by Selina Denman — thenationalnews.com — Lebanese fashion designer Rami Kadi is launching his first collection of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, dubbed Lucid Algorithms. The collection of 120 NFTs will be available for sale from 5pm, Dubai time on Wednesday on www.rami-kadi.com. A launch event will run alongside the start of the sale at the Theatre of Digital Art in Madinat Jumeirah. “NFTs will change history, they are not just for art and fashion, everything is logged into the ‘cloud’. It is like a closed contract, with owners having access to the physical and the virtual. It can never be reproduced – I am the creator and you are the owner,” the designer explains. “When you buy a Rami Kadi NFT, first, you can come to our studio to customise your own couture piece, inspired by these NFTs. Second you can dress your avatar, in 2D or 3D, and third, you will be invited to all our future events in the physical world and in the meta verse.”

The NFTs are being minted on Cardano, a public blockchain platform that is open-source and decentralised, and uses Ouroboros, the first peer-reviewed, verifiably secure blockchain protocol. “I’m very happy to be the first couturier designer that is launching an NFT in the Arab world and I am the first designer launching their NFT on Cardano,” says Kadi. On his decision to launch on Cardano, rather than competitor Ethereum, Kadi points out a number of factors. “First because the fees on Ethereum are quite high, second, Cardano is eco-friendly and sustainable for the environment and, third, because I see a lot of potential for growth on Cardano,” he says.

Haute Couture Week round-up: experimentation at Valentino and nostalgia at Zuhair Murad While Kadi hopes that the NFTs will resonate with his existing client base, they are open to all. “We would love to see more of a female presence in the crypto world, but for this NFT collection, we are targeting everybody,” he says. Kadi has been a pioneer in the digital sphere, becoming one of the first Middle Eastern designers to host a digital fashion show in 2019, before the pandemic made them a regular occurrence. He has also embraced an experimental approach to new design technologies, incorporating glow-in-the-dark embroidery, LED lighting, silicon and porcelain into his clothing collections, and has created an entire couture look out of recycled ocean plastic.

For his latest haute couture offering, Kadi “co-designed” the collection with his computer. He programmed in the shapes, colours, patterns and textures he likes, creating an algorithm by which the computer designed multicoloured swag-beaded mini dresses, intricately beaded jackets over metallic mesh skirts and lots of feathery tulle gowns. While Kadi had the final say on the designs, his aim was to push boundaries. Looking forward, Kadi is exploring the idea of opening a shop in the metaverse or hosting meta fashion shows. He is excited by the infinite creative possibilities offered by the metaverse. “We can be as creative as we want,” he says. “This is my first NFT collection and it will definitely not be my last … Simply, there is no escape from the virtual world anymore. It’s inevitable. It’s going to change the way fashion works. It is time for us to delve into this world and we hope to see you in there.”