Gucci Vault

Almost a year ago, in late September, Gucci launched the Vault, an alternative online concept store featuring vintage pieces from the label, other up and coming designers and most interestingly, virtually all of the brands’ ventures into Web3 and NFTs. Gucci is among the first Houses to have rolled out an extensive multi-dimensional Web3 strategy across what seems to be every possible iteration of the use of the blockchain technology for the luxury fashion industry. In fact, Gucci was also among the first to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment in selected stores.

Gucci and other brands from the Kering group, the parent company of the Florentine label – notably Balenciaga -, have been at the forefront of the transition from Web2 to Web3 and have been the most daring not only in terms of the nature of the digital ventures they have taken part in or instigated but also in terms of the quantity and of these ventures. Gucci’s handling of metaverse projects has evolved significantly since its first NFT, a film inspired by its Aria Collection that sold at Christie’s, and since the sale of some of its accessories on Roblox (the price of a digital Dionysus bag even fetched a higher amount than the real deal). 

Critically, they have created dedicated business units, within Gucci, the Vault, led by Nicolas Oudinot. This significant strategic move inscribes digital ventures in the long-term strategy of the brand. There is a first mover advantage in a new space that offers as many opportunities as possible, since the ones who are designing the tools and therefore the way users interact with the technology are the ones who are going to dominate the ecosystem, even if it is decentralized. Indeed, individual users acting together are the driver of the new digital communities, branding mass adoption is therefore a critical challenge for brands entering the space. 

Gucci understands that the digital identity it is building needs to be multifaceted to create real-long term engagement. The Vault is described by Michele, creative director of the house as bridging past, present, and future. Users need to be constantly stimulated to be brought into the fold, yet the question of what is going to stick remains to be answered at such an early stage. Certainly, trial and error to assess what is going to bring the most interest and engagement is the best option, and it is exactly what the Gucci Vault is about. 

“We called it the vault because a vault is a storage place for beautiful things,” says Alessandro Michele of the retail venture. “I love old things; they are present in my life with contemporary things.” And indeed, one of the challenges is bridging the gap in catering to the current Gucci audience and consumer while attracting new ones, namely, the gamers and Web3 aficionados. The goal is navigating the new methods of consumption and brand interaction while staying true to the old ones.

To stay true to their brand identity, the eccentric creativity of Alessandro Michele is distilled in all of the projects. Navigating the Gucci Vault’s website, one can access a Metaverse space described as a “multi-directional exploration spanning digital realms”. It features SUPERGUCCI NFTs, made in collaboration with SUPERPLASTIC, sold around 1.5 ETH on OpenSea (about $2k  at the time of this writing) and exploring the branding opportunities NFTs offer through collaborations with artists and creatives.

This philosophy is extended into the Vault Art Space presented by Gucci and SuperRare, “opening up the House’s heritage to ever-diverse points of view, Vault Art Space showcases collectible fragments of the House’s kaleidoscopic narrative, auctioned off in a frequent rotation of drops”.  Additionally, Gucci has invested in the $RARE token, making it part of the SuperRare DAO. According to Oudinot, the brand was “fascinated by SuperRare’s ability to provide [artists] with a platform to showcase their work in an innovative way, one that is built on a sense of community and that enhances interactions and decentralization as key tools to support both artists and collectors.” 

This will allow the brand to have a say in the way the platform is managed, and to align SuperRare’s overall strategy with the House’s willingness to showcase a diversity of artists. Oudinot underlined that Gucci was aiming at participating and building an “interconnected and decentralized economy” where every actor can benefit, strengthening the role of the fashion house as a cultural tastemaker and art patron.

This willingness to participate in the creation of digital worlds and ecosystems also drove the creation of Gucci Town on Roblox, this “free-dimensional and forever in flux” digital space is dedicated to engaging with the legacy of the house and the way Michele reinterprets its codes, but also to the way users reinterpret them individually. “The virtual piazza offers a series of experiences including mini games, art exhibitions, and shopping for digital Gucci items to outfit Roblox avatars.” Users can collect tokens for free by playing games and creating pieces in an ongoing ever-expanding experience. 

Additionally, it has bought land on The Sandbox, an Etherum-based decentralized NFT gaming metaverse catered to non-tech savvy users, allowing them to create, sell, use and monetize NFTs. It is a video game where players have a great deal of liberty in creating their own personalized experiences interacting with other players. This sense of community and engagement is sustained through The Vault’s Instagram account and more importantly Discord server.

Ultimately, Gucci wants to be taken seriously as a Web3 actor and leader, meaning that it aims at taking an active role in the design of the space and creation of the tools that are going to be critical to mass adoption. This is two folds: bringing new users in by creating products that will attract them into the Web3 universe of the brand and engaging already existing online communities.

As users navigate the Vault, they are not only invited to linger and explore, but they are also brought full circle into the identity of the brand online and offline and are presented with a shift in the creative process and marketing strategy taking place within the House and the fashion industry at large.  Mixing vintage pieces with items from other designers styled with Gucci-branded accessories, the concept is truly about sharing creativity and styling processes in the manner of DAOs.

Collaboration with outside creatives is not new within the luxury fashion industry and has only gained momentum since Marc Jacobs introduced it at Louis Vuitton with Stephen Sprouse in 2001, but it is taking a fully different profile nowadays. Within an industry resting on goodwill and brand perception, labels used to be ring fencing their creative process in order to protect their intellectual property and perceived consumer value and sense of uniqueness. Differentiation has been the driving force of fashion conglomerates in order not to cannibalize business and drive ever increasing sales. 

Yet, Web3, while resting on uniqueness and exclusivity mainly functions on participative decentralization, and that implies letting go of, and even sharing ownership on some projects, including the creative exclusivity. Gucci did not need the metaverse to start doing this, regularly inviting artists and creatives to reinterpret the codes of the House, but it is now fully embracing the potential of Web3 is moving the creative genius from one creative figure to the whole community of creators, but also consumers. 

Is Web3 driving this sense of creative decentralization or has it just provided the tools to accelerate a trend that was already surfacing within the industry? Probably a bit of both, after all Andy Warhol said that we would all get our minute of fame in his coming future. For some time, I thought Web2 and social media was it, but I was probably wrong.