Do You Love CryptoPunks? This $10,000 Cashmere Hoodie Is for You

The limited-edition collection includes some with Swarovski and white gold. Christie's is offering five in an online sale.

Hoodies known as"The Ultra-Luxe Five" in the mmERCH Seedphrase collection being offered at Christie's.

Do you love NFTs? Do you want your fellow NFT lovers to know? A new line of limited-edition clothing has been designed just for you.

The mastermind behind the project is fashion influencer Colby Mugrabi, who founded a crypto-focused clothing company called mmERCH two years ago. For its latest effort, mmERCH has partnered with Christie’s and Daniel Maegaard, aka Seedphrase, a digital art collector who owns a rare CryptoPunks NFTs that features a cigarette, buckteeth, classic shades, an earring, a top hat, a big beard, and a mole.

Those seven traits were the inspiration for a new line of what mmERCH terms “luxury cashmere hoodies.”

an image of a multi-colored hoodie

A hoodie in the mmERCH Seedphrase Collection. Image courtesy mmERCH and Christie’s.

It must be said that the CryptoPunk inspiration is not exactly obvious in the hoodies, many of which feature solid blocks of color. Mugrabi explained in a phone interview. “We’ve taken Seedphrase’s Punk as our muse but abstracted it to the point where you don’t necessarily know,” she said.

Some hoodies are monochromatic, and there’s an all-black one with diamonds on the ends of its cords (aglets). “It’s not like you see this and it screams, ‘Seedphrase’s punk,'” Mugrabi said. “But as a cohesive collection, there’s a consistent narrative and storyline.” If you know, you know, in other words.

For those seeking even-more-luxurious, even-more-exclusive hoodies, mmERCH has you covered. Exactly 22 hoodies—seven percent of the 322-item release—feature “ultra-luxe” Swarovski aglets. (Twenty feature pavé crystals set in sterling silver, and two have pavé diamond anglets hand-set in 14-karat white gold.) The remaining 300 include standard black polyester cords with silicone anglets.

an image of Colby Mugrabi, Kolia Kioffsky, and Daniel Maegaard at the Swarovski Fifth Avenue Flagship store

mmERCH Founder and CEO Colby Mugrabi with Swarovski president of North America, USAand Canada Kolja Kiofsky,  and Daniel Maegaard aka Seedphrase.

Christie’s is offering NFTs tied to five of the ultra-rare hoodies in an online sale that runs through October 2. Bidding has been robust, and by Friday, one had already reached $8,500 against a $10,000 high estimate.

Each hoodie also has its own NFC, a non-fungible chip, that owners can use to RSVP to invitation-only events and log their attendance.

“We approach our garments as pieces of wearable hardware,” Mugrabi said. Just like a smartphone or a laptop, the NFC chip will receive updates as technology develops.

an image of hoodies that are part of the mmERCH Seedphrase Collection

The mmERCH Seedphrase Collection. Photo Credit: Kevin Czopek/BFA.com.

The cashmere was hand-dyed at a mill in Italy near Lake Como and then assembled in a factory in Los Angeles that mmERCH used for an earlier clothing release.

There is an art component, too. Each winning bidder as Christie’s can exchange their NFT for the physical hoodie as well as an artwork by the artist Claire Silver, an enthusiastic member of the Punk community. (Silver produced six video pieces for the project with AI.)

an image of a CryptoPunk with seven traits

Seedphrase’s CryptoPunk. Image courtesy Seedphrase

Following this introductory release at Christie’s, mmERCH will mix the rare Swarovski hoodies into a larger public mint of NFTs. That means that those who acquire one and exchange them for a hoodie may get lucky and end up with a Swarovski version. (The lead time for delivery is about six to eight weeks.)

“I’m constantly thinking about the convergence of Web3 and traditional fashion,” Mugrabi said. “Not only about how we innovate traditional fashion using blockchain technology but also: How do we flip tradition on its head and really introduce new opportunities for gamification, for trading, for scarcity? It’s a really exciting mechanism that someone can come and everyone pays the same, but someone randomly gets the diamond.”

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