Fashion, art, and culture at large continue to parse for a place in the ever-evolving metaverse, but a new age of underground digital creators are confidently forging creative paths. TRASHYMUSE, the chameleonic fashion and lifestyle brand and digital community dedicated to future tech and its creators, has joined forces with Telekom Electronic Beats, a European-wide platform and initiative based on the profound symbiosis between music, design, art, fashion, and new technologies, to champion that. To celebrate this new frontier for the creative industries, the two brands have launched a collaborative, special edition NFT.

Titled “METAMORPHOSIS”, the artwork is inspired by the work done in the TRASHYMUSE metaverse and by the TRASHYMUSE community on tmvr.io. According to the #NextGen community and brand, the NFT “marks the arrival of a new era” for digital creators, where the emphasis is on community growth and open source involvement in cultural industries. “This new era is one of decentralisation, diversification, and empowerment,” Telekom Electronic Beats adds. 

The artwork speaks to themes of shared expression, evolving club culture, new connections and narratives in speculative futures, and universal human stories of growth and progression – all pertinent points of interest in the dialogue of the metaverse. The NFT from TRASHYMUSE and Telekom Electronic Beats also introduces us to a new avatar, @trashymuse_meta, which represents the two brands’ creative communities crossing over.

“Pop culture is about art and artists. NFTs influence the way that arts are approached and sold a hundred percent as they provide a medium for the arts to showcase where users can directly buy or bid,” TRASHYMUSE says. “Thus, NFTs are a major force in democratising the art market in general and in giving the power back to creators.”

TRASHYMUSE has long been innovating in the digital space – as fashion and culture scrambled to reinvent and recalibrate without IRL space amid the pandemic, the brand launched the world’s first augmented reality and virtual avatar fashion show at Paris’ SS20 fashion week. It featured a visionary cast of avatars, including the world’s first digital supermodel Shudu, virtual superhuman Dagny and TRASHYMUSE’s own Branded Boi. Telekom Electronic Beats meanwhile, is the Berlin-based platform and pan-European initiative that has been documenting the symbiosis between music, design, art, fashion, and new tech since 2000, with collabs from Billie Eilish to Grace Jones and Charli XCX.

Speaking of the decision for TRASHYMUSE and Electronic Beats to collaborate, TRASHYMUSE sees an alignment with both brand’s future-thinking community bases. “Both communities are having a large intersection of like minded people from art, culture and innovation, so EB for us is the optimal partner to complement and support us bringing life into the virtual spaces of our metaverse tmvr.io with pop culture and electronic music.”

“METAMORPHOSIS” was released on December 19 – you can bid on the Foundation app here.