Who would spend thousands of pounds on something that can’t be worn in real life? More people than you’d think. The frenzy over non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is extending to fashion, and it’s creating a market where shoes and dresses that only exist as digital files sell for couture prices.

NFTs are digital assets connected to blockchain ledgers that give buyers and sellers proof of ownership and provenance. Unlike an image that can be endlessly circulated online without belonging to anyone, an NFT is a digital-only item that can be traded much like a real-life artefact. It’s simplest to understand if you think about the parallels with analogue art: a print of the Mona Lisa might look indistinguishable from the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, and a screenshot of an NFT artwork might seem identical to the original — but in either case, a collector would treat them differently, because the artwork being a certified original is what makes it valuable.

Following in the footsteps of the fine art world — which saw a digital work by the artist Beeple sell for $69.3m in March — new fashion companies are springing up to capture their own corner of the NFT market.