Phygital jewelry
The most important international jewelry brands, from high-end to fashion. The new frontier of dematerialized jewelry now appeals to everyone. Beatrice Rossato from Milan Polytechnic speaks about it at JTF
First came the web as a digital store window, then the social networks and online sales sites. Covid then gave the final push until products, including jewelry, have been totally dematerialized. And all in a relatively short space of time. About 20 years that have radically changed the way we understand and experience buying a product. Tracing these two revolutionary decades is Beatrice Rossato, a PhD student in Design at Milan Polyechnic, a first-class university and hub for research and innovation in design, and a member of Professor Alba Cappellieri's team. «The very definition of luxury, which embodies the idea of handmade, is antithetical to the concept of product dematerialization. Yet recently, it has been the hard luxury brands that have taken this path and in a rather surprising way too. Tiffany & Co., for example, has launched a collection of no less than 250 Non-Fungible Tokens, the NFTiff by Tiffany & Co., Phygital jewelry The most important international jewelry brands, from high-end to fashion. The new frontier of dematerialized jewelry now appeals to everyone. Beatrice Rossato from Milan Polytechnic speaks about it at JTF created in collaboration with CryptoPunk, just as Bulgari has amazed everyone with the Beyond Wonder necklace, working on a design with no constraints on wearability. And again, Dolce & Gabbana's Genesis Collection, consisting of just 9 digital dresses, sold at auction for $6 million. The same desire to amaze is demonstrated by younger, more affordable brands, such as Sunney, which, for the earrings in the Rubberized collection, has even devised a special filter that can be used on social networks to “apply” a digital ear to the potential buyer to test how a certain piece of jewelry looks when worn. Then there are those who, like Manuganda, the brand founded in Milan by Manuela Gandini, fuse technology and craftsmanship into a Digital Passport. Since 2021, every piece of jewelry that leaves the Milanese workshop carries the added value of a certificate of uniqueness.» And nothing is more exclusive than uniqueness.