Megan Kaspar, the co-founder and managing director of FirstLight, is well known as a savvy investor and trailblazer within the digital vogue realm. In October 2021, she made headlines as the primary individual to showcase NFT clothes throughout a video interview. Kaspar’s pioneering spirit additionally earned her a characteristic in Haute Residing’s Miami problem sporting a digital ensemble by luxurious vogue model Fendi.
Kaspar has been a crypto fanatic from the start and is now a founding member of Crimson DAO, a corporation targeted on vogue and blockchain. She is a constant investor in main initiatives like DressX, supporting the intersection of vogue and know-how. Kaspar is tirelessly advocating for the potential of the rising motion and is dedicated to educating others about its prospects.
As a 2023 NFT100 honoree, nft now not too long ago sat down with Kaspar to debate her technique when investing in digital vogue and her ideas on the way forward for the house.
nft now: What’s your funding thesis or method behind digital vogue?
Megan Kaspar: Tokenization of the world’s property is going on over the following twenty years. There are 4 use instances which are the north star of how I have a look at the chance — not particularly how I make investments, however the overarching theme.
The primary is sustainability. Since 1950, consumption of stuff has elevated 14 occasions. If your entire world’s inhabitants shared the life-style habits of at present’s common American, we might require the equal of 5 Earths to accommodate us. Millennials, Gen Zs, and Gen Alphas are massively contributing to the optimistic shift to dematerialization, spending extra money and time in digital actuality.
The second is effectivity. We’re higher capable of leverage client knowledge by profiles, looking historical past, deserted carts, purchases, and returns. Due to this fact we will promote the suitable merchandise on the excellent time on the best channel. We’re going in direction of a mannequin of no extra over-manufacturing. Utilizing AI to higher perceive knowledge would enable [marketing] to be extra environment friendly, particularly by extra particular devoted channels, like a pockets.
Third is personalization. Customers have gotten extra individualized, they usually wish to be seen. There may be an upward pattern in micro collections. Clothes is being manufactured on-demand, which additionally contributes to no extra over-manufacturing. Gen Z and Gen Alpa’s identities are so rooted on-line; they wish to specific themselves in a hyper-personalized means. Platforms just like the Mindbody app help you hyper-personalize your gender. You may hyper-define and present in methods that you may not articulate or specific bodily.
Lastly, disruptive enterprise fashions. Knowledge is the brand new oil. Web2 is marked with a buyer/client mannequin the place you’re restricted within the visibility of all the things you personal. Web3 is an proprietor mannequin the place you personal your property, knowledge, and data and might translate right into a wear2earn financial system. The web2 client is shifting to a Web3 proprietor.
nft now: What do you envision the position of digital vogue within the subsequent cycle? What is going to it take for digital vogue to go mainstream?
MK: Capitalizing on early narratives is the simplest technique to make 100x in crypto. Sensible property (real-world property on chain) are one in every of 5 rising tendencies I’m paying probably the most consideration to, and the digital vogue sector will play a big position within the subsequent innovation wave of Web3.
nft now: What’s the imaginative and prescient and mission for Crimson DAO? What do you may have arising?
MK: Crimson DAO is the world’s first digital vogue, blockchain-agnostic-focused DAO. The objectives of Crimson DAO are to take part and put money into the emergent narrative and alternatives round vogue and attire tendencies shifting in direction of dematerialization into digital metaverse wearables powered by blockchain know-how.
So we make investments and incubate in all verticals of blockchain digital vogue together with supporting, buying, amassing, archiving, and investing in digital NFT clothes within the rising world of digital wearables and vogue. Notably, Crimson DAO collected three of the 9 objects from Collezione Genesi, the world’s first couture luxurious NFT designer drop from Dolce & Gabbana, together with the spectacular, one-of-a-kind Doge Crown (bodily and digital), which up to now is the best valued couture vogue NFT to exist.
nft now: In the long run, to what extent will digital must be accompanied by bodily?
MK: Full {hardware} disruption is a key consider digital-first adoption, offering real-time perfected hyperrealism blended actuality AR. There will probably be an evolution of possession from bodily solely to digital first.
nft now: How do you see the intersection of digital vogue and gaming?
MK: In web2 gaming, you don’t personal the merchandise; there is no such thing as a utility past aesthetics. In Web3 gaming, you personal the merchandise, and there are a number of utility fashions resembling rental, stake for rewards, and play2earn.
I have a look at all the things by the lens of every era and the evolution of know-how ({hardware} and software program; foundational habits and perception methods programmed into the collective of every era).
Millennials are the bridge between Gen Z and Gen Alpha, rising up with gadgets of their hand, instant on demand.
nft now: How are you personally and professionally getting ready for the metaverse?
MK: My journey within the blockchain ecosystem started in 2012, and since 2015 I’ve anticipated this second once we would see blockchain know-how disrupt the style business by providing new enterprise fashions and monetization layers. {Hardware} system disruption is the important thing issue to a completely decentralized digital actuality. Heads-down cell smartphone to heads-up near-eye wearable and a number of wearables.
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