From the Archive to Digital Assets: Documentation and Brand Legacy in Virtual Environments. Gucci Aria, MetaTABI, Cristóbal Balenciaga: To The Moon

Abstract

This article examines how luxury fashion houses activate their documentary legacy, like archives, sign systems, and historical narratives, in other to the new generations through digital assets (NFTs) and immersive environments (metaverses). Drawing from the information science and document theory, we understand the NFT as a documentary “artifact” (metadata, provenance, and traceability) and, simultaneously, as a communication device that recontextualizes brand heritage.

Methodologically, a case study is presented with documentary profiles and an analysis of content and paratexts: Gucci Aria (a documentary video in NFT format auctioned by Christie’s), Maison Margiela’s MetaTABI (a phygital format of the iconic boots and a mint pass), and Cristóbal Balenciaga: To The Moon (an NFT collection curated by Lorenzo Riva that draws on Cristóbal Balenciaga’s original designs; a creation not related with the current Balenciaga brand).

The analysis is organized around the “memory-backing-uses” model, which integrates criteria for assessing how these media expand the documentation and fashion preservation, and aiming to identify the activation of communities and utilities (unlockable) to foster the intergenerational transmission of brand meaning. We discuss challenges related to metadata standardization and platform dependency. Criteria are also set out for curation and preservation in brand archives and documentation centres and examine new narratives that allow to understand the recontextualization of brands heritage indicators (archive, iconography, and authorship).