Byredo and Rtfkt bet on visual “aura” as Metaverse perfumes

The collaboration includes a digital “aura” and the ability for collectors to customise and buy physical fragrances by merging NFTs.

Digital fashion startup Rtfkt and luxury fragrance brand Byredo have partnered on a perfume for Web3, a first for both companies driven by Nike-owned Rtfkt's experimental Web3 approach.
The Alphameta collab involves wearable digital “auras”, customised digital and physical scents, and NFT-connected near-field communication (NFC) tags on bottles. Working with Paris-based art directors M/M, Byredo and Rtfkt are visually rendering 26 ingredients that represent emotions (such as acuity, harmony, naivety and virtue). These will be treated as digital collectibles, and will come in limited quantities and wearable via Rtfkt’s “avatar ecosystem”, which include its CloneX avatars. More details on the launch will be announced in July.
This is Byredo’s first metaverse project, and while it’s the latest in a long history of collaborations for Rtfkt, it’s the startup’s first take on fragrance. Rtfkt most recently created a digital “Cryptokicks” sneaker co-branded with parent-company Nike that can be turned into physical versions by those who collect the NFTs.

Reproducing ephemeral items such as skincare and fragrance has presented a quandary in the metaverse, and a few brands have begun interpreting them visually. In March, Estée Lauder created an experience for Decentraland’s Metaverse Fashion Week that invited visitors to claim a POAP (a proof of attendance protocol) to receive a “glow”, while Clinique recently introduced a partnership with PFP (profile picture) avatar collection Non-Fungible People that gave avatars a similar skincare-induced glow, in addition to makeup looks. Guerlain created an NFT collection whose sales helped fund a physical nature preserve. There are also a number of tech startups working to create a perfume for the metaverse.

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