Weinsanto dives into the metaverse with K-pop band Lightsum

Victor Weinsanto could send his brand awareness into the stratosphere with his latest project: A Digital Collection for South Korea girl group Lightsum which will drop as NFT next month.

The French designer recently visited Los Angeles for K-Con, a three-day festival of South Korean music culture, with Lightsum among the headliners. Organizers said more than 90,000 people attended the convention and concerts.

"I've never heard screams like that," Weinsanto said, amazed at the size of the concert the crowds and their enthusiasm. "You can really see that K-pop fans are hysterical, in a good way."

Weinsanto also highlighted the popularity of K-pop music in France, noting that the print magazine K -World! — devoted to Korean pop culture — sells around 45,000 copies per month.

After honing her skills alongside fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier, Weinsanto said it was a new adventure to create ready-made garments that are not limited by fabric capabilities, weight and gravity.

However, he chose to design looks for the band members that reflected their personal style, while pushing them out of their comfort zones with his cabaret-inspired creations. "I wanted to create something they could see themselves wearing in real life."

Weinsanto's original sketch for Sangah.

Lightsum consists of eight members aged 15 to 19: Sangah, Chowon, Nayoung, Hina, Juhyeon, Yujeong, Huiyeon, and Jian.

Formed by Cube Entertainment, Lightsum released their debut single, "Vanilla", in June 2021, featuring the video has over 20 million views on YouTube.

The music has a sweet flavor, with video footage of candy-dusted ice cream cones and lyrics such as "my heart is like a rainbow."

Weinsanto said he was swept away by their performance in Los Angeles, California. "I was like a fan girl," he confessed. "I was impressed with their professionalism for their age... Some of the girls were quite shy, but not once they got on stage."

For their group photo, he dressed all eight members in Weinsanto, mixing the looks of his three first collections.

Weinsanto's partner in the venture is BNV, an acronym for Brand New Vision, a start-up Hong Kong-based -up that markets itself as a fashion-centric destination for 3D product creation, tokenization, community building, and interoperable portability.

"We want to demystify everything," said BNV founder Richard Hobbs, acknowledging that many Web3 beginners find the prospect of buying cryptocurrency, getting a digital wallet, and wa...