Have you gotten your digital mitts on one of Nick Knight’s ikon-1 pieces yet? The visionary fashion photographer has moved into the NFT and digital art space with the launch of this ambitious project created in partnership with model and Instagram star Jazzelle Zanaughtti (aka Uglyworldwide).
Knight's first major digital fashion NFT collection brought together 40 of the world’s leading digital fashion designers to create 8,000 one-of-a-kind artworks that all feature Jazzelle’s avatar. In addition, the designers produced 200+ unique traits such as clothing, accessories, makeup, and hair, which Jazelle then styled to control their image in the metaverse.
"Fashion needs to change. And the digital world is fashion’s future,” Knight said in a press release announcing the project. “Traditionally, photographers consider models a blank canvas for their ideas; that’s not how we work here. I wanted Jazzelle to be at the very center of creating their own avatar.”
“I'm not imposing a look on Jazzelle, but giving them a new dimension to exist in; with all the splendor, with all the surrealism, with all the poetry and the whimsy- We’re creating the first NFT with feelings, with emotions, and with a point of view” Knight said when launching this project.
About Nick Knight
Knight has been at the forefront of image-making, working with top designers, models, and musicians for the past several decades. As the founder and director of SHOWstudio, Knight has collaborated with some of the most influential figures in the fashion world, including Rick Owens, Kate Moss, Comme des Garçons, John Galliano, and Alexander McQueen. In addition, he’s been hugely influential in shaping the culture and challenging the fashion industry to embrace new technologies like video, the internet, and social media.
The British photographer started with the publication of his first photo book “Skinhead” in 1982 when he was still a student at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design. His breakout book of documentary-style photographs of the English skinhead subculture caught the attention of i-D magazine editor Terry Jones, who commissioned Knight to create a series of 100 portraits for the magazine's fifth-anniversary issue.
The resulting black-and-white portraits led to the opportunity to work with Yohji Yamamoto, the Japanese designer, shooting his 1986 catalog under the art director Marc Ascoli. This successful foray into fashion photography saw him create 12 consecutive catalogues for the designer and work on editorial and advertising projects for clients such as Alexander McQueen, Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, and Jil Sander, and Yves Saint Laurent.
He has been the creative force behind countless magazine covers for publications such as Vogue, Dazed & Confused, i-D, The Face, W, and Another Magazine. Additionally, he has shot album covers for Björk, Boy George, David Bowie, Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, Seal, Massive Attack, and Travis Scott.
In 2001, Knight directed his first music video for Björk’s Pagan Poetry. Unfortunately, the video was so controversial that MTV in the U.S. banned it. Still, it’s also considered one of the greatest music videos by Björk, and the Alexander McQueen dress featured in the video was shown in Björk’s MoMA retrospective in 2015. Knight also directed the video for Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” in 2011 and Kanye West’s “Bound 2” and “Black Skinhead” in 2013.
About SHOWstudio
Knight pioneered using digital film to showcase fashion and founded SHOWstudio in 2000 to facilitate and advance his vision for fashion’s future. At the time, Knight said his groundbreaking fashion multimedia broadcasting platform was created “based on the belief that showing the entire creative process, from conception to completion, is beneficial for the artist, the audience, and the art itself.”
Since its inception, SHOWstudio has experimented with innovative technologies, including 3D imaging, avatar creation, artificial intelligence, and interactives. It was the first to live stream a fashion show with Alexander McQueen’s “Plato’s Atlantis in 2001, while live broadcasting technology was still in its early days.
In this latest NFT project, Knight and SHOWstudio are again pushing fashion forward to a new digital frontier, and the audience is invited along for the ride.
The Future of Fashion
“ikon-1 is an inspiring and compelling vision of Fashion's future in Web3 that I hope will inspire the much-needed change and adoption of technology in the fashion industry” - Nick Knight.
In the metaverse, there’s no limit to what you can be. As the ikon-1 muse, Zanaughtti, puts it, “I can be whomever I want, look however I want- most of them do look like me, but - I always wanted to have crazy pointy shoulders! I couldn’t have that in real life! This is a vision of me in the year 3000”.
Knight discovered the popular model and artist, Zanaughtti via their Instagram, @uglyworldwide, and was immediately drawn to their unique self-styled, gender-defying appearance. After developing a cult following on Instagram, the sought-after model has appeared in publications including Another, i-D, Vogue Italia, and PAPER and worked with brands such as Maison Margiela, Gareth Pugh, Nike, and FENTY. Zanaughtti and the other creators that Knight tapped for this project were tasked with exploring the metaverse’s boundless possibilities.
Mint your own Nick Knight NFT
Each ikon-1 NFT costs 0.2 Ethereum or approximately $326.87 USD, and you can use your digital wallet to purchase. But don’t worry if you don’t have a digital wallet or Ethereum cryptocurrency; you can also use old-school credit or debit cards for payment.
Your ikon-1 NFT is not revealed until after the minting process. But rest assured, you receive a completely unique digital artwork that acts as your ticket into the future of digital fashion. From providing access to your own homepage on Knight’s award-winning fashion website SHOWstudio to unlocking exclusive AR digital wearables, your NFT will be your key to the fashion Web3 revolution in the months and years to come.
For now, you can still mint your own ikon-1 NFT, but who knows how long that will last?
Image sources: https://www.instagram.com/nick_knight/?hl=en
