Anti-Fur Coalition Embraces Metaverse To Launch Cruelty-Free Digital Fur Fashion
The Iconoclast by Blythe Brunt. Image via UNFUR
The fashion industry is slowly turning to materials that are cruelty-free and less sustainable, from vegan leather to lab-grown diamonds. Now, a flashy new alternative is storming in: the metaverse.
In an unprecedented move, the International Anti-Fur Coalition (IAFC) is dabbling into fur fashion of its own. Only thing, this version doesn’t harm a single animal because it only exists in the virtual world. It’s in great contrast with the real world, where 100 million animals are bred and killed each year solely to satiate the fashion industry, says the IAFC.
The animal rights group has teamed up with full-service digital agency Mobiquity and students from the University of Westminster to launch the UNFUR Fashion Collection, a five-piece selection sewn out of ones and zeroes.
Image via UNFUR
First unveiled at Europe’s largest metaverse festival MET AMS, the array aims to fight the fur trade with fur fashion. The five digital outfits have been minted as non-fungible tokens and are now being sold on the Rarible marketplace, with all proceeds from sales and resales of the digital assets going to the anti-fur coalition to support its cause.
It can be argued that the prevalence of NFTs and cryptocurrency is comparably cruel to the climate, so the IAFC has chosen sustainable blockchain Flow to host the collectibles. Flow uses just 0.18 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy, which is apparently less energy than a single Google search.
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UNFUR explores the metaverse’s potential in inspiring a more ethical future in fashion, B&T details. The virtual realm doesn’t take from the lives of minks, foxes, and chinchillas, nor does it come with the carbon baggage of physical land and production.
Outfits can be designed in infinite quantities, with myriad possibilities, without the same consequences that are hurting our planet.
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[via Fintech & Finance News and B&T, images via various sources]
