Designer Manish Malhotra Drops First Fashion NFT Collection, Records Fastest Sale

Indian fashion designer Manish Malhotra forayed into the crypto world with his first ever collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — unique digital items that can be bought using cryptocurrencies. Earlier this week, the 54-year-old Bollywood designer launched five exclusive fashion-themed NFTs. Malhotra's NFT collection had the sketches and GIFs of five couture pieces, worn by famous models and actresses like Lisa Ray, Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Alia Bhatt.

The auctioning was done in WRX—which is the native token of WazirX based on the Binance blockchain.

Out of the five NFTs, a custom-made constellation sketch for Kareena called the “Illuminous Showstopper” emerged as the highest selling piece. NFT creator and collector Mike Blue purchased the NFT for a whopping 3,000 WRX that, as of today, amounts to $3,753 (roughly Rs. 2.8 lakhs). This sale was made within 12 seconds of the collection being dropped, WazirX claimed.

“NFTs are a complete game-changer and absolutely something that the Indian industry needs to consider and move towards. I can see so many new possibilities emerge for artisans and the creator's community,” Malhotra said, while revealing that he plans to further explore this new age crypto technology further.

The other pieces were also sold in the range of $2,054 (roughly Rs. 1.5 lakhs) to $2,535 (roughly Rs. 1.9 lakhs) just within two minutes after the sale started.

“All these NFTs were sold out in almost two minutes, from ‘Illuminous Showstopper' selling out quickest in only 12 seconds to ‘Reminiscing Runways' in 13 seconds, ‘Memorable Sketch' in 72 seconds, and ‘Archival Days' in 132 seconds,” WazirX said.

The development comes just days after Italian luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana sold a nine-piece fashion NFT collection for $6 million (roughly Rs. 44.8 crores).

With the likes of globally recognised celebrities like rapper Snoop Dogg, NBA athlete Stephen Curry, and YouTuber Jake Paul -- NFT sales volume surged to $10.7 billion (roughly Rs. 79,820 crores) in the third quarter of 2021. As per a report by market tracker DappRadar, NFT sales are up more than eightfold from the previous quarter.

The NFT trend is gradually picking pace among Bollywood celebrities as well. B-town megastar Amitabh Bachchan is expected to roll out his own NFTs including some of the most unique and exclusive artworks surrounding his identity by November this year.

Actress Sunny Leone also reportedly invested in NFTs this month, becoming the first Bollywood actress to have done so. Earlier in September, NFT trading platform Colexion roped in Indian artists including Suniel Shetty, Aamir Ali, Mika Singh, and Sidhu Moose Wala among others to be part of its marketplace as well.