The Rebels

The Rebels are 10101 unique characters based on the legendary ads campaign by Robert Kalinkin in 2013 - banned by all courts including the Supreme Court in Lithuania, they finally found the justice in European Court of Human Rights, whose ruling in favour of Robert Kalinkin ads in 2018 is now held as a precedent in all cases related to freedom of expression in the EU.

The Rebels are the characters that bring the message of freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of creativity, of making your own choices, standing up against passive oppression & status quo; freedom from extreme control. It’s a path to a free digital society without prejudice and social constructs.

But those characters are not just amazing pieces of art and history, created by the original designer of the campaign. Essentially, The Rebels are the genesis pieces of our vision for fashion in the metaverse and a gateway into the digital fashion world of House of Kalinkin.

The Rebels will be your pass to everything we’re building. We’ve broken down the initial benefits into 3 main parts:

1. YOU, The VID (Very Important Degen):
• Exclusive presale access to all House of Kalinkin high fashion NFT collections 2x / year;
• Curated airdrops of unique designer pieces to build your digital wardrobe;
• Full access to digital and physical fashion shows of epic proportions 2x / year;
• One custom garment designed specifically for the owner of the Rebel 1x / year, every year for 101 very lucky Rebels Holders;
• Limited edition designer merch collection, exclusive to holders;
• Access to the immersive experience at House of Kalinkin pop-up galleries all over the world;
• Styling masterclasses / personal consultations by Robert Kalinkin himself.
2. YOU, The Creative Director:
• Be part of the creative process: use your own NFTs to co-create a unique pattern or a piece of clothing;
• Voting rights for the collections - decide, which pieces make it to the final set;
• Submit your sketch/design and we’ll turn the best ones into the permanent collection of luxury digital wearables.
3. YOU, The Co-Founder:
• Be part of the luxury blockchain marketplace we’ll be building. Think Net-a-Porter of blockchain fashion - just without all the middlemen of traditional retail;
• Decide what or whom to support with our Freedom Fund. We’ll be building it for the long-term impact, not just one time donations;
• Be part of the sustainability revolution - fair trade, on-demand only off-chain; fully traceable, people-first on-chain.

And that’s just the beginning. There’s way, way more to come.

We have no roadmap.

A static to-do list can’t possibly keep up with this world.

But we have a MISSION:

To become the first fashion house to fully transform into a blockchain brand and create THE platform for metaverse fashion. We’ll be building a Net-A-Porter of the metaverse.

With 12 years of all-in experience, our collections in major fashion weeks and on most coveted fashion covers, House of Kalinkin is more than ready to enter the metaverse and leave the restraints of the physical world behind.

PRESALE:

• Date: January 11, 2022
• Time: TBA
• Price: 0.0601 eth

• Any person on the presale list gets 24 hours to mint their NFT.

PUBLIC SALE:

• Date: January 12, 2022
• Time: TBA
• Price: 0.0701 eth

• Public sale will be open for 72 hours.
• If there are mints left after 72 hours are up, minting will be paused. It will resume in a week and will be open for a few hours. Price: 0.0801 eth.
• Same pattern continues every week or until the collection of 10101 is sold out. Price goes up every time until it reaches 0.101 and stays there.

• Presale: 0.0601 eth
• Public sale: starting at 0.0701 eth

There will be a limit per wallet. The exact number of tokens you'll be able to mint per wallet will be announced closer to the launch.

• Some to hold (forever, we hope);
• Some to sell (if you really need to, that’s ok);
• Some to give (we’ll make sure that The Rebels is the best gift of the season you can think of).

There’s really no need for you to have more than one REBEL. One is enough to receive all the benefits and be a full member at House of Kalinkin. But if you believe in the project, we want you to have the opportunity to gift a REBEL to someone you care about.

First 1000 human beings in our discord were automatically offered whitelist spots. And there will be opportunities to become part of our presale list right up until launch. And our promise stays the same: we’ll NEVER ask you to grind the Discord levels or collect invites. This is NOT how a thriving community is created. Together we’ll find a way that works for us.

First, it’s not a project. It’s a business. A long-term business. And we want you to be part of it.

Second, products, tech, marketing - all of that is important, but we bet on people, always. On our team and our community. And our vision is to build this business together with you.

What does that mean? Involving our community every step of the way - from hiring from within, to giving you voting rights on certain parts of the business, to sharing the fruits of all the work done. And much more.

10.1 % of all sales will be allocated for donations. Also, perhaps “donations” is not the right word - we’ll be looking for ways to empower people and give them fishing tools, not the fish. We’ll be introducing a framework that can be sustainable - with a special focus on universal human rights, women, young artists and dying fields of applied arts.

Part I.

THE REBELS were born in 2013 as artworks for Robert Kalinkin Fashion House upcoming fashion show in the largest arena in Lithuania which can accommodate up to 10,000 people. The concept and execution of those three artworks were by McCann Erickson LT, a branch of one of the largest advertising agencies in the world.

The concept was simple - to create a set of beautiful, serene visuals showcasing Robert Kalinkin Fashion House work and use phrases of everyday language to accentuate the relationship between fashion and everyday life.

Yet those artworks stirred a huge storm - one day before the fashion show we received instruction from the official government body to take down all the artworks everywhere - from outdoor ads, to websites, to all printed material. Our ads were deemed as dangerous and hurting public morale by a handful of priests and banned immediately by the officials. Worth mentioning that Lithuania is a secular country where the official government is strictly separated from religious matters. Lithuania also does not have an official religion.

Over the period of 2 years we lost all court cases in Lithuania, including the Supreme Court and were fined - the fine was insignificant, but to us, that was a matter of principle. We were pressured to publicly apologize and admit that we were consciously insulting religious symbols. Yet to us, this campaign was about beauty in daily life, freedom and creativity. And the expressions we used are so common in our daily language, that we still hear them every day.

Part II.

We couldn’t just sit silent. So we decided to fight for our right to freedom of expression and brought this case to the European Court of Human Rights - the highest ranking institution for such matters in the EU. Fast forward 3 years and in 2018 the verdict came - Robert Kalinkin campaign did not violate public morale and we were punished illegally and without cause.

So essentially Robert Kalinkin won the case against our whole country and set precedent to all future rulings in the EU related to the matters of freedom of expression.

This was a monumental win for us and the whole artist community - a day of justice and a day to celebrate what we all believe in - freedom, creativity and beauty everywhere. We want this story to live forever - as a homage to all those things. And what could be a better way to do that than to immortalize this story onto the Ethereum blockchain to take the message of freedom to eternity?

House of Kalinkin (or simply Robert Kalinkin) is a fashion house. But it's also a story of blood, sweat, tears and.. Beauty. So much beauty.

Robert and I met on stage - we both worked for a big music/culture venue - he as a set designer, I as CMO. That was 11 years ago - Robert had been already creating fashion, but not yet professionally. And this is where our fashion house was born - kinda from the opposite end of the usual path of business - Robert started dressing musicians, actors and celebrities for the stage, because on stage, all kinds of accidents happen - a singer's dress just ripped, or lead actor spilled coffee on his costume, or perhaps the size was off. Robert dressed them all, and the publicity was instant.

Money and a sustainable business model doesn't come from PR though. It comes from sales. And sales we decided to do. We both left the job the same summer and started what is now House of Kalinkin together. Slight problem there, that the “start” was actually only a FB page and like 20 coats Robert and I had money to produce - and nowhere to sell it.

So we figured we'd convince someone to give us a retail space for a month in exchange for a percentage of sales. We got the amazing empty space right in the center of our capital city and that's how the first pop-up shop in Lithuania was created.

We got the sales and more pop-up shops and the business was good. But we longed for a challenge - a big challenge. Like, 10,000 people big. In 2012 we did the largest fashion in Lithuania in the biggest arena at that time which can accommodate up to 10k viewers. I was 25, Robert was 22 and we had a team of exactly 3 people. 100+ models, 100+ volunteers, 20+ sponsors for one night of fashion, art and beauty.

That first fashion show was the first, but the one in 2013 was the most important. We dive deep in “What is the Story behind THE REBELS?”, so if you're curious, read it there, but I'll just say that fighting for your rights, your freedom is never easy, and especially when you fight against the state. We won that epic fight in the European Court of Human Rights. It was Robert Kalinkin against Lithuania and Robert Kalinkin won - without any funds or influential politics behind, but with passion for what we believe in.

After the international publicity that came with that case, it was time to go further. To Paris and London. And for the next 6 years we've been going to Paris and London fashion weeks and showcasing our collections there twice a year. We've got Vogue, L'Officiel, Schon, Nord, Huf magazines. We've dressed princesses, actresses, and music stars. Creating beauty is what we do best.

But beauty and fashion are not necessities. Nobody really needs more than a few pieces of clothing. It's high up on the Maslow pyramid - a luxury. It's just a fact. And fashion is also plagued by oversupply, exploitation of natural resources and human labour. Even though we produce everything locally (and a large portion of our collections are made in-house), for the past few years we couldn't shake off the strong feeling that fashion retail needed to change. The rules needed to change. The whole wholesale system is broken, the middlemen are rudimentary relics of the past. Hell, the whole garment industry is just harmful.

And then NFT's came. An extraordinary achievement which, for the first time in history, allows you to own a unique digital asset. NFTs already changed the world of art forever, it already changed so many lives. Fashion is also art, an applied art. Art with utility. So will fashion be the next industry to be reinvented by NFTs? We don't know, but damn hope so. Because of the opportunities this technology has created, that seems entirely possible.

House of Kalinkin is not NFT native. But we have a mission to become the first fashion brand to fully move on-chain within a few years. Now we finally feel that we've truly found our calling and are beyond excited for this chapter of our brand and our vision. Join us and be part of it - let's create beauty for the eternity.