Digital fashion platform Tribute Brand has announced the acquisition of its industry peer, Draup, as part of efforts to build up and develop a new digital wearables platform, dubbed ‘fashion.fun’.

The decision to snap up Draup came as a response to the waning demand for both the metaverse and luxury brands, Tribute Brand said in a release, which further noted that it was therefore imperative to take a “stronger together approach” in order to tackle this niche industry.

While such a landscape does present a challenge, Tribute Brand founder and CEO, Gala Marija Vrbanić, is anticipating an “imminent shift”. In a statement, Vrbanić said: “The fashion industry is facing challenging times, but we are at a pivotal moment, one where the necessary change is happening, and something new and transformative is about to emerge.”

Fashion.fun already made its debut during November’s Los Angeles Fashion Week, where 14 digital pieces were exhibited on a runway ahead of their scheduled sale on the platform.

Tribute Brand acquires Draup. Credits: Tribute Brand.

The site hopes to serve as a space where brands, artists and crypto projects can sell digital wearables to then be collected by fans and worn in-games. Through Draup, Vrbanić hopes the platform’s build can be strengthened, efforts of which will further be bolstered by the addition of Draup founder, Dani Loftus, to the Tribute team.

For Loftus, who founded Draup in 2022 and will now become chief commercial officer at Tribute, the acquisition represents a full circle moment, expanding her long-standing relationship with Tribute, with which she has been collaborating for almost five years.

In her own statement, she said: “When I started to become excited about digital fashion, back in 2020, I was excited about a concept. Then I saw Tribute Brand’s work and realised the new world I’d envisioned was already a reality.”

Over their lifespan, both Tribute and Draup have already been recipients of industry backing, having garnered notable fundraises of 4.5 million dollars and 1.5 million dollars, respectively, helping them both grow to become industry frontrunners.

Now, through fashion.fun, the team wants to address the juxtaposition of overproduction and a desire for self-expression, while further tackling the existing stigma towards digital assets in fashion.

Tribute Brand as Los Angeles Fashion Week 2024. Credits: Tribute Brand.