatar appears in the imagery. Similar to the types of fashion photoshoots that led to Knight being named an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in 2010, he tapped more than 30 creatives to contribute more than 200 traits such as fashion, makeup, hair and nails. These include digital fashion creators Tribute Brand, Scarlett Yang and Linxi Zhu, alongside hair stylist Eugene Souleiman, nail artist Marian Newman and digital artist Tom Wandrag, a longtime Showstudio collaborator. The resulting pieces resemble experimental fashion photography, with a figure surrounded by surrealist flowers, crystals or the type of metallic fabric that has become a digital fashion signature.
Each piece from ikon-1 features a unique combination of traits; typically, those with rare or highly desirable traits can become the most valuable, attracting higher resale values. The project follows the “blind mint” (sometimes called “delayed reveal”) format that has become popular among PFP drops, in which buyers only see which piece they’ve landed after they’ve purchased, usually at an established date or once all pieces have been claimed.
In addition to the artwork — which is planned to be revealed to each holder next week — NFT ownership will also grant future perks, including access to a personal NFT homepage with expanded views, and access to future Web3 programming and projects. It also includes access to ikon-1’s “metawardrobe” of digital wearables in collaboration with DressX. Knight, who is based in London, can’t share specifics, but promises, “I can hint at saying something is very exciting coming, including making an avatar of me.” Knight’s avatar is being prepared for a virtual shoot of ikon-1 coming next year
At a time when the traditional fashion industry and Web3 are still often at odds in terms of taste and tradition, Knight — who’s built deep fashion and media relationships that are decades in the making — is uniquely positioned to break through. Leading up to the ikon-1 drop, the project received endorsements from the likes of Björk and Givenchy creative director Matthew M Williams, in addition to Web3 natives Cathy Hackl, Rtfkt’s CloneX and metaverse agency Metadrip. Luxury and Web3 insiders have also flagged the launch as one to watch.
Knight sees new technologies such as 3D scanning, NFTs and generative art created by artificial intelligence as new tools for creativity, rather than a threat to established formats and tools. He finds inspiration in the uproar that fashion photography inspired more than 100 years ago. “The criticism I hear of digital art is that it is soulless — it is made by a machine — but that is no different than the beginning of photography,” he says via Zoom chat, wearing his signature tailored black suit with a white shirt and pocket square. “The artist gives it some soul. It is up to the artist to make this digital art as soulful as a painting.”
While most major fashion brands and groups have publicly embraced technologies such as blockchain, NFTs and digital fashion, projects using those technologies have remained largely siloed and have yet to break through to a mainstream fashion audience or industry gatekeepers. At September’s New York Fashion Week, for example, some designers tested token-gating, granting NFT holders access to events. However, the execution was generally bumpy and the reception to token-holders was sometimes icy.
“A lot of people don't know how to open a crypto wallet, they’ve heard lots of negative stuff about pollution or pyramid schemes, and I think it also comes a little bit from fear,” Knight says. “When you have these big fundamental changes and they usher in big cultural changes behind them, it destabilises the status quo. There is always this fear of a new way of thinking, but it does usher in a new societal change. As much as photography did, this will too — I think, perhaps, a bigger change than photography.”
SHOWstudio has begun sharing educational information on its Discord server, which has almost 4,000 members, and at in-person sessions. “I am trying to be really open about what we're doing, and we're doing it just the same way as if I was doing an exhibition. It's the same love going into it.”
Knight is up against more headwinds than scepticism. The communities who fueled the NFT hype a year ago still tend to be crypto-fluent enthusiasts. Now that the value of crypto has plummeted, collectors are less enthusiastic about taking risks or trading NFTs. Even Rtfkt, considered the Web3 fashion poster child, has most recently come up against a bumpy drop and disappointed community. In short, launching a successful NFT project is hard. Launching one that lands with fashion seems almost impossible.
“It's about creating art for the love of it and not creating art just for finance. There are very few things which aren’t businesses these days,” Knight says. Part of that includes sharing the creative expression, and revenue, with all collaborators. To that end, ikon-1 will share revenue with its main creative partners and has compensated all other contributors actively involved in the project. Jazzelle, who is adept at manipulating their own image, is also a figure that represents this new participatory zeitgeist, Knight says, adding that this is a shift compared to how models once worked with famed photographers such as Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Helmut Newton. “They nearly all said the same thing: ‘We had no control. We had no voice. We were not part of it.’ I think that's a sea change now.”
The fashion community needs to both create with and buy into Web3 technologies for the two sides to truly come together. Web3 also needs fashion. The alternative, he cautions, is a future that is divorced from creativity and artists. “It’s not until you get it into the hands of the artist that it becomes important culturally,” he says.
Future plans are under wraps. He long-ago began 3D-scanning supermodels including Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Karlie Kloss, often encouraging them to participate in creating their own avatars, in advance of an inevitable fashion future in which their iconic likenesses — similar to Marilyn Monroe’s in April of this year — are employed without their presence.
He has come to know a number of creatives who are more native to the space. “It’s quite heartwarming. It’s people who want to do great work, and there's no cynicism about it,” he says. Often, there is a strong sense of community that reminds him of those found at traditional fashion events. “I didn't really factor in meeting 30 new fashion designers; it’s kind of like fashion week — it's a big offering of people's visions… I wanted to get that through ikon-1. This is a gift, you know, this is an offering. And it's just the first step into a lot of other really exciting things.”
For now, he’s anxious at how this first project will be received, but he considers the act of trying a success in itself. This mindset is more in keeping with tech companies, who thrive off of failure and iterations, than luxury fashion, which is expected to deliver perfection at every turn. “I think the whole of the creative process is full of your own mistakes and failures, but that's what makes us human, you know? But every mistake is a new opportunity.”
