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Kevin Tung is a digital fashion designer and creative director from New York City. Kevin’s love for fashion started as a child during a mother-son mall trip when he had the opportunity to try on a fitted Armani suit. Empowered by the way the suit made him feel, he was instantly hooked. This prompted a decade-long journey of fashion study and experimentation, including a degree from FIT and stints at companies like Aeropostale, T Tahari, and White House Black Market.
In addition to his full-time design role, Kevin has immersed himself in the digital fashion community, setting out to become the “YSL of the metaverse.” He’s released a handful of digital garments including a Year of the Tiger Dress, Stone Puffer Jackets, and a Tinder-themed runway collection.
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We sat down with Kevin and asked him a few questions:
1. How does digital fashion benefit the indie creator/designer compared to traditional fashion?
Digital fashion allows the best talent to shine. Traditionally, to launch a successful fashion collection, you need a lot of money. A simple t-shirt sample costs $200, and a collection is typically made up of 5 looks at the very least, requiring at least $10,000 in start-up costs alone.
Digital fashion allows designers to showcase their ideas and create a community of supporters in new ways that require a lot less funding, and a lot more talent.
2. What do you look for when you determine where to mint digital fashion NFTs? Do you spread out across multiple platforms?
I look for a high-quality community. I want a community that’s sizable as well as passionate about fashion. One community I found recently is Artisant. They’re like the foundation for fashion The community is full of talented people and they promote their designers as well, something you don’t see larger websites doing.
I do spread out across multiple platforms solely because each platform has specific advantages. For example, my latest project is an airdrop and it would be costly to mint every NFT. Because OpenSea uses lazy mint, it’s much easier to mint and distribute there.
3. What’s your biggest piece of advice for a new creator about to launch their first collection?
It’s about quality and community. You need to produce high-quality work for people who care and relate to your art. Try to build real friends that want to collect your work instead of making something you think will sell. More often than not, people want authenticity and a genuine connection to the artist.
4. What is the consumer use case of digital garments now vs where it’s headed? For example, if I bought one of your puffers what can I do with it now vs in the future?
The main technology right now is digital dressing. For example, any owner of my NFTs is able to get digitally dressed 2x a year for life. This is prevalent across a few platforms including DressX and Artisant. As AR technology gets better in the future, I think you’ll be able to wear any of your digital garments in real-time. Like a filter but much more sophisticated. I also think you’ll be able to dress your metaverse characters in the same outfits.
5. How do you determine your pricing? Based on exclusivity, scarcity, quality, utility?
It’s a combination of all of the above. Pricing is very subjective but I think beginner artists should charge what it cost to mint, basically breaking even. This shows that you genuinely care about your community and the quality of your work. As you gain more recognition and see faster sales you’ll gain the confidence to price higher. The more exclusive it is, the higher it should be priced because there’s only one.
6. What is the biggest drawback or risk around minting fashion NFTs?
The biggest drawback right now is also the biggest advantage; we’re still very early. Most people still don’t understand the concept of NFTs and there are probably less than 1,000 digital fashion designers in the world. This makes the market fairly small but also allows you to be a big fish in a small pond. As they say, the best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second best time is today.
To learn more about Kevin and his story, you can head over to his personal site.