London-based menswear brand, Ahluwalia has announced a collaboration with the digital fashion community, Brand New Vision (BNV) to launch an NFT collection called ‘Africa is Limitless’.
The announcement was made yesterday at London Fashion Week and highlighted how the “Africa is Limitless” collection looks to celebrate the vastness of African nations and experience the breadth and beauty of Black humanity.
The Ahluwalia brand was first launched in 2018 by Priya Ahluwalia to celebrate diversity with themes of multiculturalism aiming to uplift marginalized and underrepresented communities. Many of the collections are inspired by Priya’s dual Indian-Nigerian heritage.
The collection is inspired by the diversity of the heritage within African countries and consists of a total of 40 pieces with tracksuits featuring 25 combinations of textures and mixes.
“This collection gives me, the team and our customers the opportunity to learn about the vastness of African nations and experience the breadth and beauty of Black humanity,” Brand Founder Priya Ahluwalia explained.
Ahluwalia has partnered with BNV which describes itself as a “fashion company” that exists to help its partners navigate the intersection between fashion and the metaverse through 3D product creation, tokenization and community building.
In a press release, BNV’s CEO Richard Hobbs shared,
“This collaboration represents another exciting example of the potential of web3 and fashion, not only in bringing some of the most incredible and talented designers to an even bigger audience but in telling an even deeper story and benefiting organizations those stories represent.”
According to Hobbs, the future of digital fashion through Web3 is all about using this innovation as more than a channel to sell products.
He added,
“…it is a vehicle for showcasing the world’s finest creative talent and rewarding the groups they feel passionate about, all while giving the BNV community access to something they care deeply about.”
According to Priya, Web3 is not a diverse place and far more needs to be done to ensure the underpinnings of equality are seen in the everyday activity as the community grows.
“I’m so proud to launch a collection rooted in Africa — the collection reflects each nation and is focused on the photographers, artists, filmmakers, folktales, national animals and musicians in order to build a multifaceted creative map of the entire continent,” the London-based designer adds.
40% of the revenue from the sales will go to the Black Cultural Archives from which Ahluwalia drew inspiration for the collection. Black Cultural Archives is a British heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain.
The NFTs will go on sale on June 27 on BNV at 0.25 ETH but those who wish to pay more will have the extra amount go directly to the Black Cultural Archives.