Luxury Fashion Brands Jil Sander, Maison Margiela Integrate Blockchain for Digital Authenticity

OTB Group, a parent company that owns luxury fashion brands like Maison Margiela and Jil Sander, announced Wednesday that it is integrating blockchain to provide digital authenticity certificates.

The issuance of certificates for all products would start with the Fall/Winter 2024/2025 collections, it noted. The move ensures that all OTB’s luxury brands with over 1.5 million products get blockchain registration and digital authentication.

OTB is a member of Aura Blockchain Consortium, that offers blockchain agnostic solutions for luxury brands. Based in Switzerland, the non-profit association was established by Mercedes-Benz, OTB Group, Prada Group, and Cartier to address challenges of communicating authenticity, and sustainability using blockchain.

According to Stefano Rosso, a member of the Aura Blockchain Consortium board and CEO of Marni brand, the advancement enables brands to “guarantee greater transparency, new ways of interaction and an increasingly high-profile experience.”

“Full-scale adoption of blockchain technology and its integration with our production processes means we shall be able to respond promptly to all the challenges and opportunities presented by future legislation.”

NFC Chips Enabled Fashion Brands

The integration will enable the insertion of an NFC-chip in every garment and accessory, the announcement read. This near field communication (NFC) chip patches enables clients to access the digital authenticity certificate using their smartphones. The certificate basically provides information on the product, uniqueness and its origin.

OTB Group has tapped into NFC chips in the past. Over 1.2 million products got an NFC chip on the blockchain platform provided by Aura in 2022. Stefano Rosso, chairman of Maison Margiela, said in September that a digital certificate of authenticity is a “huge problem solver.”

“In parallel, it helps us market the product and track its origins,” Rosso told Style.

Early this year, denim manufacturer Wrangler entered with an NFC-chipped traceable jeans for the brand’s non-fungible token (NFT) holders.