Research File

Research Articles Part one – Articles looking at virtual reality and NTF’s etc Part two – Looking at technology within fashion already Part three – Streetwear today and the code Part Four – Utilitarianism in Fashion Part five – The consumer

Part One Articles looking at virtual reality and NTF’s etc

Virtual fashion will allow people to "go completely crazy" online says Amber Jae Slooten of The Fabricant Marcus Fairs 23 October 2020 Interest in virtual fashion has exploded during the coronavirus pandemic as people explore ways of dressing their online avatars, according to digital fashion designer Amber Jae Slooten.

"We got huge interest," said Slooten, co-founder of The Fabricant, a virtual fashion house based in Amsterdam.

"I've never dressed so many people in my life".

Slooten said that digital fashion allowed people to act out their fantasies online.

"How do we want to represent ourselves within the virtual space?" she asked. "If we can be anything, will we still want to be ourselves?"

Top: a virtual fashion show by The Fabricant. Above: Amber Jae Slooten The rising interest in virtual outfits echoes the growing popularity of images depicting fantasy landscapes that "offer a chance to wonder and escape", according to visualisation artists.

"Given the global situation, the desire for escapism is at an alltime high," interior designer and creative director Charlotte Taylor told Dezeen earlier this summer.

Slooten spoke to Dezeen during a live panel discussion held as part of London Craft Week. The discussion, called Textile Intelligence, featured Slooten alongside Seetal Solanki, founding director of London studio Ma-tt-er, plus multimedia artist Lauren Godfrey and textile artist Celia Pym.

Slooten's designs only exist in digital space The Fabricant, which Slooten describes as "the world's first digital fashion house," designs garments that only exist digitally.

Created painstakingly with 3D modelling software, the bespoke items are designed to drape and move as if they were real. Customers' avatars can "wear" the items on social media platforms, gaming environments and virtual worlds.

"We create clothes that only exist in a digital space and never exist in the physical world," Slooten explained, adding that virtual fashion allows consumers to avoid the waste and pollution associated with traditional fashion.

needs to harm the planet in this way."

"We try to create a new fashion narrative for the 21st century because we really believe that we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and see if our vanity really

The Fabricant's garments are modelled by virtual mannequins Previously, The Fabricant's garments were made to order. But in April, the studio launched the beta version of a new platform called Leela, which allows people to download a range of ready-to-wear items for their online personas.

"There were about 10,000 people that actually use the app to wear these clothes, which to us was completely crazy," said Slooten.

"People were able to create their own avatars and wear our clothes for the first time."

The virtual clothes are designed to drape like physical garments Virtual fashion comes naturally to the younger generation, Slooten said, since they are comfortable with the idea of having parallel real-world and online identities.

"I'm a millennial," she said. "I grew up with digital and physical at the same time. But the generation below us doesn't even see the difference any more between physical and real."

People adopt different personalities for different digital platforms, each requiring different dress codes, Slooten said.

"Your digital identities are actually looking different everywhere," said Slooten. "For instance, your Instagram profile might be very different from your LinkedIn profile."

The Fabricant's first virtual collection was launched with a digital show The Fabricant was launched in 2018 by Kerry Murphy and Slooten, who studied at Amsterdam Fashion Institute and became the first-ever fashion student to graduate with an entirely digital collection.

"I'm educated as a traditional fashion designer," she said. "I learned everything at my school; how to sew how to make patterns. [But] I got really sick of all the material that I was using. The physicality of things is something that I never really enjoyed."

"The physicality made me sick, because of all the materials that we were wasting," she explained. "I felt like a huge responsibility for the future of the industry, which I which is why I started questioning physicality altogether."

"And then after I graduated, there were absolutely no jobs in that subject," Slooten added. "And it made me realise that I needed to create it."

A new platform called Leela allows people to customise and download garments The Fabricant's first virtual collection was launched with a digital show with virtual scenery and models, pioneering a format that has now been adopted by many brands due to restrictions imposed by the pandemic.

"We didn't have to ship any collection, we didn't have to hire any photographers, we didn't need any models," Slooten said. "We didn't even need to fly to the desert to photograph it".

Last year, the Fabricant made history when a virtual dress was auctioned for the first time, selling for $9,500.

"The new owner wore it on her Facebook and on her Instagram," said Slooten.

Fabricant's Iridescence dress sold at auction for $9,500 In future, Slooten believes that real-world fashion will become increasingly technological and sustainable, featuring smart materials that act as a second skin and are able to monitor the body.

"I feel like the future lies in materials that are smart and that are able to grow with us or even grow on us," Slooten explained, adding that the physical world will allow people to exhibit "a more sober expression of who we are".

Parallel to this, virtual fashion will offer people ways of being more expressive.

"And then within the digital world, we can go completely crazy. We can wear a dress made of water or have lights everywhere and change your textile according to your mood."

Eventually, technology could make the digital and the physical worlds indistinguishable, Slooten believes, with garments offering haptic feedback so that virtual reality becomes similar to the real world.

"And this opens up even a more philosophical question," Slooten adds. "Is it even a reality? Because if the virtual world feels like, looks like, and behaves like reality, how do we know it's virtual?"

This article talks about the Fabricant and the advances they’ve made in virtual reality fashion and the possibilities that come with it. The article talks about how Slooten was traditionally trained as a fashion designer but felt that the traditional ways didn’t match her ethical values and the positives of a virtual based fashion house far outweighed the negatives of it.

Slooten continued to talk about the limitless possibilities with the models, scenery and everything involved in the storytelling of the fashion shows, saying it’s a lot more convenient in the virtual world, because they can do whatever they want, without needing to travel or leave the studio.

The Fabricant designs gender-fluid digital clothes informed by the Renaissance James Parkes | 27 April 2021 6 comments Digital-fashion house The Fabricant has collaborated with RTFKT to create the gender-fluid RenaiXance collection of digital garments, which were minted as NFTs. The Fabricant and digital-shoe designer RTFKT's RenaiXance collection was informed by clothing from the Renaissance period and plays with the theme of rebirth.

It features pieces – including robes – that nod to the styles of the era, but were made purely for a digital universe and minted as Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs).

The Fabricant collaborated with digital shoe designer RTFKT "RenaiXance means to rebirth, pointing to the fact that in the digital world we can be reborn time and time again, transforming daily to express multiple selves," The Fabricant's head of content Michaela Larosse told Dezeen.

"Our work exists purely in the non-physical space, meaning our pieces are always digital, never physical."

Digital clothes can be worn in games and on social media platforms RenaiXance aims to reimagine binary constructs of clothing, reinterpreting traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity through a renaissance-meetsstreetwear lens.

"Does a character become any less intriguing if it’s wearing a robe and corset regardless of gender?" the brand asks.

The collection comprises platform trainers designed by RTFKT, a corset that took cues from the trainer design, a trio of Renaissancestyle robes, large hooped earrings and a ring.

The collection was minted as NFTs "For this collaboration with RTFKT, we wanted to present a collection with a clear vision of digital fashion's capacity to be fluid and move beyond preconceived gender norms," Larosse said.

"With RenaiXance we presented the idea of a 'Pluriform' – a multi-expression garment silhouette that can be worn on any body of any size," she added.

"Digital fashion has an obvious application in the gaming world, yet gaming visuals and Skins still conform to gender ideas established in the physical world, pushing historic notions of masculinity and femininity."

The garments can be worn virtually, for example on social media platforms and by avatars in games, allowing users to express themselves in gaming and digital environments that are typically more limiting when it comes to clothing options.

All the pieces were designed with a digital centre of gravity, which allows the garments to drape and move as if physical items of clothing.

Large hoop earrings with the RTFKT logo were available to purchase The digital garments were minted as NFTs and available to purchase on the site The Dematerialised, an invite-only online marketplace for digital fashion, where they sold out in 11 minutes.

Blockchain technology enables NFTs to act as digital certificates of ownership that allow digital works to be bought, sold, traded and collected.

Larosse explained that through minting the items at NFTs, the digital garments have an entire life beyond The Fabricant. Purchasers can choose to wear, collect or trade the clothes.

"The garments have utility to be worn in VRChat and Sansar, so we hope to see avatars wearing our pieces in the metaverse," said Larosse.

"But if buyers want to keep them as collector's items or trade them on digital marketplaces as limited edition pieces then that's entirely their choice."

The corset has a trainer informed design The increasing popularity of NFTs has seen artists and designers use the blockchain authentication system to sell immersive and digitally interactive works.

The future of augmented reality has been dubbed by some as a "creative and artistic Renaissance" that will change the way people interact with physical and digital space.

Recently, The Fabricant released a pair of digital trainers in collaboration with Buffalo that can only be worn in video games and artist Krista Kim sold the world's first NFT digital home that can be experienced in virtual reality.

This article looks at the collaboration between the Fabricant and RTKFT creating a gender fluid collection, looking at moving in to the NFT market. This gives the virtual fashion pieces more of a monetary value, giving people more of an idea and context to the garments themselves.

Why AR clothing try-on is nearly here The ability to try on clothes digitally has been a long-term goal that tech companies of all sizes are close to reaching. Here’s why.

BY MAGHAN MCDOWELL

26 JULY 2021

CLO-Z

AR clothing try-on, both more complicated and more lucrative than its counterparts in cosmetics and accessories, has been elusive. After years of development, that’s now changing, and fast.

With a spate of recent pilots and investments, experts say that realistic AR clothing is getting closer to reality, and the pace of acceleration is increasing. For fashion brands, this could unlock digital clothing sales, increase conversions and decrease e-commerce returns. It would also mark a significant milestone toward the ultimate vision for AR glasses.

AR clothing try-on generally refers to the ability for three-dimensional digital clothing to automatically appear on a person as they move in real time, usually either via their phones but also via laptop or other devices. Unlike a static image that is retroactively fitted in a digital garment, it behaves the same way as Snapchat face filters: when your body moves, the item reacts in sync, responding to the wearer’s movements, measurements and environment in a way that appears to be realistic.

Both startup investors and big tech companies are buying in. Last week, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. acquired Vertebrae, a company that helps brands like Fossil, Herschel and other European luxury brands create 3D versions of products, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help Snap further its AR shopping and AR apparel plans, the company stated. Snap recently improved try-on capabilities with updates including 3D body mesh, which defines 3D shapes, and advanced cloth simulation, which mimics the way physical cloth behaves. Earlier this month, digitalonly fashion platform DressX received a seed round of $2 million from the Artemis Fund, and started testing an app that lets people try on digital clothing in real time, instead of sending in photos to be digitally dressed.

Recent examples offer a glimpse of just how far this has come on the design side. This month, during Paris Couture Fashion Week, designer Clara Daguin “wore” a digital version of her Jacquard by Google-imbedded designs on Instagram, created through a partnership with digital clothing marketplace DressX. A viral video posted by digital sneaker company Rtfkt, the “digital Supreme” brand, revealed various people wearing a whimsical puffer coat on a crowded Paris street. In March, designer Damara Ingles showed someone wearing looks originally created for a virtual reality fashion show, while Farfetch tested apparel try-on with a few Off-White jackets in Snapchat.

There has been a “big leap” in the past three months, says Benoit Pagotto, co-founder of Rtfkt Studios. A lot of the recent AR clothing videos popping up on social media are the result of hardware and software updates from companies including Snapchat and Apple, using better cameras and technology that understands three-dimensional spaces, he says. In addition to Lidar cameras, rapidly improving technologies include markerless body tracking (which detects body motion without physical markers), body segmentation (which separates people from their environment) and pose estimation (which predicts the location of a person), says Matthew Drinkwater, head of the London College of Fashion’s Fashion Innovation Agency. He adds that big tech companies have been pushing research and numerous open-source resources are fuelling experimentation. “This is creating a wave of improved virtual try-on and digital fashion experiences,” Drinkwater says.

Other reasons for advancement have been less voluntary, says Vlad Vodolazov, CEO and founder at clothing try-on app Clo-Z. “People were stuck at home, and it drastically influenced the way they were shopping, so brands are becoming less conservative in terms of technology and online tools to interact with their community,” he says. And the use-cases and the user experience are becoming “better and better,” says Natalia Modenova, co-founder of DressX. “Compared to last year, so many people got into digital fashion who didn’t think about it before.”

The technology still needs more time before luxury brands dive in, says Pagotto. Rtfkt Studios just partnered with StockX to sell physical versions of what was originally a digital shoe. In May, Silicon Valley investment firm Andreeson Horowitz invested $8 million in the company. “The tech is moving quite fast, but it’s still not great. It’s good enough for people to understand where it’s going, but not good enough for most fashion brands, who are very serious about their content and need to respect their brand guidelines,” Pagotto says. But for many, it’s only a matter of time, as the motivation and momentum are there.

Motivations for investment Investors and tech giants see a number of benefits of AR clothing, and they extend beyond the entertainment value of cool videos on social. Snapchat, among others, thinks it can help brands reduce returns. “We are laying the groundwork for an improved online shopping experience,” said Snap CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel during the company’s Thursday earnings call. “We believe that helping people find the right size and improving the try-on experience could both increase conversion rates as well as reduce the rate of returns.”

Digital versions of designer Clara Daguin's couture are available to try on in real time through DressX's new app, which is still in beta testing. DressX co-founder Natalia Modenova says that publishing work-in-progress videos is important for showing the ultimate vision.

WATER DRESS BY CLARA DAGUIN (AVAILABLE ON THE DRESSX APP)

Making virtual try-on more convincing will have a big impact on conversion and return rates, says LCF’s Drinkwater, noting that Shopify research found that the use of 3D and AR can reduce returns by up to 40 per cent and increase conversion by 97 per cent.

“Improvements in this field will have an immediate impact on retailers,” he says.

Developers are also hoping to cash in on the metaverse in which people buy and wear digital clothing. For example, it’s hard to find Travis Scott merchandise in Russia, where Clo-Z’s Vodolazov is based, he says, so artists and brands could sell digital versions of products that more easily cross international borders. Already, Travis Scott’s concert in Fortnite broke records — and sold merchandise. Vodolazov has already had success partnering with prominent Russian rap artists.

Last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told tech journalist Casey Newton that he hopes millions of people will eventually create virtual clothing and other content for the metaverse: “I just think this is going to be a huge economy and frankly, I think that that needs to exist. This needs to be a rising tide that lifts a lot of boats.”

DressX is among those selling clothing that is ultimately designed to be compatible “across different universes online,” says Modenova. DressX investor and board member Leslie Goldman, who is general partner and co-founder of The Artemis Fund, says she has been testing different work jackets from DressX for headshots, and plans to experiment with digital clothing that can be worn on Zoom, and maybe even a digital wedding dress. “DressX is skating to where the puck is going,” Goldman says. “I believe that the virtual world has limitless possibilities for fashion.”

Beyond that is the potential to wear and see digital clothing through AR glasses, which Snapchat, Facebook, Apple and others, are all developing. “It has been clear for some time that digital products will become an important revenue stream for all fashion retailers,” Drinkwater says. “Rtfkt, The Fabricant, The Dematerialised, DressX and others are demonstrating that opportunity exists today but the market will truly explode when the technology reaches the mass market through a new generation of wearables.”

A time problem Most AR clothing try-on examples to date have been puffy jackets, amorphous shapes or rigid structures, which are easier to place on the body in a way that looks realistic. Form-fitting garments that conform to myriad body shapes and obey the laws of physics are still on the horizon. Part of this is a lack of ideal “tracking accuracy,” Vodolazov says, meaning the garments look like they are laying on top of the wearer, rather than fitted around them.

Clo-Z is a Russian startup that is developing the ability for people to try on clothing using a desktop or laptop camera, instead of a smartphone, to increase access and reduce friction in e-commerce.

CLO-Z

“Clearly, there is still room for improvement,” Drinkwater says, adding that “real-time cloth simulation is going to be critical for making these experiences feel more authentic”. Recently, the Fashion Innovation Agency worked on a project with visual effects company Digital Domain to use machine learning to simulate hyper-realistic cloth.

Shoes, watches and sunglasses are already successful on Snapchat, because they look realistic, Snap’s Spiegel says, but apparel is still a problem that the company is working on. “Trying on a T-shirt and making sure the cloth looks really realistic and drapes over your shoulders in the right way — that's much more complicated to do from a technical perspective,” he says. “We're making good progress there, but it's not perfect yet. It may

take a little longer for full-on apparel, but nevertheless, we think they are going to play a really important role.”

There’s also the problem of access — not everyone owns the latest smartphone.

Vodolazov’s company, Clo-Z, will soon introduce a web version of its clothing try-on tech, enabling people to use their laptop cameras to try on digital clothing. Another challenge isn’t quite as novel, Rtfkt’s Pagotto says: tech know-how. “The problem is always the same. Fashion brands are doing it just to say, ‘I am doing it and innovating’, and they are not investing in [the capability] long-term. You need the talent inside [the company]. The talent is with video game people, but video game people don’t want to work in fashion.”

Vodolazov counters that it’s not a problem of tech or devices. “It’s a problem of time.

Try-on experiences just appeared not much time ago. We are training our neural networks to make it more accurate, and as more time comes, we will have more accurate tracking.”

Just how much time is also a matter of opinion: the founders of DressX predict that AR dressing will look really realistic in eight months, and that a year from now, it will be automated. “It still takes a little time to get to a realistic point, but it’s important to show the vision that we will get to,” Modenova says. Pagotto predicts that a consumerfriendly pair of AR glasses will be ready in about five years, and that people will own more digital collectibles than physical items, with people expressing their identities through avatars and virtual garments.

Competition helps, Vodolazov says. “The more competitors we get, the faster the industry is getting to its perfect try-on experience.”

This article talks about the use of VR fashion and the real life applications for it in terms of mainstream fashion use and the day-to-day use for everyone as oppose to the conceptual market.

It lists the possible brands and fashion houses that could lead the way in terms of digital fashion like DressX and so on. But it also talks about how its not just the fashion industry involved and how the video game industry needs to be involved or there needs to be a crossover for the full effect of this trend to be taken as far as it can potentially go.

Would You Buy a Virtual Pair of Nikes?

Brands are designing digital clothing, shoes and accessories, betting customers will spend real money on virtual fashion

NEW YORK, United States — Back in May, Richard Ma, a technology executive from Toronto, dropped $9,500 on a dress for his wife, Mary.

The dress had a chic, cape-like silhouette with a silver, iridescent shimmer and a subtle pattern of colourful swirls. It also wasn’t real; not in the literal sense, anyway.

The dress was created by Dapper Labs, a company that makes consumer blockchain products, and was designed by The Fabricant, a virtual fashion house based in Amsterdam. Ma had purchased the dress on Ethereum, an open-sourced Blockchain platform, in a charity auction at a blockchain conference in New York. Mary isn’t going to wear the dress so much as look like she is; Dapper Labs did a photo shoot with her and using augmented reality technology, created images of Mary in it, which she can share to social media.

Mary Ma wearing a virtual dress her husband, Richard bought for $9,500 | Source: Dapper Labs

Ma is no ordinary consumer — he runs a blockchain security company. But the fact that he was willing to spend nearly $10,000 on a dress that doesn’t exist hints at the dawn of a new market in virtual fashion.

In certain corners of the tech world, spending real cash on digital apparel is as routine as taking a trip to the mall. And a number of companies are looking to bring virtual fashion into the mainstream.

That future may not be as far off as you think: apps that allow users on Instagram and Snapchat to alter their appearance are wildly popular, and brands like Gucci and Nike have also started using augmented-reality technology to let shoppers virtually “try on” clothing and shoes. The beauty industry is already deep into this space with augmented reality makeup apps.

Convincing customers that digital fashion can be just as covetable as their IRL equivalents is the next step. Virtual fashion would allow shoppers to keep up with trends without having to worry about fashion’s sustainability issues. The products would also earn consumers their coveted social currency — likes on social media, that is — and can also push the boundaries on what is possible in fashion design because the clothes don’t actually need to exist.

Shoppers might never come around to virtual products the way they do with real ones, but that doesn't mean the tech industry isn't going to try.

Inspiration from the gaming world Virtual products have been popular in the gaming world for a while. Players of popular games like League of Legends and Overwatch eagerly drop extra cash on “skins” - outfits and accessories for their digital personas.

Epic Games’ Fortnite, the wildly popular online game that has over 250 million global users, reportedly earns $300 million a month selling skins. In May, Nike debuted two skins for the game that feature Jordan sneakers that are only available to be “worn” in Fortnite.

From games, it’s a small step to social media, another virtual world where people spend an evergrowing share of their time. According to a study by Global Web Index, Gen Z spends about 3 hours a day on social media, and a Nielsen report from 2018 found that US adults spend half their day interacting with the online world.

“There are few places that get users to care about their digital appearance as well as Fortnite, but Instagram is also one of these places,” said Matthew Hartman, a partner at seed-stage venture capital firm Betaworks Ventures who’s invested in social media startups and is interested in investing in virtual fashion tech.

“There are few places that get users to care about their digital appearance as well as Fortnite, but Instagram is also one of these places.”

The opportunity for virtual fashion extends to the world of avatars, a growing category amongst Gen Z users, according to Akash Nigam, the CEO of virtual avatar startup Genies, which launched in November 2018. A competitor to Snapchat-owned Bitmoji, Genies allows users to create digital clones of themselves or celebrities, and place their Genies in messaging apps and on social media.

Users can deck their avatars out in all sorts of wares, dubbed "wheels," and brands like Gucci and New Balance are paying Genies to have branded products in the app. Nigam said there’s been so much interest in dressing avatars that Genies will be adding more fashion-branded wheels in the coming months, and will begin charging for them.

Spending money on Gucci for an avatar is quite different than dropping thousands of dollars on a virtual dress, or real fashion product for that matter. But Nigam sees his product as a way for

brands to convert future fashion customers: “Some kids can’t afford Gucci in real life, but they can in the digital world. It works as an entry point.”

Brands jump into the digital fashion space In November, Carlings, a Scandinavian fashion brand, debuted a 19-piece virtual collection that sold for €10 to €30 (roughly $11 to $34). Shoppers who bought the virtual products submitted photos, which the brand turned into 3D images.

Stefanos Constantinou, an employee at Vice Media who bought a few pieces of the virtual collection, said the collection was a good way to keep up his Instagram #OOTD (outfit of the day) streak without contributing to fashion’s waste problem.

Shoppers wearing looks from Carlings' virtual collection. | Source: Carlings

“I have tons of shoes that I wear once or twice and then move on from, and so this is a better way to try new things and get the hype out without having to continually acquire stuff and destroy the planet,” Constantinou said.

These virtual clothes are a drop in the bucket compared to the volume of products sold by Carlings, which has 200 stores across Scandinavia, and Carlings products sell for a higher price point. But Ronny Mikalsen, the CEO of Carlings, said he was excited at the possibility of a big fashion brand producing digital products on a larger scale.

“Just imagine how many free items are shipped to bloggers and influencers who wear products once and throw them out,” he said. “Digital fashion would completely eliminate that.”

Virtual products could also potentially bring more hype to a collectable category like sneakers, said Steven Vasilev, the founder of custom sneaker brand Free Customs. Later this summer, Vasilev, who is better known by his nickname, Zaptio, will launch a virtual sneaker company called RTFKT (pronounced artifact), together with Chris Le, a gaming skins developer, and Benoit Pagotto, a brand director of Fnatic, the professional esports organisation.

RTFKT will sell real custom sneakers that start at $300 and go up to $3,000, with each pair coming with a digital version. Customers can get the sneakers IRL, or they can have RTFKT store the product once it's bought, and use the virtual images instead (the shoes live as a custom AR filter and can be accessed with RTFKT’s app).

"Social media makes up a huge part of sneaker culture and our business model will allow kids to flex what sneakers they’ve bought without having to worry about actually wearing them,” Vasilev said.

A path for fashion’s manufacturing flaws Tech companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon have entire teams dedicated to study AR and VR, and are spending billions doing so.

Instagram, too, has been getting into the virtual product space. Facebook’s Spark AR Studio, which was launched in 2017, used to create Instagram filters and effects for Instagram Stories in-house.

In May the company announced they were opening the technology, allowing anyone to create custom filters. While most Instagram filters are focused on facial movements, Pagotto said “this technology is going to open ways for people to augment themselves, and their environment. Once people will start focusing on their body, it will bring in new demand for virtual products, like dresses or sneakers.”

Still, the virtual world remains more of a promise than a reality. Startups working in this space remain on the fringes, waiting for virtual reality technology to hit the mainstream.

Some designers are making a different case for virtual fashion, hopping onto the trend toward reducing fashion waste.

For the last few years, Clément Balavoine, a French designer who works at Facebook-owned virtual reality hardware company Oculus, and Janis Sne, a digital fashion designer at Adidas Germany, have been experimenting with their fashion line Neuro Studios, which Balavoine describes as “digital-first” fashion.

The process of making a virtual product. | Source: Neuro Studios

Products from Neuro Studios, like its utility vests, high-waisted track pants, and bomber jackets, range from $200 to $500 and are created first as 3D images. Neuro Studios has sold only about a dozen items. Balavoine said his company is less about selling product, and is more invested in proving that a sustainable, tech-driven supply chain works.

“We're trying to sell a new way of thinking because we find it sad that the same techniques of production have been used for decades when they are extremely wasteful,” Balavoine said.

Some brands are already turning to digital assets to gauge customer interest. Earlier this year, Claudette, a New York-based streetwear company, tested a product on a CGI Instagram character named Cade, who was created by the startup SparkCGI. Cade, a cool, blond “15-year-old” Instagram influencer with nearly 100,000 followers, wore a crew neck shirt from Claudette, and

Layan Al-Dabbous, Claudette’s designer, said the company was able to test shoppers’ responses before creating the product by seeing how they reacted to it.

“Cade’s followers loved the tee and kept DMing him, asking where they could purchase it,” she said. “I didn't even know that the world of CGI fashion existed, but it showed me, going forward, that this is a really good way to promote and test clothing.”

Kerry Murphy, the founder of The Fabricant, which designed the dress Ma bought for his wife, said virtual fashion, at a minimum, can fix the sample process.

The Fabricant recently created a virtual catalogue of the latest collection of Napapijri, the Italian brand owned by VF Corporation. Napapijri plans to use the digital assets at retail summits, and Murphy said it reduces their waste because they don’t have to constantly procure samples for clients.

“We find it sad that the same techniques of production have been used for decades when they are extremely wasteful.”

This type of technology is already being employed by companies like Ann Taylor, BetaBrand and Hugo Boss, which use virtual clothing to partially replace sampling in the design process, as does the fashion supply chain company Li & Fung. Murphy said he is optimistic fashion can cut down on its waste once this technology trickles down to all mainstream companies.

“The design industry is ridiculous and reminds me a lot of how the film industry used to exist, where it was manually cutting film,” said Murphy. “They are constantly going through trial and error, and creating so much waste when digital tools much faster. With digital catalogues, we can reuse and recycle and change the templates and think far ahead. It’s cost-effective and timeeffective.”

This article looking at the commercialisation of virtual fashion and how its effecting todays market with mainstream brands ‘dipping their toes in’ the digital fashion world.

It talks about the beginnings of the sales of virtual clothing and the people paving the way in this aspect and how people are reacting to the first collection being dropped by this designers.

Something it does reference is the different price ranges and not just the more luxury end of the market. Mentioning Carlings, a Scandinavian brand who sold a virtual collection, that people bought and then submitted images which Carlings then modified with their collection creating 3d images.

Shopping for Digital Fashion? There’s a New App for That L.A.-based digital fashion start-up DressX has launched an app to make it easier for customers to try and buy 3D digital clothing from its designer marketplace.

ByBOOTH MOOREPlus Icon JULY 28, 2021, 4:55PM

DressX founders Daria Shapovalova and Natalia Modenova. COURTESY L.A.-based digital fashion start-up DressX has launched an app to make it easier for customers to try and buy 3D digital clothing from its designer marketplace.

The multi-brand retailer has also revealed an additional round of funding, led by The Artemis Fund and Alpha Edison, securing $2 million to invest in technology, marketing and partnerships. This is the company’s fourth raise.

“The main goal is to turn thousands of users to hundreds of millions,” cofounder Natalia Modenova told WWD. Launched in August 2020, DressX claims to be the biggest retail platform for digital-only clothes, featuring more than 1,000 stock keeping units by 100 designers including Patrick McDowell, Gary James McQueen, the Fabricant and Paskal, as well as DressX private label pieces such as sweatshirts and blazers with galactic artwork inspired by SpaceX and NASA.

The new app, available now in its beta version in the App Store, lets shoppers use their camera phones to try for free in real time AR looks like a DressX logo floral bucket hat ($1) and a Clara Daguin-designed couture crinoline gown embroidered with glass beads and interactive LED constellation lights ($110).

As on the website, purchased digital looks can be custom fitted by DressX engineers to a digital photo in 24 hours. DressX also offers a subscription model.

Cofounders Modenova and Daria Shapovalova came to L.A. with 15 years of experience running fashion showrooms and events in Europe.

“We see a huge advantage being in the middle of the tech industry in California,” said Shapovalova, Zooming in from a WeWork. “We’re not creating hardware products, but for AR, this is a good hub because Snapchat is based here and so many celebrities are, too.”

Since DressX started outreach in March 2020, more 3D designers have joined the platform, though none with the name recognition of a Ralph Lauren or Michael Kors, for example — at least not yet. “We’ve also been talking to more traditional fashion brands, because we feel all brands will eventually have a new category of screen wear. That’s why we built this app,” said Modenova, adding that digital fashion will evolve beyond the fantasy and fairytale aesthetic that currently dominates.

DressX app COURTESY DressX clients are looking for both affordability and luxury, the founders said, adding that exclusivity also drives purchasing of digital fashion. A one-of-a-kind dress from its NASA-inspired collection sold for $3,800, while the same dress in a different color but with unlimited availability sold for $35. The client base is 60/40 women to men, and mostly Millennial.

To be sure, digital-only goods are a burgeoning industry, between e-sports and gaming skins designed

by Louis Vuitton, Moschino and more, to recent fashion players in the NFT game including Gucci, Burberry, Ben Sherman and Nick Graham.

Marketplaces such as DressX, The Dematerialised, and 3DRobe have emerged to cater to customers who want to buy into the novelty of the digital wearable medium, and the sustainability angle.

DressX also offers several value-added opportunities for designer partners. For example, the founders have worked with Lunya activewear and Buffalo London footwear on marketing campaigns, creating digital clothing for influencers.

“Instead of sending samples to 100 influencers, producing the samples, paying for delivery, not to mention the carbon footprint, the brands provided photos of influencers that we dressed digitally,” explained Shapovalova.

In April, DressX worked with designer Gary James McQueen, nephew of the late Alexander McQueen, to bring his “Guiding Light” runway collection to life digitally and to buy in real time on DressX.com, and the DressX virtual store in the Metajuku district of Decentraland, a 3D virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain.

“We don’t want to conquer physical fashion brands, we want to show them how we can help and how to monetize for the digital universe,” said Shapovalova, adding that DressX will be unveiling more partnerships with blockchain companies in the future.

“We want to make fashion affordable, inclusive and available to everyone,” she said, predicting that digital fashion will one day be a $1 billion industry. “You can wear one outfit on Google Meet, in a TikTok video, and in gaming — we just need to create that link and DressX is here to navigate how the fashion of future will look in all kinds of multiverses.”

This article talks heavily on DressX and the emerging market in which DressX are one of the leading and biggest places to go for virtual fashion. Again talking about the uses of virtual fashion and how this can effect the influencers market and how it can change the way we go about consuming clothing for the ‘Instragamable’ market.

Another one of the positives of virtual clothing is the sustainability aspect to it and how it cuts out so many of the polluting methods and non-environmentally friendly aspects to fashion, such as shipping collections, delivering clothing to your door and most of all, the manufacturing and creating of the garments themselves.

I think this article highlights how the digital fashion space isn’t here to take over the physical fashion space, but to evolve what we already have and make the space a more diverse and creative area for all people, designers, marketers, communicators and many more. The idea that brands like DressX are here to work with brands opposed to against them is one of the main points of the article and it’s important to realise that as the space is so new and unknown, that anyone who wants to take advantage of it can and should do.

Digital Fashion Player DressX Raises $2 Million The Artemis Fund and Alpha Edison led the investment round, which will see the digital-only clothing startup build an NFT marketplace.

A digital ready-to-wear look from Auroboros available for sale on DressX. DressX.

BY CASEY HALLJULY 6, 2021 09:48

The company, which produces digital fashion under its own label in partnership with a variety of designers, as well as acting as a platform through which other designers and brands can sell their digital products, raised $2 million in a seed round co-led by The Artemis Fund and Alpha Edison.

The funding will be used to create a DressX mobile app, a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace and facilitate partnerships with social media, gaming and other virtual platforms.

DressX, founded in August 2020, describes itself as the world’s largest platform for digital-only fashion, with more than 100 partner designers and thousands of digital items available for purchase on its website.

One of those labels, Auroboros, recently became the first fashion brand to present a solely digital collection at a major international fashion week at last month’s edition of London Fashion Week.

“We will continue to shape this new exciting industry that has recently started to develop exponentially fast,” said DressX CEO and co-founder, Daria Shapovalova. “Our goal is to sell one billion fashion looks and to enable an innovative fashion experience to every consumer in the world.”

Demand is increasing within the virtual fashion market, as NFT mania this spring propeled new interest (and sales) for virtual fashion houses and retailers that enable brands and designers with a platform to sell to consumers.

Though NFTs have been the predominant buzzword, the category for virtual apparel is expanding fast, as companies look to capitalise on digital garments within gaming, metaverses and augmented reality.

This is a short article based around the funding DressX have acquired through the Artemis fund.

This fund to going towards creating a DressX app which will be one of the leading platforms in the virtual fashion market or the NFT market which is something that is cropping up a lot in the articles I’m reading so its definitely an area I need to look in to in terms of how we can take advantage of how big a market the NFT market is becoming.

Digital Fashion NFTs are Coming as Dress X, Crypto.com Partners—SpaceX Items Releasing?

Teejay Boris, Tech Times 26 August 2021, 03:08 am Digital fashion NFTs or non-fungible tokens are coming our way as a start-up, DressX, inked a partnership with one of the leading marketplaces, Crypto.com.

(Photo : from Dress X website)

Digital fashion NFTs are coming as start-up, Dress X, inks partnership with crypto marketplace, Crypto.com. As per Forbes, the collaboration of the crypto platform and the digital fashion startup gives birth to the DRESSX NFT store, which sits on the NFT section of Crypto.com. Not to mention that it will be housing tons of limited editions fashion collection drops in the marketplace. In hindsight, NFTs have been the latest craze online, with games, art, and Marvel collectibles releasing left and right. The hype has even allowed NFT play-to-earn games, such as "Axie Infinity," to emerge. This time around, even the digital fashion world, through a start-up, Dress X, is getting their share of NFTs.

Digital Fashion NFTs All of the items are available to be worn virtually via augmented reality or AR in the app of DressX. Meanwhile, it could be copped exclusively at the NFT section of Crypto.com.

The Co-Founder of DressX, Natalia Modenova, said that the fashion NFTs opens a new option to distribute AR fashion beyond Snapchat's glasses.

The DressX boss further said that: "Now with this partnership, we're introducing a model where the content is valuable, and secured only for NFT owners, that drives up the value of the digital asset itself."

DressX NFT First Drop: SpaceX-Themed Outfit According to WWD, the first-ever DressX drop will be releasing at least three virtual clothing based from Elon Musk's space innovation firm, SpaceX. It is to note that the SpaceX collection will only be available for a limited time, and will be released on Aug. 29. Also, the price of the digital fashion pieces based on Musk's company starts from one Ethereum.

DressX and Farfetch On top of that, Farfetch is also launching a new pre-order platform. As such, DressX went on to digitize a total of 40 items--half of them are menswear, whereas the other half are womenswear.

The digitization included multiple brands available in Farfetch, namely Dolce & Gabbana, Off-White, Balenciaga, Palm Angels, Nanushka, and Khaite.

What's more, Modenova noted that they even went the extra mile by producing an editorial photoshoot that flaunted the digital fashion pieces. As such, the pre-

order shoot did not involve any unnecessary shipments, as well as the physical copy of the outfit.

To be clear, Farfetch is meant to be the digital wholesale partner of DressX. On the other hand, Crypto.com is focused on the NFT shop of the digital fashion startup.

Crypto.com's NFT marketplace feature has already traded tons of digital collections from high-profile clients, like the Aston Martine Formula One and Snoop Dogg--to name a few.

The NFT marketplace that partnered with DressX debuted the new digital trend was emerging last March.

Reading through this article, this tells me that the NFT market is as important as ever to the digitalisation of fashion and I will want to explore maybe the crossover in the NFT mainstream market and then the virtual fashion we’re seeing now.

As mentioned in the article Crypto currency is also extremely relevant at the moment as it’s a newer market that has been popularised in the past year or two especially.

How digital-only clothes and NFTs are changing the fashion business

Source: The Fabricant

There was a time when dressing up with virtual outfits was only possible in games such as “The Sims”, and let’s face it, wasn’t even that fashionable. Then, along came Gucci.

Advanced technology is changing everything and what is happening now is that virtual clothes sometimes get more attention than video games themselves.

“Fortnite” and “GTA” are just a couple examples of totally-not-related-to-fashion games, that have caught the eyes of fashionistas and designers; and now both games have exclusive “skins” for their characters.

The idea of virtual clothes has been taken to a whole new level, where you can get Gucci, Prada, or even exclusively digital brands for yourself.

Just recently, Balenciaga unveiled its “skins” for the characters of “Honor of Kings”, available in China only.

That lightens a bulb: is digital fashion the future of clothing?

Source: Tribute Brand

“By allowing our Chinese customers to explore our products virtually through online games we can connect our communities in a way that really fits with them“, said Josie Zhang, president of Burberry China in an article published in Harpers Bazaar.

In a pandemic world where we are basically living through social media, the idea of having new outfits just for the virtual version of yourself sounds fun, doesn’t it?

The Fabricant certainly believes in that.

They actually jumped into the digital fashion business way before the pandemic.

Source: The Fabricant

Back in 2019, The Fabricant and Cartlings partnered to create the first digital-only blockchain dress, which was sold for $ 9,500.

Not bad, huh?

Well, if you compare with the amount of a single sneaker or the “In Bloom Jordan 1” hat, sold at 3.3 ETH, or $5,592.37, that doesn’t sound like much, right? But, come on, we are talking about a pioneering auction!

We also mentioned The Fabricant when talking about 3D samples and their partnership with Scandinavian sportswear brand Peak Performance and they are a great example of how a virtual fashion brand aims to work.

Source: The Fabricant

As a company of creative technologists, we envision a future where fashion transcends the physical body, and our digital identities permeate daily life to become the new reality.

Are NFTs contributing to the new digital fashion landscape?

Sure! But, not all virtual clothes are tokenized: they only exist in the digital world, but it is up to the creator the decision to ensure the product within a blockchain.

Source: Tribute Brand

“We’re developing new things that are impossible in the real world, like new materials – that just couldn’t work in the real world due to the laws of physics”, said Gala Marija Vrbanic, founder of Tribute Brand, in an interview with Vogue US.

Source: The Fabricant

Another example is Trashy Muse, a platform that in 2019 organized the very first fashion show of virtual avatars and is all about digital clothing.

Being a virtual fashion brand also has social and environmental effects.

The whole industry is moving toward more inclusive and sustainable fashion, making a concrete action against pollution.

No fabric, no waste, right?

Source: Tribute Brand

Well, that’s what companies like The Fabricant are proposing.

The Fabricant is the world’s first digital fashion house, making innovative and compelling 3D garments and fashion narratives that are entirely non-physical.

Among our founding principles is the belief that fashion should waste nothing but data and exploit nothing but the imagination.

Source: Tribute Brand

We are committed to the creation of a new fashion perspective that revolutionises industry systems and makes self-expression through digital clothing a sustainable way to explore personal identity.

Tribute Brand aims to be accessible. Their prices aren’t that crazy: you can get a virtual piece for less than $100 … of course, many of them are already sold out!

We strongly believe that digital fashion is the future we should embrace. With no need for physical deliveries and production, it is available without restrictions for any gender, sex or size.

With the recent events and the crisis occurring throughout the world, the needed process of changing the system became inevitable and we are excited to be the pioneers for this new phase.

Source: Tribute Brand

But Virtual fashion is not just a digital gem to collect; what 3D technology has brought is a revolution within the supply chain and workflow: designers are able to test and visualize every piece, before sending the samples to manufacturers.

For Leanne Elliott Young and Catty Taylor there is another aspect to Digital Fashion: being inclusive.

Together, they founded the Institute of Digital Fashion, an initiative to help the integration of new talents in 3D design.

Developing future-focused, dynamic creative strategies, products and activations which harness the power of the digital landscape through and beyond their versatile and diverse global network.

The Institute of Digital Fashion bridges the gap between on and offline, forging solutions and activations in the worlds of AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) to real-time and digital.

Catty Taylor is also the creative director and founder of community Digi-Gxl, a platform that promotes women, trans, intersex and non-binary designers, in an industry still dominated by cis men.

There is a lot to be discovered by the fashion industry when it comes to making it digital: the world is reinventing itself!

Considering the success of the pioneers with the experiments made with digital fashion and the rise of NFT products it’s worth sticking around.

This article again just highlights lots of good brands and institutes that are making waves in the industry and make good for further research into these brands in terms of looking at and potentially working with in the future.

I’ve highlighted that NFT’s are something to look at as well as I think they’re really important for monetising the industry digitally as well.

FASHION

How fashion brands are navigating NFTs and what’s next for the metaverse Fashion has increasingly been engaging with NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, as gaming and digital fashion have come to the forefront. For its fall 2021 collection, Gucci partnered with the art auction house Christie’s on an NFT video called “Aria,” which sold for $25,000 in June. Christie’s was also where Beeple, the most famous digital artist, sold his piece for $69 million this year.

This overnight success of NFTs is now leading Christie’s to accept auction bids with Ethereum, the most popular crypto-currency. Other brands have also dipped a toe in the digital pond in varying strategies, eager to take advantage of the boom that drives NFT collections to sell out in minutes.

Below is an overview of the different brand strategies for approaching the NFT space within fashion, looking at individual shifts, how the cryptocurrency carbon emissions are being countered and what’s next to come in the space.

Case Study: Luxury giants Burberry and Louis Vuitton tackle in-game NFTs For the first time ever, Burberry has worked with a game developer to launch its own NFTs. Working with Mythical Games’ Blankos Block Party on a cute shark Blanko that can be purchased, upgraded and sold in-game, the brand moved into the digital space after the success of its own game, B Bounce, launched in 2019. Critically, the Burberry NFT doesn’t run on the energyintensive Proof of Work crypto model like Ethereum, but rather through a private EOSIO blockchain protocol using a Proof of Authority model that is far less energy-intensive.

Focused on discovery, these NFTs open up the fashion world to new digital channels and games that are there to tempt a younger consumer. In a press release, Rod Manley, Burberry’s chief marketing officer, noted that, “With this exciting concept, we are able to unlock genuine value for the gaming community by encouraging players to interact with our brand in an environment that celebrates art, design and exploration.” Coming from the official Blankos Twitter account, the Burberry NFT drop sold out faster than any other collaboration done by Blankos that preceded it, including the NFT drop with music artist Deadmau5.

Neda Whitney, svp and head of marketing at Christie’s, said, “NFTs prove that in spaces where digital fashion and skins are already a user behavior, the entrance of fashion brands into the conversation is a natural next step. The

ability to allow users to not only buy digital items in the fashion space but to also have unique and, oftentimes, ‘1 of 1’ certificates of ownership adds a level of exclusivity that has always worked well within the fashion culture.”

Louis Vuitton took a different approach, focusing on developing its continued support of the digital space in a novel way. It is already well-acquainted with the gaming space — it first launched a partnership in 2019 with League of Legends, a multiplayer online game from Riot Games. Nicolas Ghesquière designed a skin for one of the in-game characters, as well as a capsule collection. The brand also created a special case for the in-game trophy, a nod to its origins as a trunk master starting in 1886.

The brand is continuing the journey through a collection of 30 NFTs that can be collected in its game 200 Anecdotes to celebrate its 200 year anniversary.

Tying into the art space, Louis Vuitton has worked with the American digital artist Beeple on 10 of these NFTs. Interestingly, the approach to the NFTs is different from that of Burberry; the items are not sellable or exchangeable, existing only in-game.

As most fashion brands are placing their NFTs inside closed systems, like with Balenciaga and Fortnite, the idea of having a virtual closet that moves across different gaming platforms and digital worlds is still not as widespread.

Platforms like Polygon are looking to change that. Luxury house Dolce & Gabbana has created NFTs on the platform, prioritizing the way that its garments can be transferred across many digital “worlds.” Joseph Pallant, the founder of the Blockchain for Climate Foundation and an NFT expert, said, ”There’s going to be a lot of money in the NFT fashion space. Making that a creator-first [concept] and having that blossom into a whole new realm is so much more exciting than getting a Louis Vuitton handbag on some permissioned blockchain that lives within its own walled garden. With items in Polygon, it can live on lots of different metaverses and platforms; you can have it in Decentraland or Cryptovoxels. That interoperability is really important.”

Case study: Charitable giving through NFTs at Rebecca Minkoff For other brands like Rebecca Minkoff, NFTs offer a unique way of experimenting with avatars, developing brand engagement with a younger generation and committing to charities close to the brand, like The Female Founder Collective. After her physical presentation during NYFW, Rebecca Minkoff said, “We have always been at the intersection of fashion and technology. So for us, NFTs were the next logical step in that progression. We wanted to test the idea of not just a 2D image, but also digital merchandise, as people begin to experiment with dressing themselves and their avatars and having more experiences online.”

Based on the brand’s “I Love New York” collection, the brand worked with digital marketplace The Dematerialised on 400 digital garments that sold out in auction at OpenSea in 10 minutes. “We will definitely be expanding our digital presence in the future. We are planning something even bigger for February,” Minkoff said. Partnering with Yahoo as its Innovation Sponsor, the brand looks to create a metaverse with its garments.

Speaking about the partnership with Glossy, Joanna Lambert, president and gm of consumer at Yahoo, said, “The opportunity for fashion in the digital world is massive. Immersive formats will reimagine what the fashion industry looks and feels like for the consumer. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of digital shopability and, through fashion, we were able to explore how AR content strengthens the relationship between designers and their consumers. We look forward to leading creative technology by reimagining the consumer journey and immersing audiences in the things they love, showcasing what is possible as fashion and entertainment evolve. This first of its kind gallery was created to revolutionize the interaction with fashion and art, deepening the connection between the consumer and designer.”

The appetite for NFTs is only growing, with many companies in the digital space, like Epic Games and The Fabricant, helping brands develop digital garment collections and archives to push them into the metaverse at an accelerated pace. Raffaella Camera, head of brands and advertisers solutions at

Epic Games, talked about how the technology the company is working on with Unreal Engine can be used to create vast repositories of 3D assets.

“The idea of 3D experiences, and making them as high fidelity as possible, is to then let brands have a presence virtually wherever they want. It could be on their website or it could be through AR glasses. The end goal would be to try on a specific product and to be able to buy it. So if I think about Ferrari and what we did with them, it was about a variety of different things: We started from the creation of the car with a real engine, down to the stitches in the seats, in perfect in high fidelity, then we used that same asset on the web to let consumers configure the car and make it what they wanted. That’s direct commerce, in that sense. We then also used it to do virtual production for ads, especially during the Covid pandemic. Finally, we also brought it into Fortnite, so that players could drive it and test it virtually that way. So depending on where you are, there is tons of usability for anything that is 3D created.” These widespread applications are part of the reason why brands are getting invested in the digital space. Creating 3D assets doesn’t just mean more realistic imagery for its online space, but it also heralds a commercial opportunity for all of a brand’s goods in the NFT space.

Will the sustainability issue with NFTs be solved?

The drive for NFTs, while great in reducing the physical impact that clothing production and waste have on the planet, is also contributing to climate change. Cryptocurrency mining to enact “proof of work” — the main source of energy consumption and carbon impact — has a detrimental impact on the planet and takes up valuable resources. These are already in short supply because of supply chain issues around the globe.

However, more and more cryptocurrencies don’t operate on the PoW model, choosing to be more sustainable in the blockchain system by going with PoA (proof of authority) or PoS (proof of stake) system instead. Many fashion brands are prioritizing this when it comes to choosing partners to work on their digital collections and NFTs. The Fabricant, the original NFT creators behind the Iridescence dress that sold for $9500 in 2019, placed its creations on the Flow system created by Dapper

Labs that uses the Proof of Stake model. Michaela Larosse, head of creative strategy and communications at The Fabricant said, “It was a very difficult decision to begin to iterate as NFTs. But because it’s the future of what we do, and it’s very important for creators, regardless of whether they are fashion creators or artists, we felt it was the right decision. It allows the creators to enter this space, giving people complete agency over their creations, allowing them to monetize their work and operate at a global scale without middlemen.

Equally, it’s a very difficult decision to make right now, because of this extraordinary energy wastefulness that’s going on. So Ethereum 2.0 is a big step forward. I believe the reduction in energy when Ethereum flips to the proof of stake mechanism is a completely different way of validating.”

According to the Digiconomist and the Ethereum creators themselves, the merge to the PoS will use at least 99.95% less energy than the current model, making minting fashion NFTs with the cryptocurrency a real step toward a sustainable digital fashion future.

What’s next for brands launching into the metaverse?

The notion of access to the digital space is still difficult for those with traditional fashion backgrounds, making growth and innovation in the space slower than the demand of the industry. For many, the shift to technology takes years to master. After observing the space, The Fabricant are launching a new platform called The Fabricant Studio, where users without 3D technology knowledge can create digital items and mint their own NFTs. Michaela Larosse said, “To create digital fashion, you have to be quite tech-savvy, understand programs like Clo3D and be able to iterate in them. That’s a very long timeline to learn that kind of thing. We’ve tried to come up with a mechanism that allows people to customize and interact with digital garments that have already been created as templates and essentially create their own NFTs.” This shift to bring more people into the digital space is a way of breaking down the silos that typically exist in other craft professions, especially in fashion.

In the same way, Epic Games, the founders of Unreal Engine — the system behind Balenciaga’s previous game and latest collaboration — have committed $100 million dollars to help creators and game developers in the 3D space. The Fabricant was a recipient of one of these mega grants for a fashion show featuring its designs. Another was Delz Erinle, founder and lead game designer for the Astra Game from Thrill Digital that combines a virtual world where players compete in-game to win real-life luxury fashion prizes. In the demo, a simply-clad heroine walks into a store where she cycles through a variety of looks that she can buy after competing in combat sequences with other players outside the “store.” Talking with the founder, he describes it as the first iteration, hoping to become a full metaverse with growing support.

“We’re attracting an intersection of people we call ‘fashion gamers.’ These are people between the ages of 18 or a bit younger to 35, who are interested in fashion and also like to play games. It is a broad community, everyone from millennials and Gen Z to Gen alpha.”

These metaverses — huge online worlds with their own currencies, communities and economies — are already starting to come into fruition. Star Atlas, an intergalactic planetary exploration game, already shows the possibility of an alternate gaming universe, where cryptocurrency economies are as real as those created in the real world. Better still, brands like The Fabricant are already getting involved, selling its NFTs before the game is launched this autumn. Cathy Hackl is an industry expert on the metaverse and has been a pioneer in developing and researching the space in her role as chief metaverse officer and CEO of the Futures Intelligence Group. “We’ll see an evolution of volumetric video and NFTs that will not only unlock unique access and experiences, but also take ownership of digital assets to new levels.

We’re just scratching the surface of what NFTs will be able to unlock for fashion.”

The vocabulary of the future: NFT: A non-fungible token, or a unit of unique data stored on the blockchain system that can be traded and sold. Most digital files can become NFTs, but in the fashion industry, NFTs have mostly been through imagery.

Crypto-currency: Different currencies that are used to trade digital items. The most popular are defined by three verification systems: proof of work like Ethereum, which has come under fire for using large amounts of energy through the mega computers needed to solve mathematical problems; proof of stake, where the person with a corresponding number of network coins verifies blocks; and proof of authority, where the users have to make themselves known to the network. The most popular cryptocurrency is Ethereum, although others also exist that are tailored to specific value environments.

Blockchain: The system that allows NFTs to be verified through a record of transactions across several linked computers. What makes the blockchain unique is that records cannot be altered, making it a perfect system for traceability and transparency.

Skins: Digital garments that exist in-game. Unlike NFTs, skins are rarely transferable through metaverses, but encompass anything that the avatar (online persona) is wearing.

Metaverse: The future of the internet and a shared 3D virtual universe that users can exist in perpetually. The next generation of this online reality will be across many metaverses that all have different characteristics and communities.

What Is the Metaverse, Exactly?

Everything you never wanted to know about the future of talking about the future.

PHOTOGRAPH: TOLGART/GETTY IMAGES

CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg or Satya Nadella talk about it, the metaverse is the future of the internet. Or it's a video game. Or maybe it's a deeply uncomfortable, worse version of Zoom? It's hard to say.

TO HEAR TECH

To a certain extent, talking about what “the metaverse” means is a bit like having a discussion about what “the internet” means in the 1970s. The building blocks of a new form of communication were in the process of being built, but no one could really know what the reality would look like. So while it was true, at the time, that “the internet” was coming, not every idea of what that would look like is true.

On the other hand, there's also a lot of marketing hype wrapped up in this idea of the metaverse. Facebook, in particular, is in an especially vulnerable place after Apple's move to limit ad tracking hit the company's bottom line. It's impossible to separate Facebook's vision of a future where everyone has a digital wardrobe to swipe through from the fact that Facebook really wants to make money selling virtual clothes.

So, with all that in mind …

Seriously, What Does ‘Metaverse’ Mean?

To help you get a sense of how vague and complex a term “the metaverse” can be, here's an exercise to try: Mentally replace the phrase “the metaverse” in a sentence with “cyberspace.” Ninety percent of the time, the meaning won't substantially change. That's because the term doesn't really refer to any one specific type of technology, but rather a broad shift in how we interact with technology. And it's entirely possible that the term itself will eventually become just as antiquated, even as the specific technology it once described becomes commonplace.

Broadly speaking, the technologies that make up the metaverse can include virtual reality—characterized by persistent virtual worlds that continue to exist even when you're not playing—as well as augmented reality that combines aspects of the digital and physical worlds. However, it doesn't require that those spaces be exclusively accessed via VR or AR. A virtual world, like aspects of Fortnite that can be accessed through PCs, game consoles, and even phones, could be metaversal.

It also translates to a digital economy, where users can create, buy, and sell goods. And, in the more idealistic visions of the metaverse, it's interoperable, allowing you to take virtual items like clothes or cars from one platform to another. In the real world, you can buy a shirt from the mall and then wear it to a movie theater. Right now, most platforms have virtual identities, avatars, and inventories that are tied to just one platform, but a metaverse might allow you to create a persona that you can take everywhere as easily as you can copy your profile picture from one social network to another.

It's difficult to parse what all this means because when you hear descriptions like those above, an understandable response is, “Wait, doesn't that exist already?” World of Warcraft, for example, is a persistent virtual world where players can buy and sell goods. Fortnite has virtual experiences like concerts and an exhibit where Rick Sanchez can learn about MLK Jr. You can strap on an Oculus headset and be in your own personal virtual home. Is that really what “the metaverse” means? Just some new kinds of video games?

Well, yes and no. Saying that Fortnite is “the metaverse” would be a bit like saying Google is “the internet.” Even if you could, theoretically, spend large chunks of time in Fortnite, socializing, buying things, learning, and playing games, that doesn't necessarily mean that it encompasses the entire scope of the metaverse.

On the other hand, just as it would be accurate to say that Google builds parts of the internet—from physical data centers to security layers—it's similarly accurate to say that Fortnite creator Epic Games is building parts of the metaverse. And it isn't the only company doing so. Some of that work will be done by tech giants like Microsoft and Facebook—the latter of which recently rebranded to Meta to reflect this work, though we're still not quite used to the name. Many other assorted companies—including Nvidia, Unity, Roblox, and even Snap—are all working on building the infrastructure that might become the metaverse.

It's at this point that most discussions of what the metaverse entails start to stall.

We have a vague sense of what things currently exist that we could kind of call the metaverse, and we know which companies are investing in the idea, but we still don't know what it is. Facebook—sorry, Meta, still not getting it—thinks it will include fake houses you can invite all your friends to hang out in. Microsoft seems to think it could involve virtual meeting rooms to train new hires or chat with your remote coworkers.

The pitches for these visions of the future range from optimistic to outright fan fiction. At one point during … Meta's … presentation on the metaverse, the company showed a scenario in which a young woman is sitting on her couch scrolling through Instagram when she sees a video a friend posted of a concert that's happening halfway across the world.

The video then cuts to the concert, where the woman appears in an Avengersstyle hologram. She's able to make eye contact with her friend who is physically there, they're both able to hear the concert, and they can see floating text hovering above the stage. This seems cool, but it's not really advertising a real product, or even a possible future one. In fact, it brings us to the biggest problem with “the metaverse.”

Why Does the Metaverse Involve Holograms?

When the internet first arrived, it started with a series of technological innovations, like the ability to let computers talk to each other over great distances or the ability to hyperlink from one web page to another. These technical features were the building blocks that were then used to make the abstract structures we know the internet for: websites, apps, social networks, and everything else that relies on those core elements. And that's to say nothing of the convergence of the interface innovations that aren't strictly part of the internet but are still necessary to make it work, such as displays, keyboards, mice, and touchscreens.

With the metaverse, there are some new building blocks in place, like the ability to host hundreds of people in a single instance of a server (ideally future

versions of a metaverse will be able to handle thousands or even millions of people at once), or motion-tracking tools that can distinguish where a person is looking or where their hands are. These new technologies can be very exciting and feel futuristic.

However, there are limitations that may be impossible to overcome. When tech companies like Microsoft or Fa—Meta show fictionalized videos of their visions of the future, they frequently tend to gloss over just how people will interact with the metaverse. VR headsets are still very clunky, and most people experience motion sickness or physical pain if they wear them for too long. Augmented reality glasses face a similar problem, on top of the not-insignificant issue of figuring out how people can wear them around in public without looking like huge dorks.

So, how do tech companies show off the idea of their technology without showing the reality of bulky headsets and dorky glasses? So far their primary solution seems to be to simply fabricate technology from whole cloth. The holographic woman from Meta's presentation? I hate to shatter the illusion, but it's simply not possible with even very advanced versions of existing technology.

Unlike motion-tracked digital avatars, which are kind of janky right now but could be better someday, there's no janky version of making a three-dimensional picture appear in midair without tightly controlled circumstances. No matter what Iron Man tells you. Perhaps these are meant to be interpreted as images projected via glasses—both women in the demo video are wearing similar glasses, after all—but even that assumes a lot about the physical capabilities of compact glasses, which Snap can tell you isn't a simple problem to solve.

This kind of glossing over reality is frequently present in video demos of how the metaverse could work. Another of Meta's demos showed characters floating in space—is this person strapped to an immersive aerial rig or are they just sitting at a desk? A person represented by a hologram—does this person have a headset on, and if so how is their face being scanned? And at points, a person grabs virtual items but then holds those objects in what seems to be their physical hands.

This demo raises so many more questions than it answers.

On some level, this is fine. Microsoft, Meta, and every other company that shows wild demos like this are trying to give an artistic impression of what the future could be, not necessarily account for every technical question. It's a timehonored tradition going back to AT&T's demo of a voice-controlled foldable phone that could magically erase people from images and generate 3D models, all of which might've seemed similarly impossible at the time.

However, this kind of wishful-thinking-as-tech-demo leaves us in a place where it's hard to pinpoint which aspects of the various visions of the metaverse will actually be real one day. If VR and AR headsets become comfortable and cheap enough for people to wear on a daily basis—a substantial “if”—then perhaps the idea of a virtual poker game where your friends are robots and holograms and floating in space could be somewhat close to reality. If not, well you could always play Tabletop Simulator on a Discord video call.

The flashiness of VR and AR also obscure the more mundane aspects of the metaverse that might be more likely to come to fruition. It would be trivially easy for tech companies to invent, say, an open digital avatar standard, a type of file that includes characteristics you might enter into a character creator—like eye color, hairstyle, or clothing options—and let you take it everywhere. There's no need to build a more comfortable VR headset for that.

But that's not as fun to imagine.

What's the Metaverse Like Right Now? The paradox of defining the metaverse is that in order for it to be the future, you have to define away the present. We already have MMOs that are essentially entire virtual worlds, digital concerts, video calls with people from all over the world, online avatars, and commerce platforms. So in order to sell these things as a new vision of the world, there has to be some element of it that's new.

Spend enough time having discussions about the metaverse and inevitably someone will reference fictional stories like Snow Crash—the 1992 novel that coined the term “metaverse”—or Ready Player One, which depicts a VR world where everyone works, plays, and shops. Combined with the general pop culture idea of holograms and heads-up displays (basically anything Iron Man has used in his last 10 movies) these stories serve as an imaginative reference point for what the metaverse—a metaverse that tech companies could actually sell as something new—could look like.

Mentally replace the phrase “the metaverse” in a sentence with “cyberspace.” Ninety percent of the time, the meaning won't substantially change.

That kind of hype is as vital a part of the idea of the metaverse as any other. It's no wonder, then, that people promoting things like NFTs—cryptographic tokens that can serve as certificates of ownership of a digital item, sort of—are

also latching onto the idea of the metaverse. Sure, NFTs are bad for the environment, but if it could be argued that these tokens might be the digital key to your virtual mansion in Roblox, then boom. You've just transformed your hobby of buying memes into a crucial piece of infrastructure for the future of the internet (and possibly raised the value of all that cryptocurrency you're holding.)

It's important to keep all this context in mind because while it's tempting to compare the proto-metaverse ideas we have today to the early internet and assume everything will get better and progress in a linear fashion, that's not a given. There's no guarantee people will even want to hang out sans legs in a virtual office or play poker with Dreamworks Mark Zuckerberg, much less whether VR and AR tech will ever become seamless enough to be as common as smartphones and computers are today.

It may even be the case that any real “metaverse” would be little more than some cool VR games and digital avatars in Zoom calls, but mostly just something we still think of as the internet.

This article does describe the metaverse quite well I think, adding a more informal and personalised tone so it gives the reader a chance to understand actually what is going on.

But I think the article is not dated, but pessimistic about where the metaverse could go and how it could travel, especially in the next couple of years.

But I will be using references of this article for how it describes the technology for people especially during presentation times etc.

Fashion And The Metaverse: Why Ralph Lauren Wants To Sell You Digital Clothing Lauren Debter

Fashion brands like Ralph Lauren are racing to set up shop in the metaverse. The storied American brand recently began selling digital clothing on online platform Roblox.

ROBLOX

In December, Ralph Lauren opened its newest stores, passing over sprawling metropolitan cities like Milan, Tokyo and New York for an enticing new location: the online world of Roblox, with 47 million daily active users. It stocked its virtual stores, open 24/7 and accessible to anyone in the world in just a few clicks, with virtual puffer jackets, checkered beanies and other retro skiwear for the winter season, priced under $5.

It’s just the latest example of how the fashion industry is beginning to delve into the socalled metaverse, with Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Balenciaga and others charging real money for digital-only clothing and accessories. As silly as it may sound, it’s being heralded as a potential new goldmine, with Morgan Stanley predicting that the metaverse could present a $50 billion-plus opportunity for the luxury industry in the next decade.

Here’s a quick guide to get up to speed on what the metaverse is, and why fashion brands are racing to set up shop in it:

Wait. Remind me what the metaverse is, again?

Frankly, that is still being figured out. But the idea is that it could be the next version of the internet, offering a more immersive and three-dimensional experience. In the metaverse, you have a digital persona called an avatar that can seek out experiences that are similar to what you might do in the real world — you can shop, eat at restaurants and attend concerts. While it has begun to take shape in various online gaming platforms, like Roblox, it remains largely theoretical.

Is this really a new idea?

Not exactly. People have spent time immersed in online video games for years, and brands got involved there too. Adidas, Armani and Calvin Klein experimented with digital fashion on Second Life, an online virtual world that had some one million members at its peak in 2007. In 2012, Diesel began selling clothing and furniture on The Sims. In 2019, Louis Vuitton developed ‘skins’ — an in-game purchase that changes a player’s appearance— for players in League of Legends.

Why are people talking about it again, then?

The pandemic has something to do with it. As public safety restrictions forced millions around the world to quarantine and socially distance, people began spending significantly more time online. According to eMarketer, adults in the U.S. spent 7 hours and 50 minutes a day interacting with a digital device last year, up 15% from 2019.

Facebook also generated a lot of attention when it announced it was changing its name to “Meta” in October, with ambitions of becoming a major player in the metaverse. It will spend $10 billion this year and more in years to come to make that a reality. Bill Gates recently predicted that we will be attending work meetings in the metaverse within the next three years.

Brands, which moved fashion shows online during the pandemic and have been thinking a lot about how to connect with customers in the digital realm, are now racing to figure out their metaverse strategy. Balenciaga is creating a metaverse division.

Gucci, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana are selling virtual fashion. Nike acquired a virtual sneaker designer.

What is in this for brands?

A couple of things. For one, it’s a way to attract the next generation of customers, namely Gen Z, who are digital natives and already accustomed to spending significant time online. “Their physical and digital lives have equal prominence,” says Michaela Larosse, who leads creative strategy at The Fabricant, a digital fashion house based in Amsterdam.

It also looks like an extremely lucrative new revenue stream. According to Morgan Stanley, the metaverse could help luxury brands expand their total addressable market by over 10% by 2030, good enough for more than $50 billion in additional revenues.

More exciting, the bank says, are the profit margins, with the potential for 75% of that revenue to hit a profit measure called EBIT, or earnings before interest and taxes.

Think about it: With a digital item, there is no need to buy raw materials, spend money on labor, bother with manufacturing or ship something around the world. Brands already have a vast archive of collections to pull from and repurpose for the digital realm. Plus, they don’t only profit from the first sale. They can collect royalties each time an item is resold. This is made possible by embedding terms in a “smart contract” on blockchain technology, which will power the metaverse.

Digital fashion is also inherently sustainable, with the production of a single digital garment requiring 97% less carbon and 872 fewer gallons of water than a psychical garment, according to DressX, a digital fashion startup. Plus, there’s no leftover inventory at the end of the season that must be discounted, donated or destroyed.

Okay, but why would someone spend real money on clothing that doesn’t exist?

Good question. The answer sounds something like this: If you spend a lot of time online, you probably care about what your avatar looks like. Consider that one in five Roblox users updates their avatar on a daily basis, according to the company.

“As people increasingly spend more time in digital worlds, they are increasingly becoming more intentional about how they portray themselves in digital worlds,” says Dylan Gott, global technology innovation manager at Estee Lauder, which may soon offer makeup for avatars to use in the metaverse.

There’s also the attainability factor. While few 16-year-olds can walk into Balenciaga on Rodeo Drive and snap up the latest runway look, they can spend a few dollars to buy a digital version to show off online to their friends. “This generation is used to spending money on their avatars,” says Simon Windsor, cofounder of Dimension Studio, which helped Balenciaga put on a virtual fashion show during the pandemic.

For others, it’s an investment opportunity. If someone buys an NFT — a non-fungible token, which is a type of digital asset stored on the blockchain — and it grows in value, it can be resold for a profit. For instance, in 2019, The Fabricant sold a shimmery silver dress called “Iridescence” for 54 Ether, or about $9,500; Today it’s worth over $200,000. “It transpired to be a very good investment for the buyer,” says Larosse.

What does it cost?

Some virtual fashion is inexpensive. For instance, in September 2021, Balenciaga launched Fortnite “skins” priced at 1,000 V-Bucks (the currency used on Fortnite), equivalent to about $8. Ralph Lauren is selling its winter apparel on Roblox for $3 to $5.

Other items are selling for thousands or even millions of dollars, surpassing the value of any physical product. In August 2021, Gucci sold a Dionysus purse for 350,000 Robux (the currency used on Roblox), equivalent to about $4,100 — more than it charges for the real bag. In October 2021, Dolce & Gabbana auctioned a nine-piece collection of NFTs, including a digital tiara made with “gems that can’t quite be found on Earth,” for $5.7 million.

Where can you buy virtual fashion?

There is no single metaverse where you can shop your favorite brands. Instead, companies have sprung up on existing online gaming platforms like Roblox, The Sims

and Fortnite. They are also beginning to sell their wares on a wave of new metaverse platforms, like Zepeto, a Softbank-backed company popular in Asia.

Typically, an item can only be worn on the platform where it was purchased. A big outstanding question is whether buyers may eventually be able to wear their virtual fashion across different platforms.

How could this change the fashion industry?

Designers will have more freedom to push the envelope. In the metaverse, a jacket can be on fire, made of water or change colors throughout the day or according to the owner’s mood. “You can forget the laws of physics in the metaverse,” says Windsor.

“Anything you can conceive can be delivered.”

It may give brands a new way to test products, too, launching them first in the digital world, gathering feedback and assessing demand before selling them in the physical world. Shoppers who like the digital version might be able to click a button to order the physical version.

“We believe there should be a strong connection between digital and physical,” says Franck Le Moal, chief information officer at LVMH, a luxury powerhouse that owns brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior and Givenchy.

It could also open up the industry to more designers of various backgrounds. For instance, Zepeto lets anyone create their own digital clothing and sell it on the platform.

The Fabricant launched a new initiative in September, in which anyone can design digital clothing, put it up for sale and share in the royalties.

To be sure, much remains to be figured out in the metaverse, and critics argue that it will never become mainstream. Regardless, in the meantime, the world’s biggest fashion brands are taking it seriously and moving quickly. “It’s a massive opportunity,” says Le Moal. “It’s become a regular topic of conversation.”

This has also got good references to many interviews and other sources that can be used.

Metaverse platform Decentraland is preparing for its first fashion week as digital clothing rakes in big business Carla Mozée Dec. 27, 2021, 12:07 PM

Fashion is shaping up to be a key area of business in the potentially $1 trilliona-year-metaverse, and Decentraland will expand its stake in the market by hosting its first fashion week.

The metaverse platform in March will host four days of runway shows and immersive experiences with UNXD, a luxury marketplace built on the Polygon blockchain network.

"Have your collections ready!" Decentraland said in a Sunday post on Twitter calling on designers, brands, and fashionistas to prepare for the event set for March 24-27, 2022.

The metaverse refers to online 3D virtual environments where people represented by avatars can play games, work and socialize, as well as buy and trade crypto assets. Cryptocurrency asset management firm Grayscale last month said the metaverse has the potential to become a $1 trillion annual revenue opportunity.

But all those avatars in the metaverse need virtual clothing, which is emerging as a hot sector.

Fashion brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Balenciaga, and Ralph Lauren have been making inroads into the metaverse. UNXD hosted Dolce & Gabbana's first NFT clothing collection, and the Collezione Genesi group of nine non-fungible tokens designed by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana sold for $5.7 million in September.

Digital clothing from Ralph Lauren and Gucci have been featured on avatars through separate partnerships with avatar app Zepeto, Asia's largest fashion virtual platform with nearly a quarter of a billion users, according to the BBC. Meanwhile, Decentraland's burgeoning Fashion District grabbed attention in recent weeks after a company paid the equivalent of $2.4 million in cryptocurrency to purchase virtual parcels there.

"We think the Fashion District purchase is like buying on Fifth Avenue back in the 1800s … or the creation of Rodeo Drive," Lorne Sugarman, the CEO of Metaverse Group, told Insider, about his company's deal in November.

This looks at, from a more financial perspective, at fashion and NFT’s and the relationship that these markets could and would have.

Luxury Brands Are Already Making Millions in the Metaverse The likes of Gucci, Balenciaga, and Burberry are spinning up fashion and accessories that you'll never even wear By

Mark Ellwood 9 December 2021, 05:30 GMT

Illustration: Rad Mora

The waiting list for a Birkin bag can stretch years, but for some, the only purse they want is one they’ll never get their hands on. The Dematerialised, a British startup that co-founder Karinna Nobbs calls “the digital department store of your dreams,” sells nothing but virtual luxuries; it’s a marketplace for clothing and accessories that will only ever exist online.

The first piece it brought out, on Dec. 12, 2020, was a silver sweater selling for €121 ($137). Like all of her products since, the whole run—1,212 digital renderings—sold within three hours. Nobbs has also worked with the Fabricant, a Dutch virtual couture house where users create exclusive apparel for their digital avatars on social platforms including VRChat, a 3D digital world that soared in popularity during the pandemic. The Fabricant collaboration scored the priciest sale at her store so far: €9,000 for a single garment—or, more precisely, nongarment.

The Dematerialised operates on the stock model popularized by streetwear, releasing a shoe, bag, or other item in a limited edition, usually of no more than 150 units. Only a single brand or computer-designed product is available at any one time.

Successful buyers receive an NFT, or nonfungible token, which is a virtual certificate of ownership that runs on blockchain technology. With this proof of authenticity, an owner can showcase a handbag or dress on VRChat, where tens of thousands of users interact daily through avatars—and flaunt their outfits.

Burberry’s Sharky B collection in Blankos Block Party sold out for almost $400,000.

Source: Burberry & Mythical Games

It may seem silly, spending top dollar for luxuries you can never touch or hold, but gamers have long used clothes to proudly establish their online identity, just as people do in the real world. Called “skins,” these outfits or shells are bought by players to painstakingly customize their appearance in an online game. And executives in the fashion industry are taking the trend seriously, especially after Facebook’s rebrand as Meta Platforms Inc. refocused it on creating a simulated digital world where users can interact as if in a real physical space. Suddenly this niche practice has the potential to get very big. In an October video announcement of its plans, Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg could be seen using his and his colleagues’ avatars to try on clothes, play cards, pay artists, and even go surfing.

“Avatars will be as common as profile pictures today, but instead of a static image, they’re going to be living 3D representations of you, your expressions, your gestures,” Zuckerberg explained. “You’re going to have a wardrobe of virtual clothes for different occasions designed by different creators and from different apps and experiences.”

He went on to describe how Meta would help creators make clothing, home décor, and accessories that can be carried from one platform to the other—say, from Meta’s universe to the game world of Halo.

Ralph Lauren’s Winter Escape experience in the Roblox online universe.

Source: Roblox

By choosing the name Meta, the social media behemoth is hoping to claim some ownership over a new galaxy of possibilities. “The metaverse”—as the expanding terrain of virtual environments is known—includes Roblox, a platform where users can create games and geographies for others, and Fortnite, the multiplayer battle game that’s now also a social space and recently struck a deal with Ferrari. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games Inc., which makes Fortnite, said in November that the metaverse has the potential to become a multitrillion-dollar part of the world economy.

The Dematerialised is a first mover in this next frontier. In addition to VRChat, the store’s items will also be able to appear in rival blockchain-based worlds such as Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium Space, where the currency is all digital and participants “own” parcels of “land” used to store and sell the items. The Decentralized garments can’t yet be worn in Roblox or Fortnite. But if things go the way Zuckerberg predicts, digital luxuries will soon be a common feature of these worlds as well. Brands such as Gucci, Balenciaga, and Burberry have launched products in both (see last section).

So, Why Is Fashion First?

No old-school industry has embraced the metaverse quite like fashion. It’s a radical contrast with 20 years ago, when brands scoffed at internet 1.0. Even by 2008—three

years after Amazon Prime started—only one-third of the luxury companies surveyed by Forrester Research sold wares online. By then, Prada barely had a website.

In March 2016, just before many of these virtual worlds were born, Kerry Murphy cofounded the Fabricant, one of the key brand partners at Nobbs’s digital department store.

An expert in visual effects for film and advertising, he brought on as creative director Amber Jae Slooten, the first person to graduate from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute with a portfolio of all-digital designs.

“She had fought her way through, to be able to not have any physical items in her portfolio,” Murphy says. “Her motivation really came from the Rana Plaza incident in Bangladesh, where the building collapsed and killed more than 1,100 people working on fast fashion.” After that, Slooten took a stance against the physical fashion industry.

A Carnival bodysuit from a collaboration between the Fabricant and design house Nicopanda and Brazilian pop performer Pabllo Vittar Source: Fabricant

The Fabricant’s first major project was with I.T Hong Kong, a luxury department store, which hired the team to render real-world garments from almost 100 luxury labels in metaverse-ready 3D. But Murphy wanted Slooten to produce her own designs—a fulfillment of her moral and creative mission. In early 2019 the Fabricant joined with blockchain-based gaming company Dapper Labs for its first virtual garment, a dress, which went on auction at New York’s blockchain-technology-centered Ethereal Summit in May of that year.

It sold for the then-equivalent of $9,500 in Ethereum. (The same amount of the cryptocurrency is now worth about $150,000.) “We literally sold a JPEG, a picture, with a smart contract on a USB stick that verifies [the buyer’s] ownership,” Murphy says, noting that it came with the right to have the item Photoshopped by the Fabricant onto three different images. The buyer gifted the dress to his wife, who shared images of herself “wearing” it on social media.

Murphy and his team have been finessing that unwieldy sort of transaction over the past two years. The Fabricant now has its own platform, currently in beta. “Users can create their own digital fashion, minted [validated] on the blockchain, and use it as a wearable in multiple different games or make a Snapchat filter out of it,” Murphy says. “We’re really focusing on the creator economy, where we make everybody a digital fashion designer.”

If these amateur Armanis sell their designs to fellow users, the Fabricant receives a 10% fee. It invited just 50 creatives for this initial phase, but it will open up to 5,000 more later this month.

The Margins Are Huge Since there are no raw materials to buy, and labor is minimal, virtual clothes are almost all profit. (Stitching a couture garment takes days, or even weeks, compared with adjusting pre-programmed clothes templates, which can take minutes.) Minting designs in the metaverse also opens up huge avenues of creativity. After all, the garments can look like anything a designer wants; the limitations normally imposed by market practicalities—or even gravity or logic—are gone.

Jackie Kennedy wearing the Halston pillbox hat in 1961.

Photographer: Bettmann/Getty Images

Any company with decades of archival designs can convert that intellectual property into a new revenue stream, reissuing pieces as metaverse-only. Defunct brands can have a new virtual life with minimal investment—think Schiaparelli’s lobster dress or Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat by Halston.

Consultant Cathy Hackl is working on this exact idea. Her expertise guiding neophytes into these virtual worlds has earned her the nickname Godmother of the Metaverse.

“Not everything they create in the metaverse needs to be new. They can leverage their many years of history and heritage and introduce their legacy to new generations,” she says. “Nostalgia is a powerful sentiment, and at the end of the day, creativity is creativity.”

Plus! No Overstock, No Discounts Gonçalo Cruz believes resource awareness will spur a boom in virtual luxury. He’s the cofounder and CEO of PlatformE, a tech provider based in Porto, Portugal, that helps conventional brands finesse and deploy 3D renderings of things such as clothing. Clients have included both major luxury conglomerates, Kering and LVMH, for brands like Gucci and Dior. Farfetch and Nordstrom have also called on his expertise.

Cruz says virtual luxury can solve the problem of oversupply that hinders the sector’s growth. The issue emerged after World War II, when French designers created cheaper, prêt-à-porter collections to boost their bottom lines. This focus on volume, Cruz says, eventually led to the resource-draining fast-fashion system that dominates today.

A jacket from Valaclava and PlatformE Photographer: Lui Iarocheski

“Every single brand has overproduction, has overinventory, and obviously has end-ofseason stock,” he says of the fashion industry at large. “So you start discounting, and that’s a never-ending story. You see 90% discounts in outlets now. That depreciates the value of the brand.”

He argues that by training shoppers to start virtual-first, all kinds of brands can nearly eliminate such end-of-season sales. Picture a virtual fashion show—an army of digital Gigi Hadids sashaying up and down a make-believe catwalk, kitted out in a variety of designs.

Actual consumers could place orders from their screens, allowing the brand to physically produce only what’s already been sold—instead of filling endless Zaras or Ralph Laurens with real garments to try on. Avatars will have sizing built in and can test out the outfits for their real-life counterparts.

Or, if the outfit was only ever purchased for the avatar—like avirtual Gucci purse that sold in Mayfor more than the same bag in the real world—then these clothes may never have to be sewn at all.

Cruz is so committed to this idea that PlatformE is now going beyond its work with Kering and company to launch an in-house label, Valaclava. It will make its debut online, with items designed anonymously by artists and illustrators—some with fashion backgrounds, others with little experience in the field.

The outfit you see on the virtual runway will sell as an NFT, which the highest bidder will own, much like a patent. The buyer won’t receive a physical version of the garment, though they’ll get all the technical information needed to have it made in the real world if they wish. Three hundred other shoppers will be able to buy real-world versions of the look without the NFT, because some people are still into that sort of thing.

Bonus: Revenue, Forever

D&G Dress From a Dream in gold Source: Dolce & Gabbana

There’s another reason luxury labels are rushing to embrace NFTs and virtual designs: the secondary and resale market, popularized by companies such as RealReal Inc. and Fashionphile Group LLC. The NFT setup lets the labels finally monetize a market they’ve long struggled to crack. NFTs assure authenticity, which discourages knockoffs, and can embed the equivalent of a sitcom actor’s residuals in every luxury dress or bag.

“Normally if something is sold [on a resale site] now, Hermès does not make a penny off that. But with digital items there’s a huge opportunity for continued revenue when they’re resold,” Hackl explains.

All it takes is for the smart certificate or NFT to include a royalty fee or revenue share on future transactions, guaranteeing the original designer a percentage of whatever’s paid.

The Fabricant already operates like this on its creator-powered platform by taking a 5% royalty whenever a garment is resold after the first purchase.

So, Is This the End of Real Stuff?

In short, no. At least, not yet. Virtual couture remains a niche business. One of the biggest obstacles remains the clumsiness of how to wear what’s purchased; there are the technology barriers among metaverses, as enunciated by Zuckerberg. And we’re still far away from a world in which augmented-reality goggles, also touted in his Meta presentation, are commonplace. (In that world, a virtual garment can be worn on your actual body for passersby wearing the lenses to admire.)

Singer Charli XCX models the Herrera x Tribute dress, available virtually.

Source: Tribute Brand

But there’s a whole generation of young people who’ve grown up playing video games in environments where what you look like and what you “have” is valuable. For them, the idea of investing in your digital appearance makes perfect sense. So while the flowering of some of these ideas may seem far off yet, their roots are already deep.

Gala Vrbanic, an avid gamer and the founder of Tribute Brand, which sells digital fashions that can be shared on social media, predicts that in the future, “all the fashion moments will happen in the digital world.” Put more simply, we’ll wear comfortable clothes around on Earth and showcase our style in its virtual counterparts.

The Dematerialised’s Nobbs confesses that her ultimate goal is to open a brick-and-mortar store that sells nothing but virtual clothes. “Marie Kondo has been telling us for quite some time we have too much stuff in our wardrobes, and we all know that,” she says. “I think we’ll go to people having a larger digital than physical collection of clothes.”

The Impossible tiara, which sold at Dolce & Gabbana’s couture fashion show in October.

Source: Dolce & Gabbana

The Runway of the Future Already, big names are staking a claim in the metaverse. The Gucci Garden, for example, a pop-up on Roblox that sold the brand’s designs, saw one bag fetch $4,000 in real-world cash. Nike Inc., too, announced an in-depth partnership with the platform to create Nikeland, a virtual world modeled after the company’s headquarters in Oregon that offers

exclusive goods for sale. In September, Balenciaga brought out a collection of clothes in Fortnite. These “skins,” or outfits for game characters, are purchased using V-Bucks, the currency of the Fortnite world. (V-Bucks cost real money to obtain.)

Tommy Hilfiger’s venture capital arm has announced a partnership with EWG Virtual, a viral marketing agency, to focus on so-called v-commerce. Not to be outdone, Burberry created a string of unique characters called Sharky B—playable NFT creations complete with jetpack, armbands, and pool shoes—to live in Blankos Block Party from Mythical Games. The collection sold out quickly, for almost $400,000.

But nothing compares with Dolce & Gabbana’s efforts to settle the metaverse. At its Alta Moda show in Venice in September, the brand unveiled a separate nine-look collection of men’s and women’s clothing and accessories, also attached to NFTs. Four designs were virtual-only; the rest included a real-world garment. Sold at auction, this futuristic collection tallied $5.7 million.

Part Two Looking at technology within fashion already

The Science Behind Nike's New, Even Faster Marathon Shoe At Sunday's London Marathon, Eliud Kipchoge will wear the ZoomX Vaporfly Next%, the latest instalment in Nike's performance-boosting Vaporfly line of shoes.

NIKE

The ZoomX Vaporfly Next%, Nike's latest elite running shoe, makes its debut this weekend in time for Eliud Kipchoge to wear it in the London Marathon.

At Sunday's London Marathon, Eliud Kipchoge, the greatest marathoner on earth, will toe the line in what could become the most controversial shoe his sport has ever known: Nike's ZoomX Vaporfly Next%.

Long anticipated by the sort of runner who devotes his free time to scouring Facebook groups, Instagram pages, and online message boards for news about foams, colorways, heel-toe offsets, and inventory restocks (and who is willing to part with hundreds of dollars to gain a competitive edge), the Next%, which was unveiled this week, is the successor to Nike's Vaporfly 4%—a shoe the company claims can make runners 4 percent more efficient on their feet, translating to precious minutes over the course of a race like the marathon.

Since their debut in 2017, Vaporflys have become a race-day favorite among professional athletes and hobby joggers alike. (Observe the sea of red Vaporflys among the elite field at the 2018 London Marathon.) They have so far avoided being banned from competitive events by the International Association of Athletics Federations, the governing body of the running world. But the Next% could change that: Nike claims that the shoe saves runners even more energy than its predecessors. This week, I confirmed those claims with the researchers who performed external validation of Nike's internal tests: The shoes, they say, provided a significant advantage over the 4%s in a controlled study.

The new Vaporfly's superior energy savings could translate to even faster times. But how much of an advantage will the Next%s actually provide—and will it be enough to compel the IAAF to act?

The story so far goes like this: In 2016, Nike unveiled the first version of the Vaporfly, appending "4%" to the name in reference to the energy savings they were purported to provide. The shoes represented the technological component of a three-year, multipronged effort to engineer a perfect marathon and break the 26.2-mile race's elusive 2-hour barrier at a track in Monza, Italy. Eliud Kipchoge, widely regarded as the greatest marathoner of all time, headlined the attempt. He came just 25 seconds short—closer than most people thought he would.

Granted, the conditions of the race were optimized for speed—Kipchoge had a phalanx of pacers blocking the wind for the majority of the race, and he ran on a loop with zero timesapping, 90-degree turns—so it didn't count as an official record. What's more, it was far from clear that the shoes were the key to Kipchoge's brush with the 2-hour barrier. Yet he and many other runners, professional and otherwise, have worn some version of the shoes in each of their races since.

After Monza, Vaporflys quickly became a controversial talking point among the running set. Do they really make you faster, or are they part of a carefully orchestrated marketing stunt? Are they designed for elite runners, or can casual competitors benefit from them, as well?

The answer to all these questions appears to be yes. Peer-reviewed research has confirmed that the shoes make runners more efficient. WIRED's in-house analysis found that runners of the 2017 New York Marathon finished faster if they were wearing Vaporflys. Last year, The New York Times analyzed nearly half a million marathon and half-marathon times logged from 2014 to 2018 and found that, even after accounting for confounding variables, runners shod in Vaporflys ran between 3 and 4 percent faster than similar runners wearing other shoes. As for the marketing bit: The $250 shoes sold so well that, for months, the only reliable way to land a pair was to buy them at a premium on the secondary shoe market.

So firmly has the Vaporfly effect anchored itself in the running community's consciousness that last year, when the Boston Marathon subtracted five minutes from the times that athletes must run to qualify for the race, conspiratorially minded runners speculated that all the Vaporflys had something to do with it.

As for Kipchoge, he managed to clinch an official record a year after his unofficial attempt in Monza. At the 2018 Berlin Marathon, he traversed the course's 26.2 miles in 2:01:39. It was a precedent-shattering performance. For more than half a century, improvements to the marathon world record had come in increments measured in seconds. Kipchoge crushed the previous record by a colossal 1 minute and 18 seconds. And he did it wearing Vaporflys.

The question you're probably wondering: How do these shoes work?

"Our research suggests that the energy savings of the first Vaporfly came from two things, the foam in the midsole and the carbon fiber plate sandwiched inside," says Wouter Hoogkamer, a biomechanistic in the Locomotion Laboratory at the University of Colorado Boulder.

An expert in the energetics of running, Hoogkamer was the first author on the peerreviewed study Nike relied on to claim the OG Vaporfly could improve running economy by 4 percent. What that study couldn't tell him and his colleagues was where the energy savings came from. So they designed a follow-up study to begin teasing apart where those precious percentage points originate.

NIKE

Their results showed that the foam in the midsole (Nike calls it ZoomX, but foam nerds know it as Pebax) is uncommonly compliant and resilient. Translation: It's squishy and springy, respectively. Those properties enable the foam to absorb the energy a runner applies when their feet meet pavement and return a portion of it to their stride … somehow. How it works, exactly, remains unclear. The researchers originally hypothesized that the foam would save runners energy by reducing bending at their knees, but that turned out not to be the case. "But the foam, mechanically speaking, is a big player in whatever's going on," Hoogkamer says.

Their results also showed that the carbon fiber plate plays a role—but not in the way many people think. When the Vaporfly was first unveiled, critics of the shoe speculated that the plate acted like a spring. But Hoogkamer's findings suggest the plate's spring function is negligible. What the plate does do is improves runners' ankle mechanics by stabilizing the joint and reducing the load on the calves. At the same time, its stiffness helps keep runners' toes nice and straight, allowing them to preserve the energy they would otherwise spend flexing them.

If keeping your toes straight sounds to you like it would provide pretty meager energy benefits, Hoogkamer agrees. "Physiologically speaking, I have a hard time believing that eliminating toe flexion saves you much," he says. "My current thinking is that the foam and plate are working in concert, but that the foam is doing more work than the plate."

And reader, you won't believe this, but the Next%'s midsole contains 15 percent more foam than its predecessor.

Speaking of foam: Here's where things get squishy. The first time Nike asked Hoogkamer and his colleagues at the Locomotion Lab to validate their internal tests, the company agreed to let the researchers publish their findings and talk about them publicly.

Not this time.

"What I can say on the record is that the Vaporfly Next% provided a statistically significant improvement in running economy over the original Vaporfly 4% in our test subjects," Hoogkamer says. "Overall, it just performed better."

When I ask what more he can say about the study, Hoogkamer says: "Probably not much."

The number of study participants, what paces they ran at, how long they ran, the range of energy savings the researchers observed—for now, those details will remain a secret.

Leaked images of the Next% showed that Nike at one point considered calling it the Vaporfly 5%. Why the change? "We had people test above and below 5 percent, but as we got to wider and wider audiences, it didn’t feel right to put one specific number on it," says Elliott Heath, Nike's product line manager for running shoes.

Heath also points out that Nike did more than add foam to the shoe. It's got a new upper that won't soak through with rain or sweat (a major drawback of the original Vaporfly); the heel-toe offset shrank from 11 millimeters to 8; the sole features better traction and borrows heavily from the design of the "elite" version of the Vaporfly that Kipchoge wore during his attempt to break the 2-hour barrier; and the addition of padding at the opening of the shoe helps keep the heel locked in place. The Next% even weighs exactly the same as

its predecessor. About the only thing Nike didn't mess with? "The carbon fiber plate did not change," Heath says.

That final detail reminds me of something Hoogkamer mentioned when we talked about his earlier study on the Vaporfly's foam-plate system. "Our biggest limitation was that we weren’t able to test the same shoe with and without a plate, or two versions with different foams," he said. "If you really wanted to answer where those energy savings come from, you'd have to design an experiment where you add and subtract components from the overall equation."

With the Next%, Nike has effectively designed that study itself. The new Vaporfly might sport new materials, better traction, and an updated look, but when it came time to tune the engine of the shoe—the foam-plate system—Nike changed only one variable.

Every so often, a technology comes along that transforms the way athletes compete. In the 1970s, composite tennis racquets larger and lighter than their wooden predecessors empowered players to hit balls faster and with more spin. In 2008, Speedo introduced a full-body swimsuit that dramatically reduced drag in the water, enabling swimmers wearing the new suits at the Beijing Olympics to dominate the Summer Games and break dozens of world records.

Composite racquets were permitted to remain in use. Within a decade they had become the norm among tennis pros, forever altering the dynamics of the game. Conversely, following the Beijing Olympics, it took less than a year for the International Swimming Federation to ban full-length speedsuits from competition.

Last year, a spokesperson for the International Association of Athletics Federations told The New York Times it had yet to be convinced that the Vaporflys should not be allowed in races. Perhaps the Next% will make a more compelling case. Especially if other shoe companies are unable to compete with products of their own, the IAAF may soon face its own decision over the future of running.

But not before Kipchoge laces up the latest pair of Vaporflys for Sunday's race in London.

The article featuring the Vaporfly Next% interested me for a couple of reasons, not only for the technology and how we can use this to be more efficient within competition and hopefully in the near future, in everyday life. Something similar happened with Adidas and their ‘boost’ technology that was a premium material, then made it’s way to everyday lifestyle sneakers.

The technology in the Next%, as controversial as it is, interests me in terms of the testing and research behind the shoe itself, making the science behind it the reason that it sells.

With the Nike team talking about the technology and how the aesthetic doesn’t really matter, its more the technology and how the competitive edge sells itself in the market.

Nike’s hands-free shoe is a step forward for inclusive clothing

Nike have designed a shoe to help people with disabilities.

Image: Nike 10 Feb 2021

Inclusive Design •

There are one billion people in the world with some form of disability.

•

Many are cut off from full social and economic participation.

•

A growing number of fashion brands are making inclusive clothing a priority.

•

Nike has designed a hands-free shoe, while Tommy Hilfiger has an inclusive range.

If you have a body, you are an athlete – according to the sports brand Nike, that is.

It’s an inclusive outlook from a brand that is closely associated with elite athletes at the very peak of their physical prowess. And with the unveiling of the latest iteration of a shoe designed to be accessible to all, the company appears to be taking its mission statement seriously.

The FlyEase is a shoe without laces. A shoe you quite literally step into and out of without the need to use your hands. That’s particularly welcome news to the millions of people for whom the tying of shoelaces is an intractable problem. For people living

with a range of conditions, from autism to dyspraxia, cerebral palsy to hemiplegia and many more, tying shoelaces can often mean getting help from someone.

Spurred into action It was that which led US teenager Matthew Walzer to contact Nike directly in 2012.

Walzer has cerebral palsy, with limited mobility in one of his hands, and while the condition hasn’t held him back, it does mean that shoelaces are a problem.

“My dream is to go to the college of my choice without having to worry about someone coming to tie my shoes every day,” Walzer wrote in his letter to Nike. “I’ve worn Nike basketball shoes all my life. I can only wear this type of shoe, because I need ankle support to walk. At 16 years old, I am able to completely dress myself, but my parents still have to tie my shoes. As a teenager who is striving to become totally self-sufficient, I find this extremely frustrating and, at times, embarrassing.”

The letter spurred a team of designers into action and led to the creation of a shoe with a hinged sole that allows for ease of ingress and egress, with a high-tension band helping retain the shoe’s structural integrity.

Addressing inequalities in fashion As many as one billion people worldwide experience some form of disability, according to the World Bank. That equates to 15% of the world’s population, with the incidence of disability being higher for developing countries. Many people living with disability are blocked from participating fully in social and economic opportunities. That can be due to a range of factors, including a lack of support services and assistive devices – including clothing and footwear.

Clothing and footwear can be problematic for the one billion people in the world with a disability.

Image: World Bank

Nike isn’t alone among big-name fashion brands in trying to make clothing more accessible to all. As far back as the 1970s, Levi Strauss & Co, a name synonymous with denim, introduced a pair of jeans that were designed with inclusivity in mind.

Designer Helen Cookman used stretch denim and full-length zips built into the side seams of the jeans. They could be unzipped from the top or the bottom and had easyto-reach pockets.

Tommy Hilfiger has created a range of inclusive clothing under the Tommy Adaptive brand, while organizations like the Open Style Lab are working to get more mainstream interest in accessible fashion.

“Our mission is for all people to have access to style, regardless of cognitive and physical ability,” the Open Style Lab website says. Part of its work includes bringing designers, engineers and occupational therapists together to work on projects and concepts that develop clothing and wearables that meet the needs of people with disabilities.

The topic of making accessibility a mainstream concern was also addressed during the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda Week. As part of a session called Delivering Social Justice in the New Economy, panellists discussed how the pandemic has widened inequalities, particularly among members of disadvantaged groups and minorities.

When thinking about new technology within fashion and streetwear in general, one of the first things that came to mind was the Nike Flyease. A shoe made to help people with disabilities or troubles getting shoes on, by making a shoe with a flexible heel to make it easier to slide the shoes on and go.

This was something that is a fantastic idea and this ideology has been around for a while but can also be advanced a lot with more technology and even within the virtual space, making fashion more inclusive for everyone. Looking further into Nike’s initiatives might be something I need to do.

GORE-TEX®

by Chris Woodford. Last updated: November 17, 2020.

T

he great American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) once said:

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain." If he'd lived a few decades longer, he might have come to a different conclusion. Generally, the best thing you can do nowadays when it's raining is to reach for the GORE-TEX® to keep yourself dry.

GORE-TEX is an amazing breathable, waterproof textile found in high-performance clothes such as walking/hiking boots and mountain coats. Unlike ordinary synthetic textiles like nylon, GORE-TEX stops rain from getting in but let’s perspiration out. So it keeps you dry on the outside and dry on the inside at the same time. Sounds remarkable, doesn't it? But how exactly does it work?

What is GORE-TEX made of?

Suppose you're in the kitchen on a cold winter's day and you've got pans boiling away on the stove. Pretty soon, the windows are steaming up with condensation and the whole place feels like a sauna. But there's a storm outside and the rain is practically blowing sideways. What do you do? Well if you have sash windows (ones that open vertically at the top and bottom), you could open the top window just a fraction. Then the steam will drift out without the rain getting in. You'll let water out without letting rain in. Roughly speaking, GORE-TEX works the same way. It allows perspiration to escape one way through your clothes without letting rain come in the other way.

Photo: Look inside the boots and you can clearly see the GORE-TEX lining.

The GORE-TEX fabric is inside the leather "uppers". The leather keeps out some of the water; the GORE-TEX keeps out the rest.

Is that some kind of magic trick? How can water flow through your clothes in only one direction? GORE-TEX isn't one simple material: it's actually a sandwich of three layers. There are two layers of nylon making up the "bread"

and then a layer of microporous Teflon® (a brand name for polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE) in between. You might know Teflon as the slippery coating on non-stick cookware. (Many people think it's a hi-tech remnant from the Apollo moon-landing program, but it was accidentally invented back in 1938 by a DuPont™ chemist called Roy Plunkett (1910–1994), who was trying to make a better refrigerator.) Teflon's slippery nature makes it great for waterproofing things. Some buildings, including the infamous Millennium Dome in London (now renamed The O2 Arena), are even made with gigantic Teflon roofs. Now no-one's interested in boiling an egg on top of a tent in east London; the Teflon's there to keep out the rain.

Why is GORE-TEX breathable?

Now the Teflon in GORE-TEX isn't quite waterproof because it has tiny holes (or pores) in it. That's why it's called microporous Teflon. The pores are less than one micrometer (one millionth of a meter) in diameter—less than one fiftieth the size of a human hair.

And this helps to explain why water in one form can't pass through but water in a different form can.

When you sweat, your body produces steam, which is water in the form of a gas. As you probably know, the molecules in a gas are not really joined together. They can whizz freely all over the place, which is why a gas fills whatever it's contained in. Now a water molecule is about 700 times smaller than the pores in microporous GORE-TEX, so when you sweat, the steam can easily flow from your skin, drift through the GORE-TEX (by a process called diffusion), and out of your clothes. But water in rain is totally different from sweat. It's a liquid made up of droplets, each of which contains trillions of water molecules. A single water drop is about 20,000 times bigger than the holes in microporous GORE-TEX, so there's no way it's coming through.

That, then, is the clever little secret of GORE-TEX—one of the most amazing materials in the modern world. But you could say it's actually the clever little secret of water— perhaps the most amazing "material" of all time!

Artwork: How GORE-TEX can be both waterproof and breathable at the same time. Steam caused by perspiration passes out easily because the water molecules are smaller than the pores in the GORETEX liner; water droplets can't get in the other way because they're much bigger.

Two layers are better than one “I figured that if we could ever unfold those (Teflon) molecules, get them to stretch out straight, we'd have a tremendous new kind of material.”

Wilbert Gore, The New York Times, 1985.

That's a very basic explanation—and if it's all you want to know, you can stop reading now. In practice, things are a little bit more sophisticated!

GORE-TEX clothes are generally made from three layers: a conventional outer shell fabric, plus two separate GORE-TEX layers with similar but quite different waterproofbreathable properties. On the inside, there's a relatively thin, relatively delicate inner membrane or film that's hydrophilic ("water-loving"), which readily allows water vapor to escape but doesn't allow liquid water in. The hydrophilic layer absorbs perspiration produced by your body and transports it, by diffusion, to the outside: unlike with many other textiles, the water doesn't move by wicking and capillary action (where the water soaks into the fabric and then channels through it, like water moving up a plant from the roots to the leaves), but because of the difference in water concentration between the inside and the outside. Next to the inner layer, there's a thicker outer layer made from a microporous plastic polymer, such as Teflon. This layer is hydrophobic ("water-hating"), which means it resists water from outside, even when it's impacting at high speed or pressure (as in heavy rain) or when the fabric is flexing back and forth (as you walk or run along). The hydrophobic layer doesn't soak up water coming in from the outside (droplets simply "bead" on its surface and stay there, without soaking in), but like the inner hydrophilic layer, it does allow perspiration to escape from the inside by diffusion.

Why have two layers to GORE-TEX instead of one? The outer layer provides protection and support for the inner layer, but it also provides thermal insulation: it reduces heat loss and helps to keep you warm. If it's not properly hydrophobic, the outer layer soaks up the rain, which cools the inner layer and makes your body cold. The two layers work together as a team, keeping water out, keeping heat in, and allowing perspiration to escape.

Alternatives to GORE-TEX Photo: Dependable waterproof and breathable textiles are a big selling point for high-performance outdoor clothes. Here's a selection of jackets and waterproof pants I've just pulled from my own home. Like rival materials, Schoeller's quick-drying 3XDRY has a hydrophobic outside and a hydrophilic inside, but they're both incorporated into a single layer, woven fabric. According to Schoeller, the fabric moves moisture so quickly that sweat doesn't have time to build up inside it. That's certainly been my own experience when I've worn the 3XDRY jacket shown here, but as a single layer of fabric it's not so good on colder days. Rohan uses its own waterproof and breathable textile called Barricade™.

GORE-TEX is certainly the best known brand of high-performance, waterproof and breathable textile—but it's by no means the only one.

If you're shopping around for outdoor clothing, bear in mind that there are plenty of rival textiles to consider; just because it's not branded "GORE-TEX," doesn't mean it's not going to be good. Two very popular alternatives are eVent and SympaTex. eVent clothing works in a similar way to GORE-TEX: it has three layers of fabric, with a backing fabric on the inside, a wicking Teflon-type (PTFE) membrane in the middle to draw moisture away, and a water-repellent outside. SympaTex is quite different. Instead of

having micropores, like GORE-TEX and eVent, it uses what's called a copolymer, made of hydrophobic polyester and hydrophilic polyether. The polyester repels water from the outside; the polyether absorbs moisture from the inside and transports it out, away from your body. But there are no actual pores through which the water travels.

Artwork: A) How SympaTex works: Unlike in GORETEX, there are no micropores in SympaTex to carry moisture away from your body. Instead, hydrophilic polyether molecules in the SympaTex membrane effectively act like little "channels," carrying moisture from the inside to the outside.

Artwork: B) Inside a multi-layer aerobic sports garment (such as a waterproof and breathable cycle sweater). 1) On the outside, there's a durable shell made of something like 85 percent polypropylene and 15 percent spandex (to give it body-hugging elasticity). 2) In the middle, there's a layer of waterproof and breathable SympaTex (or GORE-TEX).

3) On the inside, there's a tricot, warp-mesh lining to help moisture wick away from the body and increase comfort.

Quite a few clothing companies have developed their own breathable, waterproof textiles. Patagonia, for example, has H2No® (a two-layer polyester/polyurethane fabric with a water-repellant shell and a breathable membrane); Rohan has a porousmembrane fabric similar to GORE-TEX, known as Barricade™, and The North Face has a polyurethane coating called DryVent™ (formerly known as HyVent™). Proprietary fabrics obviously have advantages for clothing makers, who don't have to use and endorse someone else's product or pay their expensive licensing fees. But the plethora of different options can be very confusing for consumers: which one of these textiles will perform best for cycling, running, day-to-day trips to the office, and so on? Be sure to check out plenty of product reviews before you buy!

Photo: Keep it clean! One drawback of GORE-TEX is that you need to keep it clean to keep it waterproof—and clean it properly. Over time, as perspiration from your body escapes out through the material, it can cause a buildup of surfactants (detergent-like chemicals) that reduces the effectiveness of the waterproofing. In a similar way, the surfactants in ordinary detergents will clean GORE-TEX clothes but leave them considerably less waterproof. Always follow the manufacturer's cleaning instructions and be sure to use proper cleaning and waterproofing products designed specially for GORE-TEX and similar materials.

Who invented GORE-TEX?

In October 1969, Dr Robert ("Bob") W. Gore (1937–2020) discovered how to turn PTFE into a microporous material called expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE), which makes up the waterproof and breathable membrane used in GORE-TEX. He found if he heated PTFE and suddenly tugged it hard, he could stretch it into a strong but highly porous new form that could be used in many unexpected ways.

Gore was the son of Wilbert Lee ("Bill") Gore (1912–1986), a chemical engineer who worked at DuPont before starting his own firm, W.L. Gore & Associates, from his basement in 1957. Initially, Bill Gore's company used DuPont's Teflon to make electrically insulated ribbon cable (parallel connecting cables that link printed circuit boards together inside electronic devices). But it was Bob Gore's discovery of ePTFE that led to real success, spawning all kinds of profitable uses, from waterproof clothing and boots to guitar strings and medical implants, and turning W.L. Gore & Associates into a world-class chemical company with sales of over $2 billion a year. The first everday GORE-TEX product was a camping tent, which went on sale in 1976.

GORE-TEX is one of the best materials for versatile outdoor clothing and was a must have in terms of looking at for technology in fashion as I think as climate change increases and we look at extreme weather potentially coming in to play in the next decade for more and more of us. Tech like this needs to be advanced and utilized more and more in the coming years to see what we can make of it.

Another point with GORE-TEX is looking at the amount of collaborations they’ve had with brands such as Palace, Adidas and even Stone Island, these all being prevalent streetwear brands at a high market level. This is because GORE-TEX is one of the best brands for what they do and their technology provides in terms of versatility and at this point, GORE-TEX as a name sells very well at this point as well.

Technology And Fashion: An Innovative Ensemble Now In Vogue Catherine Seeds

Catherine is President at Ketner Group Communications, a PR and communications agency working with innovative B2B companies.

GETTY

One of my favorite movies is The Devil Wears Prada, the 2006 film that gave us an inside look at the fashion magazine world coupled with a ton of laughs. I love the scene in which Meryl Streep’s character, the diabolical editor of Runway magazine, scorches her new and very unfashionable assistant with a killer monologue about how one blue sweater was “selected” for her by those in the room (i.e., the world of fashion).

While the fashion elite continue to focus on next season’s colors and looks, another group of trend makers are creating technologies that could change the future of fashion and ultimately change the way we shop for the things we wear. My agency has been

lucky to work with and mentor many different fashion-focused technology companies, from those offering product life cycle management solutions to those involved in apparel e-commerce search and fitting room technologies. Telling their stories to the industry is one of the best parts of my job. After all, we all love to look good in the clothes we wear, and tech companies are helping fashion and apparel brands give us, the consumer, optimal shopping experiences.

The fashion industry certainly took a hit this past year — a report by the Business of Fashion website and McKinsey & Company noted that 2020 was "the worst year on record for the fashion industry." The tide may be turning, however, as the market is predicted to recover and hit $672.71 billion by 2023.

It seems that fashion technology is leading the way with exciting innovations that have been accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis. Let's look at two major fashion tech trends that are pushing the industry forward — and how fashion technology companies can take advantage of the current environment by creating high-impact communications programs.

Livestream Shopping According to the National Retail Federation, livestream shopping “will take center stage in 2021, with the potential to be one of the fastest-growing categories in the digital oneto-one ecosystem.”

Many fashion brands and retailers like L’Oréal Group and Nordstrom have jumped into the waters of live shopping, allowing them to remain hyper-connected with shoppers during the pandemic. Implementing this technology can help savvy fashion brands keep their shoppers loyal. The popularity of e-commerce skyrocketed in 2020. In fact, consumers spent $861.12 billion online with U.S. retailers last year — an increase of 44% from 2019. The online shopping trend will likely only continue to grow, and the desire for more video content is already here. According to research by Wyzowl,"68% of consumers say the pandemic has impacted the amount of video content they've watched online, with the overwhelming majority (96%) saying this has increased."

Virtual Fit And Inclusivity-Focused Tech At a high level, virtual fit technology helps e-commerce shoppers make more informed decisions. This technology can provide data-driven style, size and fit recommendations for shoppers, as well as opportunities to "try on" outfits by uploading a photo of themselves. Although virtual fit has been around for a number of years, its use has grown during the pandemic. Virtual fit technology is a great alternative for shoppers who aren't ready to be back in the store but are ready to update their wardrobes after a long year of staying close to home.

In the same vein as virtual fit, inclusivity-focused technologies allow shoppers to see more variety in the body size and skin color of clothing models to more accurately reflect what shoppers themselves look like. As Kayla Marci, a market analyst at a retail and fashion technology firm, told Retail Dive, “67% of American women are a size 14 and are voicing their need for fashionable products regardless of size.”

Haute Communications Strategies For Fashion Technology In 2021 And Beyond Spurred on by the Covid-19 pandemic, the rapid changes in the fashion industry represent an opportunity for fashion technology companies to create high-impact communications programs. To take advantage of this moment, develop strong communications strategies that include engaging content that establishes thought leadership, and develop targeted media relations that can drive leads. When it comes to content, it is all about storytelling and creating a content “hub” that is based on longform content. For example, if you have an e-book that focuses on best practices for engaging shoppers via virtual fit, take the content and break it out into a complete network of smaller content pieces. This could include infographics, proactive media pitches, bylined articles, social media posts and press releases. Content is still king, and fashion tech vendors can benefit from keeping it front and center.

As any good PR practitioner knows, media relations is all about relationships. Fashion tech companies should strive to keep their media relations strategies targeted and, more importantly, more personalized. Newsrooms, including those covering fashion,

are understaffed and overwhelmed, which means your pitching strategies need to stand out from the rest. Personalization is the name of the game, as well as treating journalists the same as you would your very best customer. These tactics can help you get the media coverage you want and the new business leads that you need.

I am lucky to be in the world of technology and PR, and even luckier to be supporting clients in fashion technology. We are watching an industry literally transform itself in real time, and the early results are very exciting. Fashion may have had a rough year in 2020, but as legendary New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham once said, "Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life." Last year certainly tested that theory, but the combination of technology and fashion will no doubt keep the industry in the headlines for years to come.

This was an interesting read into the perspective of the article and the different approach it took this time. As there seems to be no bias towards anyone group in this article, and as a purely third party view, Seeds seems to talk about the overview of technology within fashion instead of focusing too much in one area.

Livestream shopping isn’t something I’m too familiar with so it was quite interesting to see this being brought up and maybe this is more of an Americanised area.

The article touches on the more commercial side of tech in fashion, especially in the American market and at a high street level. But she also talks about how companies and brands should approach this new industry change in terms of how to sell it to people and how to package it in to something that people can understand and can relate to.

Why is Arc’teryx so Expensive? Are Their Jackets Worth the Price?

UPDATED ON: APRIL 15, 2020 2 COMMENTS

Outdoor brands are numerous and some are comparable to each other in regards to how their products perform, their quality and, sometimes, their prices.

Expensive brands can be found everywhere, but some take it a bit to the extreme.

Why are certain brands so expensive and at the same time how come they are so popular?

We live in a time where fad brands that come and go are a dime a dozen and it’s always a bit surprising how high their prices are and how many people buy their products.

It is not surprising, however, when it comes to brands that have been around for years and seem to get more popular as the years go by.

We have looked at some of these outdoor brands that come with crazy prices, including Canada Goose, The North Face and Patagonia, and today we will look at Arc’teryx, one of the most beloved brands by the outdoors communities all over the world.

Contents: •

1. The Brand

•

2. Why are Arc’teryx Jackets so Expensive?

•

3. Where Are Their Jackets Made?

•

4. Are Arc’teryx Jackets Really Good?

•

5. Is Arc’teryx Worth It?

1. The Brand Arc’teryx was established in 1991 by Dave Lane, who originally had founded the Rock Solid company in 1989. That company was then renamed to Arc’teryx, a reference to evolution as a means of representing the brand’s focus on innovation and product development.

Arc’teryx was founded by mountain climbers and for mountain climbers, with some of its earliest products being the notable Bora backpack and the Vapor harness, both of which were created by using the thermolamination technology.

Arc’teryx’s venture into the outdoor clothing market became notable when the brand partnered with Gore-Tex and obtained licensing for using this fabric technology in their products.

Combining their visionary designs with the high-performance of Gore-Tex helped to the brand’s quick rise in popularity.

To this day, Arc’teryx continues to be one of the most recommended and raved about brands online among outdoors’ enthusiasts and athletes due to its high quality products.

Read next: Arc’teryx vs Patagonia: Which Brand is Better?

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeopteryx

2. Why are Arc’teryx Jackets so Expensive?

As we have mentioned in previous articles where we looked at the factors that contribute to the prices and popularity of certain brands, our main focus is on jackets and that is what we will be focusing on today as well.

It bears mentioning, however, that Arc’teryx provides a wide range of products that come with stellar reviews and are worth considering if you are looking to buy everything in one place.

Let’s now take a look at some of the main reasons why this brand is so expensive and at the same time so popular.

Quality of Products and Manufacturing It is no secret that Arc’teryx products last for years and are extremely well-made. A longlasting product is in itself an investment when taking into consideration that you will not have to repurchase the same jacket year after year because it cannot keep up.

That is not the case with Arc’teryx. The products are not just well-made in regards to manufacturing and overall construction, but they are also very well-made in regards to design.

Their technical pieces perform astonishingly and the odds are quite low that you will be disappointed with any of their jackets.

The quality of stitching, reinforcement and seam taping is so high that very few other brands can really compare, let alone outdo them.

Therefore, if you look at a product that is impeccable in its quality of manufacture it speaks for itself why the price tag is high.

Materials Here we will be looking at two things: •

the fabrics

•

and the insulation.

Being a brand that provides so much versatility of products means a wide range of materials used and thus it’s important to consider all of them.

First and foremost, the overall quality of the fabrics and insulation used is really high. We have said this about the other brands we have looked at but in the case of Arc’teryx it bears double mentioning. Their materials are really high quality.

The fabrics used are durable and high-performing and when it comes to the technology, the brand relies primarily on Gore-Tex, which has yet to be matched in its well-rounded weather protection.

The Polartec fleece used is also renowned as being one of the best available. It does not pill and it is also very durable.

The insulation used, be it natural down or synthetic ones, such as Coreloft and ThermaTek, are also of the highest quality.

In the case of down, the brand uses 750 fill power down and above, whereas the synthetic insulations are high performance ones that mimic down very closely, without suffering when wet.

Design and Fit Arc’teryx focuses on functionality much more so than other brands out there. It is for that reason that their jackets (and other products) perform the way they do.

Performance of a jacket is not just how well it withstands the elements or how well it breathes, but also how it wears, fits and feels.

Their minimalistic approach to style is a major selling point as many people prefer the clean-cut look of their jackets.

We mentioned above that the brand’s designs are well-thought out and this is evident in how well their jackets fit. Their streamlined garments are great for moving around, fit comfortably and are easy to layer with. There is no unnecessary bulk or room that gets in the way.

Among their product series there are technical differences that meet certain requirements. The hems are also longer than average and in the drop-tail cut, which allows for better coverage when out and about.

Image: pinterest.com Warranty and Product Life We said before that their products last for years and the other great news is that the brand offers a warranty and services related to it that are impressive.

Free replacements and reasonably-priced repairs are the go-to method if something goes wrong with the product and should you accidentally damage your jacket. It’s easy to see why the brand is so beloved in this regard since you are not left helpless if something happens, and that’s a great selling point.

Having a product that is long-lasting is great as this not only cuts down on your expenses, but on the brand’s expenses and also the overall environmental impact of having to remanufacture a product that keeps failing or getting damaged.

Environmental Consciousness Year after year we are warned about what is happening to the environment and the damage suffered through the centuries of human activity on our planet.

For this reason, many of us try to be as mindful as we can when purchasing products and opt for brands that are mindful of their production means.

Those who love the outdoors don’t just love spending time and having fun outdoors, but they also respect and appreciate their surroundings, nature and the wildlife.

Because of this, it’s no surprise that outdoor brands who put great importance to sustainability and ethical means of sourcing and production are also the ones that tend to be favoured.

Arc’teryx is one such brand. Being founded by people who were climbers themselves and respect nature, the brand has made great strides into minimizing their environmental footprint.

This is done through several means, one of which is that of ethical sourcing of their raw materials and fabrics. Traceable down, for example, is one of the natural materials used in their insulated jackets and it is sourced from humanely-treated birds.

Their polyester and nylon fabrics and other raw materials are also Bluesign® certified, which guarantees that the materials are free of harmful chemicals and safe to use for humans, and also gentler on the environment.

3. Where Are Their Jackets Made?

The brand manufactures a lot of the products in Canada, but there are many other facilities around the world. Nearly a third of their products are made in China and the rest are made in other countries such as Bangladesh and Indonesia, and several others.

They have made sure that all of the production facilities are up to standard not solely when it comes to working conditions, but also in the treatment of their workers and in accordance with Labor and Human rights.

Being a brand that is so conscious about the environment is an important factor into why the products are so beloved.

4. Are Arc’teryx Jackets Really Good?

Yes. Their jackets are really good. Be it in performance or in longevity, it’s very hard to find other jackets that compare on both of these factors.

Especially when you take into consideration that these are technical pieces that are made not just to perform beautifully but to also wear and fit comfortably.

5. Is Arc’teryx Worth It? Arc’teryx is not a cheap brand, and we mean it in all of its implications. It is not cheap in its attention to detail, quality of materials, manufacturing and it’s not cheap in its price.

But just because a jacket is not cheap in price it does not necessarily mean it is expensive either. Let us explain. In our opinion, something is expensive when its price does not really match up to the quality and performance.

In the case of Arc’teryx, while there are some jackets that can go upwards of $700, which is a lot of money, there is still room for considering their quality and performance.

Overall, their prices are not that much higher than other similar brands and when looking at how their products perform in comparison to the other brands, it gives you a pretty good idea as to for which ones you are actually paying more than they are worth.

Are their jackets worth their price?

Absolutely! Online reviewers, be they professional or regular commenters on forums, agree that Arc’teryx is a brand worthy of its reputation.

Relating to the GORE-TEX article I read previously, I looked at Arc’teryx because I’m interested in their reputation and how its grown so much, especially since people have a higher appreciation for spending more on their clothing that ever before.

The idea that the company are sustainable not just in their practices but in their approach to long lasting clothing that is sustainable because it doesn’t need replacing and their items last for years.

Part Three Streetwear today and the code

Aimé Leon Dore Is The HypebeastApproved Brand That Thrives By Staying Under The Radar

BY ALICE CARY

6 JANUARY 2021 HARRISON BOYCE

Aimé Leon Dore founder Teddy Santis is a master of hype. His approach, however, is the polar opposite of Supreme-esque propaganda designed to create a noisy buzz.

Instead, it is more of a subtle, carefully curated hum, and all the more intriguing for it.

Aimé Leon Dore autumn/winter 2020.

HARRISON BOYCE

In an age of endless Instagram brands, clothing resellers and a Gen-Z trend-driven mindset, Aimé Leon Dore boasts one buzzword that sets it apart: authenticity. Santis’s own upbringing formed the building blocks for Aimé – music, culture and lifestyle are at its core. The best (and simultaneously most frustrating) part? He rarely agrees to interviews, and instead drip feeds news of upcoming releases and imagery to the brand’s near half a million-strong following on Instagram, all while maintaining a strict no post policy on his own account. Inspo pictures captioned simply with a pin emoji are interspersed with lookbook and editorial shots on the Aimé Leon Dore grid, and recent snaps show his colourful, 100 per cent wool take on Clarks Originals’ Wallabee shoes.

The brand’s neo-heritage design blueprint has attracted a staunch following of hypebeasts and clothing obsessives alike since its conception in 2014, with each camp drawn to a different set of qualities in the label. Some fans appreciate the simple and timeless DNA that is a marriage of functional streetwear and varsity staples. Others have been won over by the impressive list of collaborations Santis has racked up over the years, with the likes of Kith, New Era, Timberland, Woolrich, Drake’s and New Balance. The latter partnership is perhaps the most well-known, and has seen the sneaker brand’s NB 997, 990v2, 990v5 styles and most recently the P550s reworked with a modern New Yorker twist – injected with a hint of Queens cool that has been a Santis signature since the beginning (he was raised in the borough by Greek parents).

Bella Hadid wearing the highly-coveted New Balance x Aimé Leon Dore P550 trainers.

Unsurprisingly, the brand’s fanbase includes numerous It-girls and celebrities. Emily Ratajkowski’s almost exclusively loungewear lockdown wardrobe includes several cosy pieces from the brand, while Hailey Bieber and Bella Hadid have been quick to get their hands on the coveted P550s (Bella also owns a rainbow pair of 827s).

Though the clothing is what has made the brand a success, its defiantly low-key presence has also proven irresistible to fans, who are buying into a community that prides itself on being in the know.

Santis is a creative who manages to leave his distinctive mark in all manner of unexpected places, without ever spreading himself too thinly. Take his one-of-a-kind customisation of a Porsche in February last year, for example. Santis’s update of the 1990 964 911 Carrera 4 model was the first time the car manufacturer officially endorsed a vintage 911 restoration.

Should there be further luxury collaborations to come from the Aimé Leon Dore designer, he has an army of admirers ready and waiting to invest.

Aime Leon Dore is a brand I’ve highlighted for the fact that I think this sort of vintage/ classic streetwear will continue to grow in the coming years. This is because of the homage to vintage sportswear that they’ve shown, especially with the New Balance collaboration.

"Authentic Balenciaga looks" released in video game Fortnite James Parkes | 22 September 2021 4 comments Fashion house Balenciaga has collaborated with video game Fortnite to release a collection of ingame clothes and limited edition physical garments.

The digital clothes, which were informed by Balenciaga's previous collections, were created for four ingame characters.

Balenciaga designed a range of digital clothing, which is available to purchase in Fortnite Players of Fortnite, a battle royale video game developed by Epic Games using the Unreal Engine platform, are able to purchase the skins and accessories to customise playable in-game characters.

The collaboration followed the release of Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow, in December 2020, a video game developed by Epic Games to showcase Balenciaga's Autumn Winter 2021 collection.

The collaboration includes designs from previous collections

"Our partnership with Epic didn't start with Fortnite, actually," said Balenciaga's creative director Demna Gvasalia.

"It started with our own first video game, Afterworld, which we built using Unreal Engine to debut our Fall 2021 collection."

The Fortnite logo is placed across the front of a hoodie "From [Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow], we have continued to be inspired by the creativity of Unreal and Fortnite communities," Gvasalia said.

"It made total sense, to me, that we collaborate further by creating these authentic Balenciaga looks for Fortnite and a new physical Fortnite clothing series for our stores."

A striped one-piece from Balenciaga's Spring 2020 collection The digital clothes feature the Autumn Winter 2021 medieval, armour-style pieces, as well as shredded jeans with tracksuit lining, and an animal striped look from its Spring 2020 collection.

In game-weaponry was also given a high-fashion update in form of the brand's iconic accessories.

Sock-style Speed trainers were transformed into a range of pickaxes and the brand's Hourglass bag was modified to be used as a glider.

"Fashion has a long history in the Fortnite community, where players have the agency to show up however they want in our world," said Epic Games president Adam Sussman.

"Self-expression is one of the things that makes Fortnite so unique, and there couldn't be a better first fashion partner than Balenciaga to bring their authentic designs and trendsetting culture to millions of players around the world."

Clothing was given a Fortnite twist A virtual store, that reflects the design of physical Balenciaga locations, will appear in Fortnite's battle royale mode in a location aptly named Retail Row where players can purchase the garments.

A limited-edition run of physical garments will be available that feature the Fortnite logo across staple Balenciaga items of clothing including, hoodies, denim jackets and button-down shirts.

Speed trainers were transformed into pickaxes The in-game garments were created through existing 3D scans of Balenciaga's designs. The Fortnite team then recreated and modified the garments for the game with a "Fortnite spin".

The game developers behind Fortnite and Unreal Engine explained that virtual and physical worlds are becoming increasingly blurred.

"In embracing cutting-edge technologies, Balenciaga has been empowered to court a new digital-native audience, unconstrained by the limits of either world," said Unreal Engine.

This collab has been significant on many levels in terms of, what the market will move to and will other brands taken note and follow suit? And will we see the two industries, gaming & fashion, make more strides to collaborating and blurring the stereotypical line that the two industries never seem to cross.

The interesting choice of Fortnite shows how seriously Balenciaga are taking it as they really couldn’t have chosen a bigger game in terms of popularity and player base, but the demographic for the game and for Balenciaga doesn’t initially add up to me, but again, similarly to what TNF and Gucci did last year, its about opening up opportunities for new consumers and getting the younger generations interested in these big designer brands. When Balenciaga did release the physical garments consisting of hoodies and tshirts mainly, it did sell out extremely quickly, thus because its another collection in which people want to be a part of it for the sake of hype and the fear of missing out almost.

D’oh! couture: Balenciaga puts The Simpsons on Paris catwalk

Fashion house’s cartoon poking fun at itself suggests industry realises it’s time to ditch the pomp

Homer Simpson on the Balenciaga runway in a special episode made for Paris fashion week. Photograph: Balenciaga

I

t was the standout coup of Paris fashion week. Balenciaga secured a catwalk

debut from Homer and Marge Simpson, accompanied by Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Justin Bieber joined Anna Wintour to applaud from the front row.

A fashion week crowd who arrived at the Théâtre du Châtelet expecting a catwalk show were entertained, instead, with a special 10-minute episode of The Simpsons in which the people of Springfield travelled to Paris to walk the Balenciaga runway.

The cartoon poked fun at the house’s outsize shoulder pads (Marge got stuck in a doorway in her dream gown) and costs (Homer almost fainted when he saw the dress’s $19,000 price tag). Homer developed a taste for snails in garlic butter, and took to wearing a single dangling earring and shoulder-robing his Puffa-style jacket.

Creative director Demna Gvasalia’s instinct that his guests would prefer an episode of The Simpsons to a traditional catwalk show was the boldest symbol of a tangible shift felt during this, the first Paris fashion week to return to a live format.

The red-roped elitism that fashion weeks all over the world have relied on to protect their status feels old-fashioned in an era that aspires to inclusivity. As society attempts to regroup and to bond after 18 months of distance and isolation, the more forwardthinking elements of fashion are working to mirror that mood.

At Valentino, each model walked a loop of an indoor venue packed with industry guests and then continued their route into the open air, where the catwalk extended around the cobblestoned streets of the Marais, so that Valentino fans and fashion students who had gathered to see guests and models arriving were served a front row view of the collection.

Similarly, the Chloé catwalk was staged on a bank of the Seine, positioned so that a neighbouring bridge provided a viewing platform for a large crowd of Parisians.

Balenciaga’s collaboration with The Simpsons, which teasingly parodied the design team as pouting, smoking, Emily-in-Paris French cliches, and showed Homer struggling to pronounce the brand name (“Is that Balenciagaga?”) was the most eyecatching example of an industry that is realising it could be time to ditch the pomp.

The episode was also a dream come true for Gvasalia, a Simpsons fan since his childhood in the former Soviet Union.

Cardi B wears a dress printed with gossip magazine covers at the Balenciaga show. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images The cartoon was only half of the immersive pop-cultural experience that was the Balenciaga show. The screening was preceded by red carpet arrivals, in which guests including Cardi B, model Amber Valletta and photographer Juergen Teller were

photographed by paparazzi in Balenciaga’s new collection as they crossed the red carpet outside the theatre in front of screaming crowds. The audience seated inside saw the clothes on a 20-minute livestream of red carpet arrivals instead of being shown them on a runway.

The clothes were the classics of modern Balenciaga, all XXL Puffa-style jackets and dagger-sharp shoulders. Cardi B wore a dress printed with gossip magazine covers. But this was less about new season clothes, and more about a whole new era of fashion as entertainment.

This collaboration is one of my favourite of the past year, for a multitude of reasons but we’ll start from the beginning. Firstly, this came just days after the Fortnite collaboration and considering the prior collab was also a digital platform collab, it didn’t have anywhere near as much quality digital content as this collaboration did. The Simpsons episode they produced was in my opinion, absolutely brilliant, and this is because the content was very well made but also, it was something a lot of people could relate to and understand, instead of making it haute couture, they made it more mainstream and understandable for everyone and people outside the know of the fashion world.

The style’s weren’t overly conceptual but the execution was top notch and I think this has set a standard for brands collaborating in the future. Considering this was one of the first physical fashion shows after the pandemic, to screen an episode of the Simpsons instead of a traditional runway was controversial and could’ve gone either way but in my opinion, was a massive hit.

The Mysterious Mind Garden of Cactus Plant Flea Market The untold story of your favorite rappers' favorite trippy brand—and the elusive designer behind it.

BY SAMUEL HINE

July 21, 2020

Simon Abranowicz and Matteo Mobilio

For the past five years, Cactus Plant Flea Market's smiley-face-emblazoned tees and hoodies have teleported the most important and prolific musicians in the world (plus Timothée Chalamet) into another dimension of style. “When I wear Cactus Plant, I feel like I have on antigravity,” says Pharrell, who had a hand in the brand's creation. “I don't feel like I am living within the matrix of the social norm.”

That mind-expanding effect is why Cactus Plant's puff-print graphics—which look like dreamy doodles you might find in the margins of a dog-eared Kesey novel—have sprouted up everywhere you look. Back in 2016, to get your hands on CPFM, you would have had to go to a boutique like Dover Street Market, where, if you were lucky, you might find a few crunchy hand-dyed tees and hoodies with slogans like “We Are All Powered by the Sun.” Lately you just had to go to your favorite artist's merch stand—Pharrell, Kanye West, the A$AP Mob, Kid Cudi, and even the Rolling Stones have all commissioned CPFM designs for recent tours.

Despite support from style oracles like Frank Ocean and Lil Uzi Vert, Cactus Plant Flea Market remains shrouded in mystery. Since launching the brand five years ago, its sphinx-like founder, Cynthia Lu, has never given an interview. And thus grew the legend—that she did it all working solo out of a small Brooklyn apartment; that your tees might arrive with your name lovingly sewn into the collar; that when she met with Nike's design team to work on the first CPFM sneaker, she stunned the room by dumping a duffel bag of prototypes she had already DIY'd onto the table. (All true, it turns out: Lu stitched the sneakers together using off-the-rack VaporMaxes, T-shirt scraps, lights cut from Payless sneakers, and garden wire.)

Cactus Plant represents a rare antidote to the sameness that is rampant in fashion. Call it artisanal streetwear. If you managed to score one of the few CPFM x Denim Tears pieces Lu made with Tremaine Emory in May, you'll never find another like it, as the print—a yellow smiley face wearing a David Hammons African American-flag bandana—was done on vintage sweats. Many Cactus Plant pieces feature unique hand-dye treatments or embroidery, often done by Lu herself.

One of the most coveted CPFM products is a custom enamel-and-diamond friendship bracelet Lu creates with hip-hop jeweler of record Jacob & Co. Her other collaborators include Comme des Garçons, Nike, Stüssy, and Alpinestars.

Marc Jacobs’s custom CPFM friendship bracelet, made by Jacob the Jeweler. (Lu personally approves every order.)

The seeds of Lu's project fell into fertile soil in 2012, when she landed a job with the P.R. office at Pharrell's streetwear label Billionaire Boys Club. A shy fashion addict who grew up in the Midwest, Lu registered a sort of cosmic kinship with Pharrell one day when they were both wearing matching Céline slip-ons. “She had this amazing energy that would come through in the stuff she wore and how she thought. We just instantly had a connection,” Pharrell says. He hired her to be his assistant and stylist soon after.

Lu's friends almost exclusively refer to her as Cactus or Plant. (She declined to be interviewed for this story, letting her friends—and the clothes—do the talking.) As Pharrell tells it, the nickname felt like destiny: “Cynthia is a beautiful name, but when we were working together I was like, ‘Man, this doesn't really match you. It puts a lid on your energy.’ ” Then Lu told him that she'd been teased with the name Cactus at a previous job, after she adopted an unwanted prickly plant. “I was like, ‘That's it,’ ” Pharrell says. “ ‘You're Cactus. You're short, you're sharp, and you're not easy to touch. And in the driest of times, you're the one with the water.’ ” Lu's higher calling was revealed when she began designing clothes for Pharrell, re-creating vintage pieces she would find in Parisian flea markets. “I was like, ‘Man, you need to be doing this. Like, this is your thing,’ ” Pharrell recalls of her early creations. She began experimenting with her own label on the side, creating custom sweatbands emblazoned with her new brand name—a synthesis of her moniker and the place where she found her eccentric and odd inspiration—and Comme des Garçons-inspired graphic tees, printed on Hanes x Supreme blanks, that she would send to friends.

Then, in June of 2015, when Pharrell was accepting his CFDA Fashion Icon award, he closed his speech by telling his “genius assistant Cactus” to “listen to your instincts.” According to those close to Lu, that was when the brand really crystallized. She listened to her instincts and never looked back.

Lu has maintained a level of anonymity that would make Martin Margiela jealous. A remarkable feat, considering she is still Pharrell's stylist and, pandemic notwithstanding, is usually hiding in plain sight at events among all the world's coolest musicians, athletes, designers, and stylists.

Clockwise from top left: Kendall Jenner in a CPFM design for Kanye West’s Jesus Is King album; CPFM x Alpinestars motocross pants; A$AP Rocky in a CPFM Yams Day hoodie; a friends-and-family exclusive CPFM x Nike bandana; a one-off tee sold at Dover Street Market.

“Her anonymity is not a shtick to make the design go further,” says Virgil Abloh. “She's a pure artist. The designs stand on their own, and they don't need to be promoted.” Abloh sees Lu's work opening a new dialogue in a streetwear world dominated by male designers. “She's in her own genre,” he says.

Last year, Lu expanded her ambitions beyond tees and sweats with a ready-to-wear line called CPFM.XYZ—think purple shibori-dyed painter's pants and slouchy satin flight jackets— which is produced in Japan with the help of streetwear O.G. Nigo. “I wanted to give her the freedom to make what she wanted,” the Bape founder said via email. Even with the backing of an apparel legend, CPFM.XYZ's drops are sporadic and unpredictable. And no less guaranteed to sell out.

With the coronavirus crisis and Black Lives Matter protest movement forcing brands big and small to rethink the way they make, market, and hawk their clothes, Lu's spiritual detachment from the relentless fashion cycle feels prescient. “I made a statement maybe six months ago that ‘streetwear’ is going to die, and I firmly believe that Cynthia is an example of the future of it,” says Abloh, who designs his collections for Louis Vuitton and Off-White on a rigid annual production schedule. “I think she is the prototype for the next epicenter of ideas. She just makes work and it comes out.

She doesn't process it, doesn't have to use hype.”

It's easy to write off any new brand that catches fire as a fad, but here's an upstart label run out of a Brooklyn apartment by an unknown designer that's getting more airtime than some billion-dollar luxury houses. If your wardrobe is looking dusty, let Cactus bring the water.

Samuel Hine is GQ's senior associate editor.

A version of this story originally appears in the August 2020 issue with the title "The Mysterious Mind Garden of Cactus Plant Flea Market".

Cactus Plant Flea Market is one of my favourite brands in term of unique look and signature, in terms of recognizability its well up there and this makes the brand more and more desirable.

The mystery surrounding Cynthia is also very interesting and something that adds to the narrative to the brand as well. The storytelling of this brand is something that really pushes it past other competitors in the market, and the point that Abloh makes about CPFM being part of the future of streetwear, is very true and I can’t wait to see where it goes and the potential for the brand moving forward.

The History of Fragment Design and Hiroshi Fujiwara Aug 4 Written By Josyula Sanshray

Hiroshi Fujiwara is no stranger to sneaker culture. Despite the rarity of his public appearances and his charismatic enigma, this pioneer of Harajuku Street Fashion and minimalistic design sensibilities has shot his way to the very top of modern street fashion.

Known affectionately as the Godfather of the Street, Mr. Fujiwara has collaborated with an extensive number of brands such as Louis Vuitton, Nike, Rolex, TAG Heuer, the Pokemon Company, Medicom Toy, and many many more. His influence is far-reaching, but you may be surprised to learn that he had his humble beginnings as a teenager out of Ise, Mie in Japan.

Humble Beginnings

On his 18th Birthday, Mr. Fujiwara traveled to Tokyo and started his Fashion career in the streets of Harajuku. He also partook in traveling the world and on a particular trip to New York in the early 80s, he discovered American Hip Hop and took a liking to it. He then proceeded to become an evangelist for American Hip Hop in Japan and may have very well been a contributor to its popularisation in Japan. With that he started to DJ and Produce music, specializing in remixes and flipped LPs.

In the early 90s, Mr. Fujiwara had made a name for himself and started his first streetwear label called Good Enough. Right from the get-go, it was apparent that his taste in fashion was quite eccentric and different. Elements of this minimal style are still evident in modern-day Fragment collabs which makes for an interesting throwback to the brand’s humble beginnings. By the turn of the century, Fragment design had become conceptualized and made its debut in 2003.

The Collab Kings

Fragment design is a firm purveyor of collaboration culture in design and has broken the mold for whom it collaborates with, generally setting trends in the ways other brands approach their marketing strategy. From an automaker like Maserati to toymakers like Medicom Toy and the Pokemon Company, to even high luxury brands like Rolex and Louis Vuitton, Fragment design has had its iconic thunderbolt logo integrated into a variety of different labels.

Minimalism, now wearable Fragment’s collaborative spirit takes on a new form when we take a look at their clothing collaborations.

Fragment’s approach is a very interesting one as they take a mixed approach to the way they weave in their thunder(bolt) into anything they touch. For instance, in various capsule collections, we have seen Fragment not only preserve a part of what makes the brand being collaborated with so special but also enhance its artistic value. Moncler, Off White, ASSC and even Cyberpunk 2077 have all seen the magic Mr. Fujiwara can work. Surprisingly, although the aesthetic and brand image of each of these brands is widely different, Fragment can play itself into almost any aesthetic whether it be collegiate, cyber, industrial, or even anti-social.

An on foot image of an Air Jordan 3 Fragment Concept Unlike many big names in fashion today, Mr. Fujiwara takes a more muted approach to his public image. Much like his aesthetic, he prefers simple color blocking and duotones over the loud and flashy colors that brands like Supreme lean into. It is no surprise that Fragment has had its fair share of leaks. When a creative director is a mysterious man, the behind-the-scenes work is bound to be equally as intriguing and leaks all the more exciting.

One such instance of behind-the-scenes mystique - was when Nike approached both Mr. Fujiwara and Virgil Abloh to design their own versions of the ten collections. This friendly competition was ultimately won by Virgil in his “Ten Icons Reconstructed” capsule, but Mr. Fujiwara’s take is also noteworthy as some of these models, like the Air Jordan 3 did see an actual release with a white upper instead.

However, some longestablished more conservative folks in the high fashion community have called into question Fragments whole existence as a brand, quipping that all fragment does is slap their logo on a very basic colorway.

Surprisingly, some sneakerheads also shared this sentiment when the Royal Toe Jordan 1s came out, saying that the Fragment 1s were a very similar shoe being sold for ten times in resale value just because of a thunder(bolted) on logo.

The Modern Day Fragment Design Triple Collabs used to be an oddity in an older sneaker climate, but are soon to become the norm. With these Jordan 1s, La Flame, Mr. Fujiwara and Jordan Brand really knocked it out of the park. Combining an aged vintage look, the iconic Fragment blue and the classic Jordan 1 with a reversed La Flame swoosh makes for one killer of a sneaker.

Current market prices are very high and are projected to stay that way for some time to come due to the sheer hype associated with these Jordan 1 High TS Fragments.

Furthermore, their low-top cousin makes for a great Jordan 1 as it heavily leans into that aged aesthetic with an off-white/cream midsole, reverses swoosh, and laces. Although one could argue that all Fragment did on this collab was contribute its signature shade of blue on the heel panel and outsole, that isn’t really all Fragment did. Fragment as a brand has always been about its creative fluidity and ability to work its image and aesthetic into anything pre-existing, and when push came to shove, it did it again. Fragment continues to remain successful not just on its hype alone, but through its continued creativity, openness to collaborate, and rich history as a streetwear label.

I wanted to look at Fragment because the hold that Fujiwara has on the streetwear scene is very unique, I didn’t know much about the hype until read into it, but I always knew that if it was Fragment, you needed to try and get it!

Looking at the amount of unique collaborations is the most interesting thing about Fragment as well as the fact that you don’t see Fragment garms by themselves but the well-renowned ‘Thunderbolt’ is a must have.

Here’s Your First Look At The North Face x Gucci

BY ALICE NEWBOLD

22 DECEMBER 2020

After a teaser video showing a single “The North Face x Gucci” tent flag blowing in the breeze dropped in September, the collaboration of the season has finally landed. And boy, is it good. The campaign for the menswear and womenswear – plus the outdoor recreation pieces, such as tents and sleeping bags, that transport Gucci into The North Face’s world – takes us back to the ’70s.

Back then, the American retailer was changing the leisure-meets-technical performance wear game from its Berkeley, California, headquarters, which were adjacent to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s music studio. Accordingly, the American rock band’s song “Bad Moon Rising” lends the Daniel Shea-shot video nostalgic flair as Gucci models go adventuring in their hybrid looks.

So, what of the clothes? The collection is a logo enthusiast’s dream. The North Face has adapted its quarter-circle stamp, which pays homage to the famous granite Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, to include Gucci’s green-red-green stripe. The branding is splashed all over peppy padded coats, quilted jackets and windbreakers, which are based on archival The North Face outerwear silhouettes and realised in ’70s-inspired colourways. Skirts, coords, sweaters and shirts come in a bunch of floral prints conceived especially for the collaboration, and in line with both brand’s sustainable policies.

The tie-up plays into the post-pandemic appetite for “the essential”, which Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele touched upon during his “radical” restructure of the house’s output in May. Michele has previously shared his love of the great outdoors via Gucci’s Off The Grid capsule, comprised of recycled, organic, bio-based and sustainably sourced materials and modelled by Jane Fonda and Lil Nas X in a tree house. Its pre-fall 2020 campaign, entitled So Deer To Me, followed in the footsteps of its previous animal-populated photo shoots and featured deers, fawns, owls, bluebirds, skunks, squirrels, frogs, ducks and rabbits.

“We are a big brand, so we have a responsibility to take care of our industry,” Michele explained of the house shift towards “fashion that has a longer life”. Spreading this message by linking up with another household-name brand in a different field is a smart move. Gucci is a major step up from The North Face’s previous fashion tie-ups with brands including Junya Watanabe, Supreme and Maison Margiela.

Look out for Gucci art walls in London, which will celebrate the meeting of two brilliant brands – and two iconic logos – ahead of its release at Selfridges on 4 January. In the meantime, browse The North Face x Gucci collection, below.

What (or Who) is JJJJound?

• •

Words Marc Richardson Date October 14, 2019

•

Share

JJJJound is an oddity. In existence for more than a decade, JJJJound has been one of the most influential entities in contemporary menswear. But, ask people what exactly JJJJound is, and you’re likely to get rather convoluted answers— even from those in the know. To some, JJJJound is a person; to others it’s a mood board; some see JJJJound as a brand; others see it as a general “aesthetic.” To a certain extent, none of those answers are wrong. But they are all incomplete.

JJJJound is—or has been—all of those things. But it’s also become so much more over the years.

Who is JJJJound?

JJJJound is Montreal-based designer, curator and creative Justin Saunders.

Growing up idolizing Bill Watterson, the man behind Calvin and Hobbes, Saunders was fascinated by Watterson’s anonymity. “I was like, ‘Man, you can be somebody but have nobody know you,’” he explained to Saturdays NYC, which helps contextualize why so many people know about JJJJound but don’t know of Saunders.

In 2006, Saunders launched JJJJound as a personal blog. The website was unremarkable and not unlike other early blogs.

What set JJJJound apart in the long run, though, was Saunders’ decision to focus exclusively on images. Some time around 2008, JJJJound, as we know it, came into being. Saunders removed text from the blog and it became a personal “mood board”—which he insists it still is. Updates are referred to as new moods, and, often, the only text that appears will be the first post people see, to help delineate different moods. As users scroll down, a never-ending, color-paletted stream of aesthetically-pleasing images, providing an examination of, “the recurring patterns in timeless design.”

Put into words, it all sounds very nebulous and needlessly high-brow; this may be why the site has thrived without being verbose. Shortly after JJJJound became an image-based blog, people started taking note of it. While Tumblr and Instagram eventually normalized and democratized image curation, JJJJound was a precursor to both, using Blogspot to provide the concept of a wordless blog. It was only after the words disappeared that the encouragement appeared. Emails rolled in and Saunders was even enlisted by The New York Times as a men’s style contributor for T Magazine’s online imprint. By the turn off the decade, JJJJound was one of the internet’s foremost (albeit, anonymous) tastemakers, with Saunders pulling the strings.

Virgil Abloh (left), Matthew Williams (center) and Justin Saunders (back, center) DJing at a #BEENTRILL# party

Work with Virgil Abloh, Matthew Williams and Heron Preston* Central to JJJJound’s success has been, as you’d expect, the image-obsessed internet. The borderless online world allowed JJJJound to thrive on a global scale, despite Saunders being based in Montreal. It’s a great city, and one that’s inexpensive and attractive for creatives—but it’s not exactly a global hotbed on the level of New York, London or Paris. “The reason I’m so supportive of the internet,” Saunders told Saturdays, “is that I was just this dude in Montreal, and then all of a sudden people started contacting me from around the world via email.” It was thanks to his ability to build a robust, global (online) audience that Saunders was able to connect with two of today’s most influential pop culture figures: Virgil Abloh and Alyx’s Matthew Williams. Inevitably the pair (along with fellow multi-hyphenate Heron Preston) would go on to create #BEENTRILL#. “I’ve met everybody through the internet,” he recalled.

Even with such high-profile friends, the internet also allowed Saunders to maintain his anonymity. While JJJJound’s following grew steadily, Saunders’ name was not exactly well-known; people referred to JJJJound as a person in interviews, rather than by Saunders’ own name. Saunders, for his part, was consulting for a number of brands in ways unseen to most.

What exactly Saunders has done over the years remains shrouded in mystery, but his name has been linked to the likes of A.P.C., Montreal retailer SSENSE and Kanye West (as well as his DONDA creative agency). West famously said that he asked himself if things were “Jound-approved” (something which Saunders has downplayed in interviews). Besides that and the occasional Instagram post alongside Abloh, there is little proof of Saunders’ involvement in the myriad creative projects he’s worked on.

Online Aesthetics, I.R.L. On a more tangible front, the early 2010s saw JJJJound expand from being just a blog into the design of hard goods. The period around 2013 represents a key moment in JJJJound’s evolution from something purely digital to an entity leaving a tangible footprint in the real world. In the summer of 2013, HVW8 Gallery in Los Angeles hosted “Correspondence”, an exhibit comprised of paintings of emails between Saunders and his friend, Claudio Marzano; the pair’s emails were essentially the moods that would end up on JJJJound. “Correspondence” brought something inherently digital into the real world; beyond showing the clandestine process behind the blog, perfectly encapsulates JJJJound’s digital dreams for the best aspirational reality.

Canvas tote bags were released to commemorate the opening of the exhibit and, before long, more JJJJound-branded products began to pop up on the “Shoppe” section of the website. Some of the first products put out by JJJJound were enamel “Bandwidth” pins, which were sold to help pay for the hosting services required to support such a gargantuan catalogue of images. Then came tonal JJJJ-branded Ebbets Field Flannels caps, followed by socks and beanies. Also sprinkled among the offering were seemingly mundane things—like dog tags and coffee mugs—but outfitted with tasteful touches and colors.

The products being put out through Shoppe were exactly what one would expect to find when scrolling through a JJJJound’s running “Mood” section. They were simple, but they were emblematic of the aesthetic JJJJound had made its own. They were items for every facet of life that offered knowingly curated nods to fellow JJJJound enthusiasts.

This period, from 2013 to 2015, coincided with JJJJound becoming more widely-known. Virgil Abloh was actively namedropping the site; Saunders was an integral part of #BEENTRILL#; a collaboration with Montreal-based skate imprint Dime was beneficial to both parties. Meanwhile, new moods slowly trickled out and made for appointment viewing when word got out that were new images on JJJJound. Photographers and brands flocked to the website to see if any of their images had made the cut, while others were eager to see what products had earned a JJJJound co-sign.

In 2015, JJJJound outdid “Correspondence” in terms of merging the internet with real life, thanks to a partnership with CIFF Raven, a tradeshow in Copenhagen. JJJJound was commissioned to create a “mood” and then print the images on Tshirts, rather than uploading them to the site. The immersive installation, known as “Post”, was not available for purchase. Saunders later stated that “the whole installation was stolen,” but left the statement open to interpretation: Had the 200 T-shirts been stolen, or was he referring to the oft-cited criticism that JJJJound was simply an amalgam of “stolen” images. Regardless, “Post” was another example of JJJJound’s singular ability to bring our favorite elements of the digital and real worlds together.

But, then, just as JJJJound’s legend was growing, it started to recede into the shadows. JJJJound became more of a niche reference, as the internet culture surrounding menswear shifted to more hype-based publications and product. Still, JJJJound was updated with new moods sporadically and, yes, Saunders was still involved in myriad creative projects—there was even a steady trickle of new JJJJound-branded product, like embroidered fleece and other basics.

JJJJound x Vans Old Skool LX (top left), JJJJound x New Balance 990 v3 (center), JJJJound x Reebok Club C 85 (bottom right)

JJJJound Sneakers 2016 saw JJJJound release a collaboration with little-known footwear brand Victory Sportswear. The Trail Sneaker was, like all other JJJJound products, perfectly in line with what one would expect to find on the digital mood board. The shoes were manufactured in Massachusetts and featured a predominantly grey upper—made from suede and mesh—with a beige hit on the heel. It was a niche collaboration, but it marked JJJJound’s expansion into footwear and set the stage for what would become JJJJound’s most transformative release.

In 2017, JJJJound began teasing a trio of Vans Old Skools. The shoes would eventually be released as in-store exclusives for “Patience”—a Montreal pop-up shop—alongside a range of basics and home goods including canvas tote bags and coffee mugs. Available in brown, white and green, the Vans x JJJJound Old Skools were remarkably simple, with little in the way of alterations made to the classic silhouette—cork footbed and 8 oz. canvas notwithstanding. Due to the limited supply and the fact they were only available in Montreal, the collaboration became one of the hottest releases of 2017. The green version, in particular, became one of the most coveted shoes of the year and now fetches four figure prices. While many who trafficked JJJJound’s website we fans of his clearly defined aesthetic, this release almost single-handedly shifted JJJJound into the realm of “hyped brand.”

“Patience” remains a seminal moment in JJJJound’s history. It helped establish JJJJound as a design studio and elevate the kinds of products that the once-quiet blog could aspire to produce. The digital Shoppe is filled with a tasteful mix of home goods and minimal clothing— Canadian-made fleece sits next to mini basketball hoops; simple mugs can be bought alongside graphic T-shirts; coffee beans sold to those also looking to buy reusable water bottles to drink from—much like the physical pop-up space was. Of course, there’s also the occasional collaboration sprinkled in for good measure. In the two-plus years since "Patience”, JJJJound has worked with Reebok on a pair of Club C 85s, reissued the Victory Trail

Sneaker, unveiled a New Balance 990v3, reworked a classic Garrett Leight frame and teased an upcoming collaboration with A.P.C. What’s stayed the same from collaboration to collaboration has been a commitment to a specific aesthetic and a reticence to following the increasingly rapid pace set by the industry. JJJJound products come out on a schedule that is unique to JJJJound and in ways that are unique to the studio. The inspiration cited feels so deeply researched that it’s almost tonguein-cheek. Take the aforementioned JJJJound x Reebok Club C 85s, which supposedly reference the color of a vintage keyboard. Then there’s the way in which the most coveted JJJJound products are sold: From the Old Skools to the Club C 85s, products are never immediately available; customers had to wait for their purchases to be delivered.

From the Mind of Justin R. Saunders Taken together, there is a timelessness to JJJJound moods and JJJJound products. You can scroll through the site’s archives for hours at a time and, even years later, none of the products that have been put out over the last half decade feel dated.

That is the magic of JJJJound. That, and the fact that JJJJound is creating products to curate every aspect of your life—a 360-degree design studio making your T-shirts, your coffee cups, your sneakers and your desk.

Thanks to that magic, JJJJound is now a brand that resonates with customers across the spectrum. What started as a personal mood board for Justin R. Saunders has changed wildly over the years. There was a period when he and his blog were synonymous—he was JJJJound—and when JJJJound was an ideal—something that people and brands strived to emulate.

The unanticipated success from the blog transformed JJJJound into a brand and, on the back of that success, it’s arguably in its final form as a nebulous design studio.

“I’m a kid who grew up listening to rap music and loved art and beautiful things,” Saunders explained in an interview. “I grew up in Germany and I was obsessed with Bart Simpson and North American culture. I think people connected to my site, and we were all going through the process of removing logos from our lives and dressing like adults.”

The only condition, it seems, for JJJJound to make something, is for it to be pleasant to look at. And, isn’t that what a design studio should strive to do?

JJJJound is one of the few brands that I don’t have anything from, and seemingly can’t get anything from, which is annoying to be honest. But the idea that JJJJound is an aesthetic more than brand is something that I can really appreciate and the article talks about it as it’s a state of mind instead of a brand.

This sort of mentality I think can really work and gets people onboard if the content is good enough. Which from JJJJound it usually is.

How Bape Beat the Odds to Become a Streetwear Institution The Tokyo-based brand probably should have lost its luster when founder Nigo left the helm. But somehow, it's just as popular as ever.

By David Turner Jun 15, 2017

THEO WARGO; SHIRT, A BATHING APEGETTY IMAGES "I got my first pair of Bapestas. They may or may not have been real, I still don't know to this day," recalls Jordan Page, a New York City stylist, looking back at his first connection with the Japanese streetwear brand Bape—short for A Bathing Ape—back in 2004. "I bought them on the campus of North Carolina A&T from a guy's trunk for $40." Real or fake, Page still wore them out. Because at that point Bape was so enmeshed in American culture that he could find a pair in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Within the United States, at least, the bright pastel hoodies, shirts and shoes were deeply connected to Pharrell Williams, who back then was known for being half of the production duo The Neptunes, along with Chad Hugo. The Virginia Beach native remains a pop producer legend, but in the late-'90s and early 2000s, Pharrell and Hugo redefined what a hip-hop producer could be by working with the likes of Britney Spears, Clipse, Jay Z, and Justin Timberlake—finding tremendous success with their particular breed of minimalist space funk. And a big part of why they stood out so much was Bape's clothing, along with Pharrell's own Billionaire Boys Club clothing line, which he launched with Bape founder and streetwear legend/mononym, Nigo.

Pharrell Williams and Nigo.

DIMITRIOS KAMBOURISGETTY IMAGES "People were giving credit to Lil Wayne for blowing Bape up into the mainstream," says Lawrence Schlossman, brand director of in-the-know menswear marketplace Grailed. "And the Clipse were claiming that they wore it first." The mid-2000s clashing of rap giants showed just how quickly Pharrell's influence spread in rap culture through Bape. When then-teenage rapper Soulja Boy scored a number one hit song with "Crank That," he name-checked the label: "I got on some Bathing Apes." Suddenly a brand that was started in Japan was on the lips of the music industry's biggest stars.

Suddenly a brand that was started in Japan was on the lips of the music industry's biggest stars.

Bape was founded by Nigo, real name Tomoaki Nagao, in 1993 by in the UraHarajuku district of Shibuya, Tokyo. At that point, Nigo was already a fixture in the Japanese streetwear scene. Earlier in the decade he came together with Jun Takahashi to start the label Undercover, and the duo owned the shop Nowhere.

It's a bit of a labyrinth, tracing Bape's lineage. But there are some key players.

Jian DeLeon, editorial director of streetwear-focused site Highsnobiety, cites "Stüssy, and how the International Tribe directly inspired [Fragment Design founder and Nike collaborator] Hiroshi Fujiwara with his line Good Enough," as influences. "And how Jun Takahashi inspired Nigo is really interesting," he continues.

The Bapesta sneaker.

Where many of those brands legacies remained, at least in America, confined to the worlds of streetwear, Bape managed rise to the level of mass consciousness. "They were arguably the first brand to go, 'This hoodie is a premium product, let's charge $400 for it,'" says DeLeon, in a move that spoke not to Bape's desire to line its pockets, but to understanding how to distinguish itself in the market. Bape in the 2000s and still today is known for full zip hoodies, Bapesta sneakers (which were modeled off Nike's Air Force 1s), the Baby Milo avatar, and of course bright colors.

"This loud, gaudy, streetwear style that Bape was known for no longer seemed relevant," says Schlossman, looking back at the brand's decline in the late 2000s.

"People probably outgrew it to a certain extent." Entrenched in the #menswear moment, Schlossman witnessed menswear transition into Americana and eyeing different Japanese trends like raw denim rather than the colorful aesthetic that Bape maintained. The rap world, Bape's earliest mainstream American stronghold, started moving into more luxury brands and away from streetwear.

Pusha T in Bape.

JOHNNY NUNEZGETTY IMAGES "Riccardo Tisci's Rottweiler [graphic tee] started to take off," says DeLeon, as the former Givenchy designer collaborated with Kanye West and Jay Z on their Watch The Throne album art and tour. "A$AP Rocky's mixtape and songs like "Peso" started to make Rick Owens and Margiela part of the hip-hop vernacular." Schlossman observed that only a few years earlier Kanye West's own

short-lived Pastelle line took major influence from the boldness Nigo and Pharrell, but on 2011's "Niggas In Paris," he asked Jay Z the immortal question, "What's that jacket, Margiela?"

The same year Watch The Throne released, Nigo sold 90% of Nowhere Co., Bape's parent company, for $2.8 million dollars. Hong Kong clothing conglomerate I.T. Ltd. swooped in after the brand declined due to oversaturation in the Japanese market and falling out of favor with new American trends. Nigo officially left the brand in 2013, but stayed busy moving forward with his own Japanese heritage-inspired brand Human Made, partnering with Adidas Originals, and becoming the creative director of Uniqlo. Even after he left, though, the impact of Bape could be felt across various streetwear cultures.

"I can't believe how much LRG I wore in 2006," says New York stylist Page laughing at his former self. "But you'd never hear that with Bape because it has that respect of being the first of it's kind." Other 2000s brands like Phat Farm, Sean John, and Rocawear lost their luster as department store staples or simple faded away. But Bape, though it might have overextended its lifestyle brand in Japan, avoided that sort of dilution in the States.

The Bape x Puma Shark Zip Hoodie.

"The Bape full-zip hoodie is still a status symbol," says DeLeon on the enduring legacy of Bape. "It still represents that high-end street kind of aesthetic that so many brands try to emulate." He notes that even after selling to I.T., the company didn't spread the brand thin, instead keeping supply limited and prices at higher end of the streetwear spectrum. "Bape represents where the origins of modern streetwear lay," says Schlossman, observing that high fashion's current obsession with streetwear might explain a resurgence in Bape's popularity.

Over the phone, singer Khalid, fresh off his first Coachella festival, was running through his own Bape wishlist. "I wish I had more Bape shoes actually," says the teenage singer, whose song "Location" hit the Top 40 and album American Teen hit the Top 10. The Instagram feed of the now Los Angeles-based singer is full of photos of him in various Bape shirts, but a generation later—not unlike Page back in the early 2000s—Khalid's got one item on his mind: "I'm talking about the Bape shoes from the Soulja Boy era. Where he's like 'I got me some Bathing Apes.'"

1981: PARIS MEETS TOKYO When I came to Paris, I remember the reaction to Comme des Garçons as so strong.

Rei and I had to fight because she made a collection inspired by the Japanese kimono or something, and I hated it. Rei, I said, we are not souvenir designers. Japanese designers bringing Japanese ideas to Paris is not comfortable to me. I don’t want to explain Japan to the world.

—Yohji Yamamoto

Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto Come to Paris In 1981 the fashion houses of Paris got their first taste of the new Japanese designers.

In the fall of that year, Yohji Yamamoto travelled to France with his friend and colleague Rei Kawakubo. The two had conducted a joint show once before, in 1976 in Tokyo, but this would mark the first time they showed their collections on a European runway.

In 1981, Paris fashion was deep in the clutches of couture and its aesthetic world.

Technical maximalism, luxury, and status defined the work. And the runway itself was more of a showroom for luxury garments than the vibrant and performative live art installation we know it as today. Together, Kawakubo and Yamamoto would begin to change this.

At this point in time Kawakubo and Yamamoto worked so closely that their clothes seemed inspired by the same aesthetic fascinations, the same hunger for subversion.

Their work mixed sober minimalism with maximalist flourishes that departed from expectations—rips and asymmetries replaced the uniform, delicate stitching of the past.

The clothes were markedly asexual when compared to their European contemporaries, revealing the countercultural bent of the Japanese designers.

One of the overriding influences for the collection was the aesthetics of poverty—rags, torn edges, uneven hems, and heavily layered, wrapped cloth. Japan had itself undergone a protracted economic crisis in the wake of the war, and its impressions left Kawakubo and Yamamoto inspired to bring the image of the Japanese working poor into the vaulted halls of Parisian high fashion.

1981 Transformed the Future of Fashion The Parisian audience was unprepared for the new Japanese, avant-garde approach to fashion, which threatened couture’s investment in luxury, status, and tradition. The collection was both lauded as a revolution and lambasted for its excessive breaks with tradition. Racism figured too, as journalists derided the collection as ‘Fashion’s Pearl Harbour,’ and called Kawakubo a ‘rag picker.’

Critics compared the models to corpses. The pale, shaved heads, adorned with minimal makeup broke abruptly with convention, which relied on highly-feminized models who displayed clothing according to a predictable set of silhouettes. There was little precedent for such aesthetic breaks in catwalk shows at the time, with Vivienne Westwood’s “Pirates” show of the same year being one of the only to match their level of subversion and radicalism.

For the next generation of young European firebrands like John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, the Japanese designers had opened up a new era of possibility. For the runway show, they had revealed the catwalk as a space of aesthetic critique, a platform to subvert the expectations and politics of the fashion industry. McQueen and Galliano would learn from the Japanese designers, absorbing not only their techniques but their penchant for radical aesthetic breaks.

Towards Deconstructionism After the fact, the word ‘deconstruction’ was used to capture this new aesthetic, which seemed to present garments not as completed works, but as caught amidst their own disappearance. It was a name borrowed from another exciting movement in France, the philosopher Jacque Derrida’s break with the French structuralists. In the philosophy of deconstruction, aesthetic judgment is a kind of impossible choice—deciding the undecidable, as Derrida put it. In other words, aesthetic value itself is founded in indeterminacy, in the irreconcilability of opposites and the creative motion born from dwelling in the murk of uncertainty.

By contrast, the preferences of 1980s French couture were founded in a commitment to the idea that European luxury was the objective determinant of aesthetic truth. Clothing was to communicate underlying cultural ideals of beauty, and it was to do so with clarity and certainty.

The deconstructionists departed from all of this. Derrida’s theory fit well as a name for the new movement, which did not seek to present its clothes as a new ideal of beauty, but as fragmentary traces of the indeterminacy of beauty itself. Yamamoto and Kawakubo played with indeterminacy by emphasising opposition, polarity, and the subtle balance of differences. As Bonnie English put it in her book, Japanese Fashion Designers, “There is an extraordinary tension that occurs in the East between the simple and the sophisticated, between natural materials and technological advance, between the empire of the senses and the tempered discretion of the feelings.”

The movement that would later be called ‘anti-fashion’ was ignited by this conscious break with the functional, status-oriented place of clothes in elite society. Ugliness, decay, loss, dispersal—these were no longer the point of contrast for fashion— they became new materials to work with.

Keep reading the Gone Library to learn more about deconstructionism, Japanese design, and fashion history.

Reading about the radical changes that Japanese fashion had on the European scene is really interesting and something I wanted to look at to see if there could be any parallels to now.

Yohji Yamamoto FW21 Explores the Boundaries of Monochrome Suiting Graphic-drenched garments, text prints and experimental textiles.

Yohji Yamamoto

Fashion Jan 21, 2021

Yohji Yamamoto‘s signature black tailoring has been reworked countless times over the decades, even appearing in the Japanese designer’s Supreme collaboration. For Fall/Winter 2021 it’s pushed to the extreme, as Yamamoto and the Pour Homme design team explore the farthest reaches of the classic all-black suit.

Now sporting vivid English text, rich photographic prints and tremendously oversized closure, the FW21 suits are dramatic in shape, balancing Yamamoto’s preferred wool gabardine with seasonal textiles like velvet, treated leather and a series of gargantuan neoprene overcoats. Dangling straps, toggles, hooks, zippers and strings grace the bomber jackets, blazers, shirts and skirted trousers from the front, back and sides, wrapping the wearer in adjustable accents.

Below, chunky sneakers mirror the raw hems that tear through some of the items, while Yamamoto’s favored leather derbies mirror the occasional detail-free jacket and trouser set, a gentle contrast to the other intentionally busy items. Of course, even then there’s imaginative layering, with tank tops layered atop T-shirts and flowing mid-layers warped by suspender pants.

Yamamoto will have quite a influence on my work this year so looking at his latest collections was something I needed to do. This goes back to my look at minimalism and how I think that Yamamoto can inspire my work.

Balenciaga and Gucci's insane collab is here to take all your money Logomania is more crazed than ever.

Ian Servantes Balenciaga and Gucci’s landmark collaboration finally lands in stores today. Dubbed “The Hacker Project,” the link-up of the luxury-minded brands is an exercise in blowing up logomania to its most extreme. BBs and GGs are rampant, and the well-funded masses with taste of questionable levels are already gobbling up the goods.

Select items have already sold out, including several of the bags and accessories that have seen Gucci’s monogram reconfigured with Balenciaga marks. That formula is more or less the beginning and end of the ideation behind all the clothing and accessories that make up the capsule at Balenciaga’s point of purchase, with stray “This is not a Gucci bag" graffiti thrown in here and there, but the mere truth of their existence is enough for hype-minded consumers to exuberantly press “purchase.”

Prices start out at $195 for the BB monogram socks and top out at $3,350 for the Hacked BB Puffers, all of which have also sold out already. If you’re looking for something a bit more imaginative, and perhaps nominally less ostentatious, we turn over to Gucci for the second half of the collab.

There’s a tad more variety to be found on Gucci’s website, notwithstanding the original “GG” monogram overlayed with Balenciaga’s sans-serif logo. This arrangement can be found on a $4,500 technical jacket made out of canvas, as well as a range of bags and even the Balenciaga Triple S sneaker ($1,290) now years removed from its reign as “it” shoe of the moment.

Standing tall on its own is an unadulterated monogram Hourglass Jacket ($5,980) for women with a matching skirt ($1,980), a ruffled lycra top ($2,700) with red and green striping and a crystal and pearl brooch, and plain black silk pants with a rolled-up hem ($1,500). Elsewhere, you’ll find an additional floral print more subtly incorporating Balenciaga’s name on pumps ($980), knife boots ($2,500), another set of Triple S sneakers, and additional apparel.

While Gucci does a better job of justifying an unprecedented partnership with another luxury house, the whole thing reeks of a cynical read of the market that says “we should make this because people will buy it.” It’s a two-pronged collection too big to fail, and any indictment of the affair lands equally on the consumer as the parties eager to give them what they want.

Something that is definitely a highlight is how this sort of collaboration in fashion is taking over and it’s not even about the physical appearance of the clothing, but more on status and shock factor above all.

Even though this happens and it’s very easy to spot on a level like this, people don’t care and will continue to eat this up because they aren’t bothered about how they’re being used by this brands.

THE RISE AND FALL OF LOGOMANIA Society’s relationship with the power and promise of the fashion logo.

By Mary Stringham.

In 1925, Coco Chanel transformed her brand by doing something that was, at the time, revolutionary — she put her name directly onto her clothes. With two interlocking “Cs” the iconic designer created a lasting insignia that is still recognizable worldwide today. Much like Claude Monet’s name scrawled on the corner of his famous Water Lilies, something about Chanel’s newfound logo crafted from her very own initials imbued a particular kind of magic into her designer garments. Since then, the fashion logo has acted as a symbol of status and belonging for generations of consumers.

The origin of the fashion logo is centuries old. The term’s root derives from the Greek “logos” meaning “word,” “reason” or “plan.” Ancient Greek philosophy defines the logo as the divine reason implicit in the cosmos. Much like the Greek attempt to bring order to the universe, a brand logo attempts to visually signal a company’s identity and values.

A millennium later, came the advent of family crests. Consider these medieval emblems to be the OG fashion logo. Coats-of-arms were passed down through generations to be sewn onto flags above manors or placed on shields. They signaled family identity as well as legacy to those who saw them. Much like the family crest, a brand logo can symbolize a particular identity. Now, instead of using one’s own initials on a favorite jacket, the wearer substitutes their identity for that of the celebrity designer. A fashion logo, elevated in status, can then act as a badge of pseudoaristocratic heritage. European fashion houses have managed to maintain identifiable branding for decades now, symbols that are intrinsic to their very DNA.

With the logo came logomania—a trend whereby obvious branding is strewn all over one’s clothes. Rather than a brand name hidden away in a shirt on a tag, a fashion house’s logo was now worn to be seen. The Reagan era saw a rise in overt logos during an age of opulence for the upwardly mobile white-collar yuppie. Though, according to David Marchese of the New York Times, in all actuality, it was the music industry, specifically ‘80s and early ‘90s hip-hop, that made logomania what we know it to be today. The game changer responsible for popularizing the aesthetic trope was none other than Harlem-based designer and haberdasher Dapper Dan, a.k.a.

Daniel Day.

Back in the early 1980s on 125th Street, Day began screen printing leather goods with high-end logos ranging from Fendi, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton. Rather than ‘knockoffs,’ the haberdasher called his pieces “knock-ups” since he used these logos in entirely new ways. According to a New Yorker piece done on the designer, Day and his customers saw the logo-covered clothes as “paying tribute to [the luxury houses].” Marchese likened it to the music sampling happening at the time.

As these monograms were incorporated into Day’s street style designs, they were reimagined for powerful people —for rappers, hip-hop artists, and athletes. Day dressed everyone from LL Cool J to Salt-N-Pepa, from Diddy to Run-DMC, and as a result, the designer helped define the visuals of the emerging hip-hop counter-culture. According to The Strut Magazine, by taking the logo out of its clean-cut European roots, Day reimagined the luxury clothes with a streetwear edge that would influence emerging designers for years to come.

The Cut’s 2015 interview with Day proves that the designer knew the power of the logo from the get-go, “It signifies status, and money, which go hand in hand. The thing is, you can have the status but nobody will know you don’t have the money. So that’s what gives it such an impact in your look.”

Though the ’80s were known for opulent excess, the 1990s saw peak logomania as consumers used branding like Fendi’s double ‘F’ monogram on bags, clothes, even strollers, to assert the status, and that magic that Day so knowingly talked about.

Just like all fashion trends, however, the logo goes in and out of style over time. Since its inception, logomania has risen and fallen in tandem with the current economic climate, as noted in a 2018 Ruth La Ferla article for the New York Times. Soon after the economic collapse of 2008, logo-wearing became more discreet. Those with wealth may have felt embarrassed to flaunt their status or worked to avoid being publicly ostracized for their expensive clothing. Soon minimalism took hold.

The late 2010s saw a reemergence in the maximalist aesthetic. As street style gained more clout in the last decade, and as nostalgia for the 90s took hold, the logo, once again, was everywhere.

As such, it was just a few short months ago, in what we’ll call pre-Coronavirus fashion when the industry was living in another golden-age of branding. From high to low fashion, even online fastfashion retailers like ASOS had hopped on the trend.

A quick peek back to the Grammys in January, Billie Eilish’s look epitomized pre-Coronavirus logomania. The singer’s outfit was dripping in hundreds of coupled G’s and the designer logo was even painted onto the eighteen-year old’s neon-green manicure. She even wore a Gucci-covered mask (foreshadowing what would be our fashion future?).

Photo credit: Homepage via Gucci

The terms logomania is something that is very prevalent in today’s society with most brands indulging in signature logo print, logo t-shirts and logo blasted accessories. This is something that has had a concrete foothold in recent years and I think something that could do with being changed as it takes away from the importance of individuality when it comes to how we dress.

Black in Fashion: AnOther's Top Ten Quotes FASHION & BEAUTYCOLLECTIONS DIGEST

Yohji Yamamoto in AnOther Magazine A/W06Photography by Horst Diekgerdes, Styling by Jane How

As Halloween approaches, we pick our top ten quotes about the most bewitching shade on the colour chart OCTOBER 29, 2014 TEXTMhairi Graham

Black. Colour of mystery and mortality, Anna Wintour hates it, while Abercrombie & Fitch banned employees from wearing it in their stores. For many though, black continues to be the anchor of style; a celebrated Gothicism and wardrobe staple.

The supposed ‘non-colour’ traces back to Neolithic cave paintings – now it is everywhere. It is the highest ranking ball on the snooker table. It sweeps throughout

music, from Fleetwood Mac’s magic woman to Jay Z’s eponymous album, while The Rolling Stones told us to paint in it. In 1861, when Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria took to wearing black as everyday dress. Her decision to sport widows weeds resonated into everyday fashion, as people reconfigured her mourning into fashion. Subsequently it became the uniform of Coco Chanel, the beatniks and Johnny Cash.

ADVERTISING

For many designers, black is their mainstay: Gareth Pugh, Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo all ground their collections in the inky hue, while Grace Coddington hardly wears anything else. To mark the approach of Halloween and the latest exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Victorian and Edwardian mourning attire, we pick our ten favourite fashion quotes on black.

Comme des Garçons for AnOther Magazine S/S10Photography by Lina Scheynius, Styling by Camille Bidault Waddington 1. “You can wear black at any time. You can wear it at any age. You may wear it for almost any occasion.” — Christian Dior

2. “Women who wear black live colourful lives.” — Neiman Marcus 3. “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy — but mysterious. But above all black says this: I don’t bother you — don’t bother me.”

— Yohji Yamamoto 4. “I love black because it affirms, designs and styles. A woman in a black dress is a pencil stroke.” — Yves Saint Laurent ADVERTISING

5. “I work in three shades of black.” — Rei Kawakubo

Wednesday Addams on black 6. “I’ll stop wearing black when they invent a darker colour.” — Wednesday Addams

7. “Black is not sad. Bright colours are what depress me. They’re so... empty. Black is poetic. How do you imagine a poet? In a bright yellow jacket? Probably not.”

— Ann Demeulemeester 8. “I think in black.” — Gareth Pugh 9. “There’s something about black. You feel hidden away in it.” — Georgia O’Keeffe 10. “I’ve been 40 years discovering that the queen of all colours was black.” — Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Yohji Yamamoto for AnOther A/W11Photography by Alasdair McLellan, Styling by Jane How Death Becomes Her is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until February 2015.

I think the colour, or shade, is super important and has been more and more influential on my brand fashion choices and even my personal fashion choices, especially as I think my taste in fashion has matured and grown a lot in the past couple of years. These quotes are definitely good for adding to work as they’re from big names within fashion also.

STREETWEAR IMPACT REPORT

INTRODUCTION The Streetwear Impact Report began with a simple idea: defining streetwear. Still a relatively new market, in-depth reporting and analysis around streetwear were limited.

Through a close collaboration between HYPEBEAST and Strategy&, PwC’s consulting firm, we set out to bridge that gap in information.

What resulted is a comprehensive data-driven overview of the streetwear market and consumer. The report invites the industry to take a closer look at how streetwear has disrupted all facets of fashion, ranging from creative development to marketing and distribution.

The report is split into four main articles: • • • •

001 - Defining Streetwear details streetwear’s origin, key cultural components and considers the evolution of the face of streetwear.

002 - Measuring Streetwear reports consumer spending habits, including how much they spend, best selling products and regional insights.

003 - How Streetwear Communicates traces streetwear’s relationship with social media and the communication loop between consumer and brand.

004 - How Streetwear Sells dissects streetwear’s tight-knit direct-to-consumer relationship, painting a picture of its innovative “drops” model and the burgeoning secondhand market.

The report also includes in-depth conversations with leading players in the fashion industry: • • • •

HF - Fragment design founder Hiroshi Fujiwara DA - Contemporary artist Daniel Arsham AA - Rimowa CEO Alexandre Arnault JL - StockX founder Josh Luber

The research methods for the report included our consumer survey and industry survey. The consumer survey collected a total of 40,960 respondents across the globe while the industry survey collected a total of 763 respondents from a range of industry players.

The consumer survey was distributed in English, French, Korean, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese across HYPEBEAST’s global websites and social media channels. The industry survey was distributed directly to key players, companies and brands in the fashion industry. Both the consumer and industry surveys were incentivized with a series of giveaways. HYPEBEAST is committed to keeping user

data safe and secure. For more information visit our Privacy Policy and general Terms & Conditions.

Authors: Enrique Menendez, Dr. Axel Nitschke Contributors: Laura Neuper (lead), Philipp Hallegger, Katharina Schaper, Christina Laake, Sarah Nolte, Daniel Magar, Jeremy Grant, Emily Jensen, Jake Silbert Report design: Jade Chung, Nirvana Garreffa, Jacky Liu Illustrations: Alvaro Javier Cecchetti Special thanks to the teams at Strategy& and HYPEBEAST who contributed to the creation of this report: Eddie Eng, Arby Li, Petar Kujundzic, Jason Dike, Felson Sajonas, Keith Estiler, Kavesh Subapanditha, Elton Yau, Irene Chung, Patrick Wong, Christopher Hui, Ka-Yue Yeung, Isha Lo, Jacky Liu, Emmanuel Maduakolam.

This report was good for defining streetwear and a good view on what people think it actually is. Hypebeast is a really good resource for looking at current affairs and cultural news within streetwear and music etc.

An Outlook on Future by Craig Green JUNE 27, 2021 GIANLUCA CANTARO CRAIG GREEN

Courtesy : Craig Green

Craig Green loves to challenge forms, arriving at unexpected silhouettes halfway between portable architectures and functional clothes. Right after his graduation at the Fashion Masters course at Central Saint Martins in 2012, the London-based designer launched his namesake brand, which quickly became a worldwide success.

How do you define future?

It’s kind of a scary question in some ways, as I’m not really sure there’s one thing that defines the future. But I think that in the field we’re working, there’s always constant thinking about it in some way. We’re working so far ahead in seasons, we’re almost constantly thinking about it even if we don’t realise it — even though it’s only 6 months.

Can you be a designer without thinking about the future?

Although a lot of my work doesn’t really have a political message, I do still think that you can’t help being influenced by what’s happening around you at that moment. Saying that, I’ve always thought it’s a designer’s job to push things forward and try to create something new.

What does the future’s aesthetic look like, to you?

I think what’s really exciting about the future is that you don’t really know; it’s unknown. Then, thinking about it, it reminds me of what I’ve learnt back in design school. When I was training, I was always told if you can draw something it usually means you’ve maybe seen it before, and you have to physically make it something new. I think I feel always uncomfortable; but I think feeling uncomfortable is the best way to work.

How did 2020 change your outlook for the future?

I have a feeling that everything changed this year in some way, or affected everyone in some way. But I look back and think about it as a positive thing, leading to an opportunity which you don’t really get back — trying to think more about what you’re doing. I’ve spent a lot of time on my own in the studio and I was loving it in the beginning. It was like I was working on canvas making things myself. It wasn’t normal usually, I felt like I was back in my BA or MA course and I was physically making clothes. In some way I reconnected to clothing. It was a rare opportunity. You have to see some positive in it. So yes, I do think it changed me.

Why is the future such an important element of fashion?

I think the job of a designer is to push things forward, and come up with new things, and question everything. It’s linked to the world of fashion but it’s exciting; there’s a lot to know.

Yes, I think the future is where everyone is heading in some way — something to look towards. You always have to be respectful of the past, as everything has started from something. But a designer has to push forward and making suggestions. That’s why it’s so important in fashion.

What is one thing we can start doing now that could positively impact our future?

At the moment, what is really important is art education. It seems like everything has changed since when I was a student —like education fees are a lot higher and it’s a big issue in the UK at the moment. It separates people that have money and people who don’t, so I think it would be really important is to have more funding for education for people to have the opportunity to explore art and create a path and follow it. At the moment, I think it’s quite a big risk for people to take and maybe it’s not the easiest choice to make. The creative subject is something really important; I wouldn’t have gone down the path if I were studying today. So I’d like that to happen, it would be positive for everyone.

What excites you about the future?

I was actually talking earlier to a friend about it: I traveled recently to Milan for Moncler, and to travel again was a very nice experience. Before 2020, I was traveling a lot and I think I really missed that. I got very excited to travel again and I’m kind of excited to going back to doing the shows. I know that everyone is talking about maybe waiting on doing things, but I think it’s really exciting and it would be amazing to be back. We can never really replace people being together in a room.

What about fashion will remain constant: what is permanent across past, present, and future?

I’ve always believed that restrictions are really important to create problem solving, to overcome challenges. I’ve always believed it in that way. What I love about fashion is that you’re always restricted to the human body and it doesn’t matter how extreme or approachable you go within the work, you always have to think about it. I like to think of it as the constant in fashion. We always have innovation to work around.

Craig Green is a big inspiration for my work this year so I’ve read a lot of interviews and watched videos about how he designs, his ideas and though process. I think it’s really interesting about how he goes about bis work and he always talks about how he personally feels about his collections and work, one of my takeaway quotes from this interview was ‘I think I feel always uncomfortable; but I think feeling uncomfortable is the best way to work’

Yohji Yamamoto epitomises modern minimalism for Fall 2016

Image: WWD

Contained silhouettes and a monochromatic colour palette, Japanese fashion designer, Yohji Yamamoto brought modern minimalism to the next level with his Fall Winter 2016 show. “I wanted to create something very simple,” Yamamoto explained “It came from inside.” and as always the designer used cinematic elements to his restricted design strategies, however, with it's questionable notion of 'how long until minimalism gets maxed out?' Yamamoto proves that being free from extravagance is the most understated way of staying elegant in a modernistic manner. With narrow necklines and tailored jackets, the clean collection also showcased graphic text on the duster-like coats, with the writing ' Lord, I’m not happy here" and "I will be back soon". Mastering the art of recreating minimalism season after season, Yohji Yamamoto kept things fascinatingly complex in the simplest of ways.

Creating minimalism is something I’ve looked at a lot and seeing many shows from Yamamoto and how he’s done it constantly for years is really interesting to me. The visuals from this runway follow this article on the next page.

Minimalism Doesn’t Have to Be Boring Digital fashion week collections from Prada, Yohji Yamamoto, and Botter bring a warm, history-minded kind of minimalism.

BY RACHEL TASHJIAN

July 17, 2020

Photo Illustration by C.J. Robinson

Minimalism, particularly in fashion, is a rational response to a period of excess, the pedant’s retreat from maximalism. As Jonathan Anderson said in a Zoom interview following his Loewe show on Sunday, “There’s so many other problems in the world that I think in a weird way, fashion should be a little bit more humble.” It’s the same refrain Miuccia Prada first espoused last fall: “There’s too much fashion, too much clothes,” she said last September, which I have since tattooed on my forearm and forehead (figuratively). At its best, like in the ’90s, minimalism is a stripping back of clothing’s materials and function, to something that, as minimalist O.G. Giorgio Armani put it, seems more “honest.” No fantasy here, buddy. But more recently, minimalism has too often come to stand for a lack of ideas, leading to spiritually compressed garments that are far too

precise in their shape and finishing, or represent way too slick a reduction of form, leading to clothes that look assembled by an algorithm. For minimalism to really work in fashion, it needs to feel considered, and it needs to be a little humble. But it still needs to be just as emotional as even the wildest ’70s Yves Saint Laurent couture show.

Mrs. Prada, in her final solo outing before Raf Simons joins the proceedings as co-creative director, gave us minimalism at its best earlier this week with a wowee combo of Spring 2021 menswear and women’s resort. There’s so much spirit and soul in the pieces, like the ribbed knits, the wool topcoats, and a splendid boatneck nylon pullover; the sweatpants and sweatshirts, including one with a tucked-in tie, were at once tender and wise. “As times become increasingly complex,” the press notes read, “clothes become straightforward, unostentatious, machines for living and tools for action and activity.”

Prada Menswear Spring 2021

Courtesy of Prada

That “machines for living” line echoes Le Corbusier’s koan about houses being just that, which appeared in his Towards a New Architecture treatise. That book radically transformed architecture at the beginning of the 20th century, and underscores the essence of Prada minimalism: every Prada piece here was distilled to its purest possible form, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t as rigorous or just as considered as the richest embroidered cape. The result, which is particularly evident in the three- and four-button suits that opened the collection, is that it is all so dignified, so respectful of the person who might wear it, that they might allow for an exchange of ideas with the purchaser. There are other brands that demand the wearer rise to the occasion of the genius designer, and that can be a lot of fun, but the glory of Prada is that it assumes you’ll meet the clothes at their intelligent level. And they are very smart clothes, so Prada also assumes you’re smart, which is an appealing thing in these wacko times, when intelligence itself is villainized. Forget a designer telling me I’m rich or thin enough—I want a designer who reminds me that I’m a genius!

Yohji Yamamoto Menswear Spring 2021 Courtesy of Takay

Speaking of genius: are you hip to the Yohjissaince? Every designer and vintage fanatic I know is going wild for Yohji Yamamoto right now. Look at OAMC’s suiting, Valentino’s floral prints, and Agnona’s love letter to Yohji-hed Carolyn Bessette; look at Palace and Supreme’s recent graphics and compare them with Yohjisan’s incredibly witty knitwear from the early 2000s; and ask all the best young designers, like Nicholas Daley and Evan Kinori, about their gods. All roads lead to Yohji-san. His sense of humor and radical tailoring is everywhere. The beauty of Yohji-san, as his crackling but sweet Spring 2021 collection showed, is that he moves in a glorious stratosphere where trends simply don’t exist. Like Prada, Yohji Yamamoto’s star-making period was in the late ’90s and early 2000s, and like Prada, the signature Yamamoto look remains somewhat calcified in that period. But it doesn’t look retro or vintage in the way that some collectible designers might—it looks cool forever. That’s why he’s the perfect designer for now, I think: you don’t sublimate yourself to his work, as you do with something like Comme des Garcons. Instead, you enter the universe and experience the magic.

You can begin collecting at any time. Here, he fashioned an army of Yohji warriors to face the world in a moment of crisis, with Yohji easter eggs like eye buttons positioned like military regalia; as Yohji-san once told Suzy Menkes, “With my eyes turned to the past, I walk backwards into the future.” (As Le Corb is to Prada, so Walter Benjamin is to Yohji-san.) Isn’t that the only way we can make it through this moment?

Botter Menswear Spring 2021 by Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter

Courtesy of JPPM studio and David Paige

Yohji-san and Mrs. Prada aren’t alone in examining and mining their own history. Take a look at Botter, the Paris-based line by designers Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh. (They are also the creative directors at Nina Ricci; they relocated to Paris from Antwerp when they got the gig in 2018.) Though the brand is just a few years old, they’ve made their pieces collectible from the beginning, treating them as neither grails nor “essentials” but the brave in-between: DIY-feeling, with a couture spirit. For their Spring 2021 collection, they revived a number of pieces that have sold well for them, like a boxy and inflated striped jacket, and oversized button-up shirts with hand-printed faded florals. They also created the perfect summer white suiting combo, with trousers and a short-sleeve shirt-jacket made from a lining material—humble fabrics in noble neutrals, by designers who do their best so that you may do yours.

This article was a good resource for imagery and inspiration for looking at brands or certain collections I may have missed at first.

Japanese minimalism set to reshape fashion once again This article is more than 10 years old Thanks to several exhibitions and the economic climate, monochrome, asymmetric and intellectual clothing is back Mark C O'Flaherty Fri 7 Jan 2011 17.00 GMT

Back to black: Japanese designers such as Yohji Yamamoto, are set to have a big influence on our wardrobes.

Photograph: Pierre Verdy/AFP/Getty The impact of rising levels of austerity and radicalism is being felt in the most unlikely corners – even high fashion.

The Japanese minimalist movement, which radicalised and democratised the fashion world in the 1980s, is poised to make a comeback this year.

When the designers Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo, founder of Comme des Garçons, became the toast of Paris fashion week in the early 1980s, their relentlessly monochrome, asymmetric and intellectual vision of clothing was a revelation.

In 2011, with an overview of their archives on display at the Barbican, a definitive retrospective of Yamamoto's work at the V&A in London in March, and even Marks & Spencer citing them as an influence for spring, they are set to reshape our wardrobes once again.

It is 30 years since the first Japanese minimalists upset the status quo by throwing reams of black cloth over the glitz of Studio 54 and the colourful frills of new romanticism. It quickly trickled down to the masses – and soon everything, from jackets to coffee tables, had to be matt black to be chic.

"It wasn't until the 80s and the Japanese that people really wore black," said Prof Wendy Dagworthy, head of fashion at the Royal College of Art. "Before that it just had beatnik connotations. Now, it makes you feel safe."

A whole generation of modernist architects and artists, attracted by its raw, unbranded, antifashion status, adopted a look that destroyed established dress codes and created a logo-free, democratic – albeit often expensive – ideal of style.

As Yamamoto says: "I will never ever wear a tie – not even if I am invited to see my emperor! I made that decision long ago."

Now the flowing, monastic-influenced aesthetic is seeing a revival. "The Japanese look is very versatile," said Neil Hendy, creative director at M&S. "You can wear an oversized black jacket with opaque tights and Dr Martens or, in a more sophisticated way, over a tube dress. What we've been doing at M&S is look at the fluidity of form."

And while V&A curator Ligaya Salazar has been careful to incorporate colour and print within the 90 outfits in the forthcoming Yamamoto exhibition, it's not the florals worn by Elton John for which we know the Japanese designer best. It's the black stuff.

"Yamamoto believes that black is the only genuine colour," said Salazar. "It's what everything else plays off; it's his essence."

Fashion is a great cultural signifier, and these straightened times chime with the uncompromising and dour looks of Japanese fashion in the 80s.

"The current recession is pivotal to this revival," says Andrew Groves, director of the fashion design degree course at the University of Westminster. "It's a fundamental realignment of fashion's core values, and a reaction to wearing short, sexy and symmetrical clothing. In times of recession, skirts lengthen."

This article, albeit ten years old now, still has relevant points and I think is quite good to go back and look at what was said, and maybe what happened in the following years will be telling of some kind as to what could happen in the next couple of years today.

Part Four Utilitarianism in fashion

What Is The Utilitarian Trend?

Vikrant Singh @WeStyleAPR 08, 2019, 19:54 IST

Depending on who you ask, the world of fashion tends to seamlessly (or not) blend with the world of art. Often times we’re presented with outfits from designers that leave us scratching our heads and asking “When would I wear this?”.

For designers it’s a win-win situation. If the designs are applauded by the public they look like a genius. If the designs result in mild criticism or ridicule, advocates for the designs will point to some hidden genius, or the public’s inability to comprehend genius, which helps create a sense of mystique.

Utilitarian fashion is different. Utilitarian fashion is not only stylish but comfortable and convenient. The utilitarian style is functional and influenced by the military and menswear.

When we think about functional style, the immediate image can be unflattering. Maybe you think about sweatpants or a sweatshirt. These are definitely functional and comfortable pieces of clothing. However, what makes the utilitarian style trendy isn’t just the fact that it flies in the face of traditional and “stiff” fashion.

What makes the utilitarian style a trend is how it incorporates fitted and “baggy” pieces of clothing to create a visual statement. The contrasting nature of these two styles is what makes the utilitarian trend appealing.

Let’s look at an example: In this example, notice the immediate and almost caricaturish contrast between the tightly fitted jacket, and the flowing wool skirt. You can even deduce that the sweat the model is wearing underneath the jacket is fitted, from the way the sweater leaks past the arms of the jacket onto her wrist.

The outfit is also very functional. From the jacket to the bag, the outfit has many pockets which is something that you would not normally find when styling a skirt.

Also, notice the military style boots. The military boots by themselves don’t make this outfit utilitarian. However, the contrast of the fit that the boots create between themselves, the jacket, and the flow of the skirt is what really defines this look as utilitarian.

Let’s look at a second example: From the boots to the coat, this outfit anchors itself on two pieces that are very militaristic.

The rest of the outfit is fitted and can be described as fairly traditional. Again, the main thing to notice is the contrast between the loose flow of the coat and the almost tailored fit of the boots, pants and tops.

The utilitarian trend can often look confusing, but once you get the basics of what it means, you have the ability to mix and match a variety of clothing to create the perfect style for you.

Utilitarianism is something I find very interesting in terms of visual looks and in terms of how it’s not really about how it looks, but how it functions and how it works on a day to day basis.

This article is a very basic look at some simple utilitarianism and not necessarily looking at the trend and style itself but more examples on a commercial level which is interesting to see but I think, I’ll look at this topic on a higher market level, at a more conceptual level.

Understanding Utilitarian Fashion Posted on January 21 2021 Fashion in the modern day is a complex, multi-dimensional industry that is becoming increasingly difficult for anyone to define in any concrete terms. And that is by no means a negative evaluation. Quite the contrary in fact. It simply means that the merits by which we individually and collectively judge fashion as an artistic expression are becoming more and more subjective with every passing collection, and thus open to further interpretation and discussion.

For the most part, we as consumers and creators have an inherent predisposition to view fashion in a similar way to the way in which we view ‘art’ in its most universally recognised forms (paintings, drawings, sculptures etc). By this, we mean that there is a tendency to perceive fashion as purely a visual medium, and not much more. The efficacy (and subsequently the success) of any designer’s collection is usually determined, in large part, by its visual appeal; what the choice of graphics, colours and fabrics make us feel and what they represent. But what about the practical merits?

Should we not also place an emphasis on how our fashion articles actually perform in the real world?

These are exactly the kind of questions that designers who are at the forefront of pioneering utilitarian fashion seek to address. We’re seeing a growing trend within the industry whereby collections are beginning to place a deliberate focus on performance, wearability, sustainability and other qualities that introduce a whole new sub-division of reasons to invest in contemporary fashion. Utilitarian fashion has been known to draw inspiration from a wide variety of sources, including military gear, technology and futurism and outdoor apparel, often combining and overlapping themes to create new and unique aesthetics. The cargo (or combat) pant is a perfect example of a classic military staple that has been reappropriated for a staple casual attire silhouette in the modern man’s wardrobe. The typically loose-fitting shape is perfect for mobility, while the multiple, spacious cargo pockets allow for the transportation of a great number of essentials. It’s a classic style that celebrates functionality in fashion, a concept that is well represented in Off-White’s arrow parachute cargo pants and the convert cargo pants from Stone Island Shadow Project.

Of course, the intrinsic emphasis on practicality and functionality doesn’t necessarily mean that artistic flair and expression have to be sacrificed; at least not in most cases. Arguably the best examples of contemporary utilitarian designs are the ones that are both practical and aesthetically pleasing. Moncler is one such label that endeavours to strike that fabled balance between fashion and function with their collections, especially when it comes to their speciality: outerwear. Take their featured ‘Blanc’ down jacket for instance. From the fleece-lined hood to the elastic-trimmed cuffs, every element of this garment has been designed with insulation and heat retention in mind, understandably owing to the wintry conditions that Moncler down jackets are specifically designed to withstand. But it's the lively camouflage overlay that really lifts the visual appeal of the garment, suggesting its suitability to environments and situations that may not have been compatible without it. It’s subtle intricacies like these that make the Blanc jacket just as appropriate for country walks through lush, woodland areas as it is for adventures at the alpine ski resorts.

We’re really just scratching the surface here when it comes to the seemingly limitless potential for innovation that utilitarianism allows. There are just so many opportunities to experiment and create some truly unique designs and we simply can’t wait to see what exciting new ideas designers will present going forward. Utilitarian fashion is much more than just ‘another passing trend’, and those who regard it as such are understating its immense scope and reach within the modern scene. In truth, it’s conceivably existed in some form or another for as long as we’ve worn clothes and we see no reason that it should become obsolete any time soon.

This article is closer to where I want to look at in terms of market level and aesthetic, which is that of luxury and concept in terms of storytelling and how the brand narrative is told.

Slow Fashion Ethics: Utilitarianism

Utilitarian ethical theory is the most recognized ethical theory among English speakers (and perhaps the French too…). It was first theorized by philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the 1780’s and continued by many including the 18th century philosopher John Stuart Mill and contemporary scholar Peter Singer.

Utilitarians provide a calculation to determine the best action to take. They claim that the best action is the one which leads to the greatest good/pleasure/happiness for the greatest number. This is called the utilitarian calculus, which is often referred to simply as “the greatest good for the greatest number.”

The single thing that makes an action good or bad is our desire to pursue happiness. Utilitarians, based on a long tradition of Western philosophers, say that this desire is inherent to humanity – every human seeks actions that lead to happiness. The pursuit of happiness is central to modern life – especially for those who live in the United States where it’s included in our Declaration of Independence. This pursuit is very focused

on the individual – whatever the individual determines will make them happy is a pursuit that is, in some sense, protected by the government. However, the pursuit of happiness has reached farther than the U.S. Declaration of Independence, mainly to global capitalist business enterprise.

In the case of utilitarianism, the greatest good, the pursuit of happiness, and the accumulation and protection of property are synonymous. And it is the pursuit of property (money) that drives industries like fast fashion.

For the fashion industry, utilitarianism guides the typical fast fashion philosophy where the greatest good is usually the greatest profit. But there are a number of ways fast fashion companies use a utilitarian calculus to justify their business practices. Sometimes, it literally means that these businesses try to offer the most items to the greatest number of people. Other times it can operate in reverse, where the greatest good for the greatest number is the lowest production cost for the largest output of items.

Slow Fashion advocates also use a utilitarian calculus, however they use it very differently than the above mentioned businesses. Slow fashion questions how we currently define the greatest good. They seek to open the definition of greatest good for the greatest number to include the interests of both fashion labels, consumers, as well as garment workers and farmers. They critique fast fashion companies for their narrow interest in the bottom line. Using the same utilitarian calculus, slow fashion critiques fast fashion for miscalculating. According to genuine utilitarianism, the greatest number should mean the greatest number of humans. Thus, true utilitarian ethics requires that an action must consider the effects it has on all humans, not just consumers or corporate employees. According to slow fashion utilitarian reasoning, fast fashion companies are making the wrong calculation when they think only of the interests of the consumer or the bottom line.

Using utilitarian reasoning to advocate for slow fashion has some advantages – it follows the accepted logic of capitalist oriented businesses. By using utilitarian logic, slow fashion and fast fashion might be able to speak the same language. But only for a bit… because even though the two groups are using the same ethical calculus, their definition of the greatest good or greatest number wildly diverge. So while slow fashion advocates claim that the greatest number includes all humans, the earth, animals… all life – the fashion industry defines the greatest good in very narrow terms. And the greatest good is wildly divergent in these two groups as well, it could mean the greatest profit or the greatest output or the least harmful product.

These divergent definitions can lead to confusing conversations where there can be little room to move to some sort of consensus about the greatest good in the industry. However, the theory has such a stronghold over businesses and the English-speaking world that slow fashion advocates must understand it and use it to make their position heard in the modern world.

This is a completely different take on utilitarianism as a lifestyle choice and not just the methodology within fashion itself. Not so much about the clothing but the idea of the clothing itself, this is quite interesting as this storytelling can be carried over itself on to clothing and what would this look like?

Instead of brands talking about the ethically questionable industry and the choices they make within it, this talks about making actual choices instead of false promises that are projected so far in the future that people just forget you made them in the first place.

The Utilitarian Trend Returns for Spring Summer 2021

By Manfred Lu April 27, 2021

It’s true, the utilitarian trend has returned for Spring Summer 2021. By definition, the term ‘utilitarian’ in menswear is used to describe a trend that has one encompassing design feature — functionality. It is a style ethos that closely exudes the codes of savoir faire — an adjective often used by French Houses to describe a sense of luxury that is wearable, easy, and stylish.

As reported in our Spring Summer 2021 trend analysis, the season saw a change in attitude and moved away from the surge of romanticism in menswear.

Pictured Above: Bottega Veneta crystal embroidered tank top, Beak leather and metal belt bag.

Instead, a plethora of tonal styles, functional wear, and a lack of loud prints were the sensibilities that paved the way for a new dawn of fashion for men. What is promised for the next few months is a redirection of one’s sense of dressing. It implores that trends should appear enduring, and thus one should opt for convenient, comfortables styles that are functional to your daily needs.

Here, the Spring Summer 2021 season’s sublime approach for simplicity is reimagined for a new generation of the nostalgia obsessed with utilitarian offerings of house favourites and new introductions.

Dior Men Wool coat, silk bandana, Maxi Saddle leather crossbody bag

Fendi Wool sleeveless sweater, cotton pants; Saint Laurent Sac De Jour leather tote bag

Versace Cotton shirt; La Medusa nylon crossbody bag

Prada Nylon hooded jacket, nylon shorts, polyester-blend tights, Cleo leather shoulder bag

Berluti cotton-blend pants, Camden leather braided lace-up shoes; Fendi Wool coat, Peekaboo leather tote bag Photography Ethan Lai Art Direction Izwan Abdullah Styling Manfred Lu Grooming & Hair Eric Tan using Shu Uemura and Keanu Haircosmetics Styling Assistant Bing Model Tristen | Mannequin Studios A version of this story about the return of the utilitarian trend in Spring Summer 2021 first appeared in the April 2021 issue of Men’s Folio Singapore.

This article focuses on the now of utilitarianism and what brands have done in the spring/ summer of 21 and how this sort of ‘soft utilitarianism’ has started which isn’t as harsh as potentially it used to be or come across. The article talks about this in slightly more detail and how this will be and is really important for current menswear and where it could go.

CRAIG GREEN LAYS OUT HIS UTILITARIAN UTOPIA 10 MONTHS AGO IN STYLEWORDS BY EUGENE RABKIN

COURTESY OF CRAIG GREEN

Curated by Highsnobiety and presented during the time period formerly known as Paris Men’s Fashion Week, “Not In Paris 2” is our second in a series of bi-annual digital exhibitions celebrating creativity in the age of remote interactions.

It would hardly be an overstatement to call Craig Green one of the most exciting menswear designers working today. As one of the most interesting talents to come out of Central St. Martins (the venerable London fashion college with a knack for churning out top designer talent), Green's ascent has been swift since his first solo show in 2015 in London. He has won over fashion critics and fashion fans alike with his elevated take on utilitarian uniforms, or what Green calls "communal dressing."

Since his Paris debut last January — which drew the likes of Michèle Lamy and Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli — the fashion world has, of course, come to a standstill. We caught up with Green for a candid conversation to see how he’s spent his upended year and the details behind his latest Spring/Summer 2021 collection, of which he shared exclusive polaroids for “Not In Paris”.

COURTESY OF CRAIG GREEN

COURTESY OF CRAIG GREEN

Last time we saw each other was at your Paris debut a year ago, which seems like another era. How have you spent 2020?

It may have been different for us than for some others, because we're very much a hands-on studio. As soon as I could, I returned to the studio and started making shirt patterns and sewing garments, which was a strange thing for me, because as the company grows, you start doing less and less of that kind of handwork. It was like going back to my college years. I wasn't even sure why I was doing it, because I didn't know who I was doing it for, whether we'd have a show in June or not. But I just knew it was the right thing to do at that moment.

I was completely alone in the studio for a few months. Once I got my head around the whole situation, I took advantage of slowing down, got to rethink and restructure some things. I've been enjoying the somewhat slower pace, though now I'm quite ready to pick it up.

What does a live fashion show mean to you as a designer?

One of the reasons why I chose to study fashion was the fashion show. It's always been such an important aspect of the process. You can never really replicate that energy in any other format. I remember going to my first show, which was Gareth Pugh when he was just starting out, and how exciting it felt. People were pushing to get in and they almost closed the doors on us. My heart was beating out of my chest because it was so exciting. It was amazing to see that you can bring that kind of emotion out of people by showing some clothes for five minutes with music on. It made me realize that this is what I wanted to do.

So the show remains incredibly important to us. We build everything around that moment. I also like the restriction of that format. It makes us think about what we can do within the parameters of the show. There's also something ceremonial about it that I've always loved. It sounds like such a simple thing when you explain it to somebody. It almost sounds like madness, to spend all this time and money and resources for the 10 minutes, but it can be such a powerful thing. I know it's all changing and you can present in other formats, but I don't think you can ever replicate the feeling of people coming together in a room to experience something. I can't wait to go back to it.

COURTESY OF CRAIG GREEN

COURTESY OF CRAIG GREEN

I think that all the people who predict that we will be wearing sweatpants and working from home for the rest of our lives simply don't understand human nature.

Yes, I'm not a fan of working from home. When I worked from home, I had to put my shoes on every day, otherwise I felt like I wasn't working.

I can see that. Rituals are very much present in your work.

Yes, and in this [Spring/Summer 2021] collection, we thought about working from home. We used a tie for the first time, for example. The question was, “What does a tie mean?” At the most basic level, it's just a piece of fabric. Someone literally picked up a piece of fabric from the floor of our studio and put it around the model, and we thought, “That's a finished outfit.” A tie carries a meaning — there's always some kind of importance around it.

COURTESY OF CRAIG GREEN

COURTESY OF CRAIG GREEN

The semiotics of clothes seem integral to your work.

There's a human element to fashion, which is one of the reasons I chose to go into it, as opposed to, say, art. When you're dressing a person, you're saying something about them by default. I've always liked clothes, but I was

particularly interested in their uniform aspect, in the idea of the workforce, clothing that exists for a function. There's an emotional connection there.

People don't really wear uniforms anymore; the term "subculture" means something very different now. It's very unusual to belong to anything these days, so the idea of the uniform is quite romantic; it's romantic to belong to something larger than you.

Also, uniforms are protective and there's something democratic about them. Take a school uniform, for example; even though I've always rebelled in school and tried to modify my uniform in order to express myself, really, having a uniform puts everyone on a level playing field — you can't really tell how rich they are, or what their parents do for a living, or whether they own the latest, most expensive trainers. I like uniforms as workwear, because it's that of people who are doing the actual work and not displaying their status. There is a certain utilitarian beauty in them that I find attractive.

COURTESY OF CRAIG GREEN

COURTESY OF CRAIG GREEN

Do you feel validated now that the kind of service professions you've celebrated in your work for years have this newly found appreciation from the rest of society?

I don't know if I personally feel validated. Part of being a designer is never feeling validated. It's always about questioning everything and pushing forward. If you sat around thinking about how great the things you've made were, I don't think you'd make anything else.

What did you concentrate on in your most recent collection for SS21?

We always start out with an element of fantasy in our collections, and they never comment on the present moment, but this time we kept coming back to the question of what is “real," because that felt the most faraway thing at the time. I kept thinking about our relationship with clothing now, when we're not really seeing anyone and there is no reason to dress to impress.

We dress for ourselves, which is kind of strange, but on some level maybe we have a more intimate relationship with our clothing than we did last year.

Then we did the shoes that aren't really shoes, that allowed your feet to touch the ground, which we never really do anymore. I liked the idea of

someone wearing a tie but no shoes. We also did some capes at the end.

Here, I was going back to the idea of school uniforms, and I was thinking of the image of how you'd put a coat on your head and run around and it became a cape billowing at your back. I like the idea of garments performing unintended functions.

COURTESY OF CRAIG GREEN

Craig Green is one of the biggest designers in menswear currently and has had an evergrowing impact on the industry in the past couple of years. With this influence growing, his designers and show tend to inspire and can be used to predict where other designers will go and where lower market level brands will take trickle down inspiration from.

Craig Green’s work has always been so distinguishable and his signature has always been noticeable against everyone else.

PART FIVE THE CONSUMER

What Is Generation Alpha?

POSTED NOVEMBER 4, 2020, BY THE ANNIE E. CASEY FOUNDATION

Kids in the Generation Alpha club are the first generation to be born entirely within the 21st century. They’re immersed in technology and described by diversity in key areas, including their race and ethnicity, family structure and family finances. They’re also the first generation to experience an early childhood defined by the coronavirus pandemic.

This post takes a closer look at what we know — for now — about America’s youngest citizens.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT GENERATION ALPHA WHAT BIRTH YEARS DEFINE GENERATION ALPHA? The term Generation Alpha refers to the group of individuals born between 2010 and 2025.

This is the generation after Gen Z.

HOW LARGE IS GENERATION ALPHA? Every nine seconds, a member of Generation Alpha is born in the United States. Every week, 2.5 million members are born worldwide. By 2025 — when one age group gives way to another — Generation Alpha will be nearly 2 billion members strong across the globe, according to social analyst Mark McCrindle.

WHO CAME BEFORE GENERATION ALPHA? Generation Z came before Generation Alpha. Members of Generation Z were born between 1995 to 2010. Generation Z follows members of Generation Y, more commonly known as Millennials, who were born between 1980 and 1995.

One way to envision how these groups fit together: Members of Generation Alpha are often the children of Millennials and the younger siblings of Generation Z.

HOW DOES GENERATION ALPHA COMPARE TO GENERATION Z? Comparing Generation Alpha versus Generation Z statistics — much like the groups’ members themselves — are still developing. However, if current trends hold, Generation Alpha kids will be more racially and ethnically diverse than their Generation Z counterparts.

Members of Generation Alpha will also be more likely to go to college, more likely to grow up in a single-parent household and more likely to be surrounded by college-educated adults.

While members of both age groups have grown up with technology at their fingertips, Generation Alpha kids have a key advantage. As McCrindle puts it: “They are the most materially endowed and technologically literate generation to ever grace the planet!”

HOW DIVERSE IS GENERATION ALPHA? In the United States, white people represent a shrinking share of the nation’s population. For instance: In 2010, the first year that Generation Alphas were born, 51% of kids ages 0 to 4 were white. In 2018, the most recent year of data on record, just 49% of kids in this same age range were white.

With census population projections estimating that America will become minority white by 2045, it’s safe to say that Generation Alpha kids are on track to become the nation’s most racially and ethnically diverse generation yet.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT GENERATION ALPHA AND TECHNOLOGY? Generation Alpha kicked off the same year that Apple launched its iPad, Instagram made its debut and the American Dialect Society crowned “app” as its word of the year. Surrounded by technology from the get-go, this group views digital tools as omnipresent — not just a trendy accessory.

Growing up logged on and linked up — aided by the likes of Siri and Alexa and engrossed in videos and all things visual — can have its advantages, including greater digital literacy and adaptability. But a childhood defined by technology can also create challenges, such as shorter attention spans and delayed social development, experts warn.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT GENERATION ALPHA AND EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT? From 2010 to 2019 — the first nine years of Generation Alpha births — the United States saw educational attainment improve among adults between the ages of 25 and 34. During this time frame, adults grew more likely to hold an associate (8% to 9%), bachelor’s (22% to

26%) or graduate (9% to 11%) degree as their highest level of educational attainment. Not surprisingly, the share of adults who didn’t graduate from high school (13% to 8%) and only graduated from high school (48% to 46%) fell during this same time frame.

If these trends hold, Generation Alpha kids will be more likely to grow up surrounded by college-educated adults compared to prior generations. And, once in the classroom, they will be more likely to extend their own academic careers and earn a college degree.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT GENERATION ALPHA AND FAMILY STRUCTURE? In Generation Alpha’s first year, the share of kids growing up in a single-parent family was 34%. Twenty years prior — in 2000 — this same statistic was only 31%. If this trend holds, Generation Alpha kids will be more likely to live in single-parent households — and in greater numbers — than any age group before them.

Historically, kids in single-parent households have been more likely to struggle compared to their peers in two-parent families. For instance, kids raised by just one parent run a higher risk of dropping out of school, experiencing an early pregnancy and divorcing their spouse in adulthood.

HOW HAS THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACTED GENERATION ALPHA? While some experts are already calling COVID-19 a “defining moment” for Generation Alpha, it’s still too early to know exactly how the pandemic will impact America’s families and future.

Here’s what we do know: In early 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic forced schools and most employers to operate remotely, technology came to the rescue. For many kids — including the oldest members of Generation Alpha, now in elementary school — screen time soared, with the screens themselves doubling as classroom blackboards and emergency babysitters. At the same time, families recoiled into their homes, play dates stopped and extracurricular activities were canceled.

Pre-pandemic, experts projected that Generation Alpha kids would follow in the activist footsteps of Generation Z and keep sustainability near the top of their priority list. Now, COVID-19’s radical reset of societal norms could further intensify this age group’s interest in reimagining a greener, healthier world.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT GENERATION ALPHA AND FAMILY FINANCES? In the United States today, in 2019, 17% of all children — nearly 12 million kids total — are living in poverty. While the share of kids living in poverty has fluctuated over the past decade, the gap between the haves and the have-nots has never been wider, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. At the same time, the nation’s Black-white income gap isn’t closing, with the median income for Black households falling $33,000 short of white households in 2018, per the Pew Research Center.

Unfortunately, these gaps — reported pre-pandemic — are not likely to improve anytime soon. In April 2020, about half of lower-income Americans reported household job or wage losses due to COVID-19. Among Hispanic adults, this statistic jumped even higher — to 61% — according to Pew. For Generation Alpha kids growing up in America’s poorest households, the challenges intertwined in their family finances are wide ranging and long lasting. Poverty elevates a child’s risk of experiencing behavioral, social-emotional and health challenges. Child poverty also reduces skill-building opportunities and academic outcomes, undercutting a young student’s capacity to learn, graduate from high school and more.

This article talks about generation alpha and the different characteristics they’ll have and why this is, based off the previous generations and their parents.

Articles like this are good for looking at how best to market for these audiences in general and how this differs to how we used to do this.

The McCrindle Research document was a fantastic read and I thought it has lots of relevant information to do with the generational stats and even types of technology and information.

Oh No, They’ve Come Up With Another Generation Label How much do members of “Generation Alpha,” or any generation, really have in common?

By Joe Pinsker

Spencer Weiner / Getty

FEBRUARY 21, 2020 SHARE

The cutoff for being born into Generation X was about 1980, the cutoff for Generation Y (a.k.a. the Millennials) was about 1996, and the cutoff for Generation Z was about 2010. What should the next batch of babies be called— what comes after Z? Alpha, apparently. That’s the (Greek) letter that the unofficial namers of generations—marketers, researchers, cultural commentators, and the like—have affixed to Gen Z’s successors, the oldest of whom are on the cusp of turning 10.

The Generation Alpha label, if it lasts, follows the roughly 15-year cycle of generational delineations. Those delineations keep coming, even as, because of a variety of demographic factors, they seem to be getting less and less meaningful as a way of segmenting the population; in recent decades, there hasn’t been a clear-cut demographic development, like the postwar baby boom, to define a

generation around, so the dividing lines are pretty arbitrary. How much do members of this new generation, or any generation, really have in common?

A picture of Generation Alpha, if a blurry one, is starting to emerge. In various articles about its members, analysts have stated that they are or will grow up to be the best-educated generation ever, the most technologically immersed, the wealthiest, and the generation more likely than any in the past century to spend some or all of their childhood in living arrangements without both of their biological parents. These are all notable features, but some of them are broad and fairly low-stakes observations, given that the global population has been getting richer, better educated, and more exposed to digital technology for a while now.

Some marketers and consultants who analyze generations have tried to get more specific. One suggested that Generation Alpha might be particularly impatient because they’ll be used to technology fulfilling their desires from an early age. And a branding agency recently polled a bunch of 7-to-9-year-olds on a wide range of mostly nondivisive issues (such as the importance of “making sure everyone has enough food to eat”) and arrived at the conclusion that Generation Alpha “cares more about all issues than their Millennial and Baby Boomer [predecessors] did when they were kids, or even than they do now.”

Many of these takeaways seem premature, or at least overeager. “They’re still kids,” says Dan Woodman, a sociology professor at the University of Melbourne who studies generational labels. “A lot of things we attach to a generation are around the way they start to think about politics, the way they engage with the culture, and [whether they] are a wellspring of new social movements.” The narrative of a generation, he told me, “starts to get filled in with some meaningful—maybe not correct, but at least substantial—content probably more when they start to enter their teens.”

The term Generation Alpha is usually credited to Mark McCrindle, a generational researcher in Australia who runs a consulting agency. McCrindle told me that the name originated from an online survey he ran in 2008 that yielded a slew of nowdiscarded monikers, many of which focused on technology (the “Onliners,” “Generation Surf,” the “Technos”) or gave the next round of humans the burden of undoing the damage done by the last (the “Regeneration,” “Generation Hope,” the “Saviors,” “Generation Y-not”

One popular option from the survey was “Generation A,” but, McCrindle told me in an email, he thought the name for a cohort that would shape the future shouldn’t “be labelled by going back to the beginning.” So once the Latin alphabet was exhausted, he hopped over to the Greek one—“the start of something new.”

A consensus has formed around Generation Alpha, but it may be a temporary one.

The generic “Generation [Letter]” format began with Generation X. “It was meant to be a placeholder for something a bit uncertain or mysterious, almost like X in some algebraic equation,” Woodman told me. Generation Y followed, though it was usurped, at least in the U.S., by Millennials; nothing has overthrown Generation Z. Placeholder names, in a way, make generational generalizations easier. “They’re almost like empty labels that you can put anything in,” Woodman said. He thinks Generation Alpha will stick for at least a little while, but can also see how it might get replaced by something “a little more descriptive.”

The history of generational labeling is littered with names that gained some traction, but not enough. Gen X has been referred to as “Baby Busters,” the “slacker generation,” “latchkey kids,” and the “MTV Generation,” though the placeholder won out. The same, so far, has been the case for Gen Z, whose proposed alternate names include “iGeneration,” the “Homeland Generation,” “Multi-Gen,” “Post Gen,” and the “Pluralistic Generation.”

For researchers and consultants, picking a winning name and becoming an authority on a particular generation can be highly lucrative. “It’s worth a heap of money,” Woodman said. “One of the things we do with generational labels is make claims about how different this cohort is—they're so different, almost alien in their attitudes, that you need to pay some experts to come in and explain them to you.” For instance, Neil Howe, one of the coiners of Millennials some 30 years ago, has gone on to make a career out of consulting, speaking, and writing about generations.

Of course, the enthusiasm about naming generations isn’t just among marketers and consultants. People “do love generations talk,” Woodman said. They’re “drawn to using these labels to pin down something they intuitively feel about young or old people these days.” He thinks that this desire is strong when the world is perceived to be changing rapidly—people want to be able to identify their position amid the flux.

Unfortunately, though, “generations talk” can often devolve into stereotyping, as generational labels necessarily lump together people with a wide variety of experiences. “We'd probably bristle if we did with gender or race what we still seem to get away with with generations,” Woodman said.

Generalizing is additionally unwise because the process of delineating generations is hardly scientific. To be sure, today’s coexisting cohorts have had meaningfully different experiences—Baby Boomers and Millennials, for instance, came of age in eras with markedly different technologies and paradigms of education and work. But, Woodman noted, shifts involving “generational factors” like these are usually gradual, and don’t vary drastically from one year to the next.

“There’s a continuous stream of people emerging in a population. How do we draw the line between the end of one cohort and the beginning of another?” said Rick Settersten, a professor of human development and family sciences at Oregon State University. “At some point, it’s an arbitrary game.”

In some regards, the game is more arbitrary now than it used to be. Take the Baby Boomers, for example. “We can see them more easily in the population because there’s a fertility boom in 1946 right after World War II, which tails off by about 1964,” Settersten told me.

The moderately logical boundaries of the Boomer generation set a precedent that in some ways led to the less logical boundaries for the generations that followed.

If the final birth year for Boomers is 1964, counting out 15 more years gets you to the Gen X–Millennial border, and another 15 or so gets you to the Millennial– Gen Z border. But even though this is an orderly way of doing things, big societal changes don’t always follow neat 15-year increments.

For instance, the youngest Millennials, born in 1996, might have more in common with the oldest Gen Zers, born in 1997, than the oldest Millennials, born in 1981; to name just one difference, many children of the late ‘90s grew up with the internet, while the 1981 babies spent most of their childhoods without it.

(This sort of tension has birthed some niche generational labels for those born on the outer edge of their cohort, such as “Xennials.”) Even the Baby Boomer label—which is grounded in a measurable fertility trend—doesn’t entirely make sense, Settersten pointed out, as some of the oldest Boomers are the parents of some of the youngest ones.

Further, Millennials are often considered the children of Boomers, and Gen Zers are often considered Gen Xers’ children. But these sorts of one-to-one matchups of parents and children become less valid as the average age at which parents have their first child has gotten higher. The age range of first-time mothers— whether they are 21, or 31, or 41—“has widened dramatically,” Settersten wrote in an email. “They share a life event—they all had first births at the same time— but they potentially come from different ‘generations.’” (He put the term in scare quotes to note that generations are essentially social constructs.) Woodman raised this point about other life milestones, such as leaving one’s childhood home, starting a committed relationship, and purchasing a house. “The life course isn’t as synchronized as it once was, where everyone does stuff at the same time,” he said.

That means that, from here on out, even more diversity of human experience has to be crammed into broad generational labels. Woodman said that “attach[ing] attributes to an entire group, like optimistic or pessimistic or entitled, snowflakey, resilient, or whatever, has always been a stretch, but it’ll probably get even less helpful as time goes on.”

Settersten made a similar point: “It probably has gotten more difficult to distinguish one generation from another, especially if you can’t point to meaningful things that might define it, like a baby boom or bust; or a historical event like the Great Recession; or maybe the emergence of some new technology, if we had reason to believe that it would mark [people] as a distinct group.”

The march through the Greek alphabet may continue anyway. In 2024, by McCrindle’s definition, the last of Generation Alpha will be born, making way for Generation Beta, whose birth years will span from 2025 to 2039. “If the nomenclature sticks, then we will afterwards have Generation Gamma and Generation Delta,” McCrindle said. Those placeholder names stand a good chance of catching on—so long as nothing important and generation-defining happens in the next half century, of course.

This offered some really good back and forth, quoting sources, then adding opinions from a different view and it got me thinking. It got me thinking about how we should market to a younger generation and how I think, as supposedly generational labels mean less and less because of the variety of experiences we all go through, marketing and communicating should be more personalised and individually attentive to each person, to stop a blanket statement or intention being thrown over a single generation.

Gen Alpha: Small Pockets, Big Influence in 2021 MARTECHGUEST AUTHORSTHE FUTURE

By Carol Fitzgerald On Jul 6, 2021 Share

With an increased focus on generational differences, marketers have been told how to appeal to Gen Z, how to understand Boomers, and how to talk to Millennials. But how much do brands know about the up-and-coming Generation Alpha?

Does this new generation have any influence – yet?

Driven to find out, we tried to understand Gen Alpha – what’s important to them and their impact on buying behavior today. I know what you’re thinking, aged between 3 and 10 years old, they only have pocket money – if that.

But influential consumers aren’t only those with direct spending power. Although Gen Alphas are “small” their influence is big – and by understanding this generation early, brands will be able to be a step ahead of the game.

It’s no surprise Gen Alpha are more informed, and tech-savvy compared to other generations, they learn by doing, they’re active and love to socialize. But, according to their Gen X and Millennial parents, this cohort is growing up with more choices and better family dynamics than they had in their childhoods – parents say they spend more time with their children and give them more attention than their parents did.

So, to understand the full impact of these youngsters, we should look at who is actually tall enough to reach the items on the shelves, their Gen Alpha parents.

We found their children’s preferences are the number one factor driving parents’ purchases. 80% of US parents gravitate towards products customized to their children, and 70% consult with their child before purchasing a product for their use. And more than half [55%] give in to ‘pester power’ from their children when they purchase new products.

Kids especially influence the purchase of toys, snacks and other food items such as juice, yogurt, and milk. So, food brands open your ears! 95% of US parents are willing to pay more for products with healthier ingredients, and 45% buy more allergen free products because of their child.

Brands learning more about this generation now will not only be able to appeal to them while they’re still young, but they will also be able to approach them effectively in future, as they become adults. So here are some key takeaways: 35% of Gen Alpha started using technology between the ages of 3 and 4, with 75% in the US influenced by YouTube.

For parents, brands and price are less important than health aspects and ingredients when they make their choices, as they are prepared to spend more for higher quality and healthier products. Brands need to target their messaging, identify their values and what they stand for if they want to be the choice for parents.

According to their parents, the Gen Alpha cohort is growing up with more choices than their parents had, and children are ready to explore these choices. This means new or smaller brands can emerge if they play their cards right; while big brands need to make sure they don’t lose their advantage.

With technology and positive family dynamics most predominant in Gen Alpha’s lives, brands wanting to reach to this generation should seek out the intersections of interactivity and family environment. We saw YouTube influences children so looking at the future of this channel and how to use it to interact with children is a good start.

Looking through this article, the stats from the survey are obviously useful and show characteristics that can be used in fashion marketing and communications if you read between the lines and apply the transferable information correctly. Such as looking at the influence that kids have on their parents on purchases, so even though they don’t spend the money, that sorta do decide what it goes on and this can be used in a fashion sense when they’re reaching the ages of buying in to the fashion industry and properly discovering their individual styles and ways of dressing.

Marketing to Generation Alpha Jennifer A. Kingson

Illustration: Rae Cook/Axios Marketers are pouring money into figuring out the tastes and habits of Generation Alpha — kids born from 2010 through 2024 — who are unprecedented in the extent they're growing up online.

Why it matters: They're weaned on TikTok, Amazon and in-app purchases. They're learning from their millennial parents to hold brands accountable for causes like social justice and sustainability. And no prior age cohort will be as large in size or marketing power.

Where it stands: While the oldest members of Generation Alpha are only 11, they already stand out from Gen Z in their worldliness, brand awareness and influence over household spending.

• • •

They're not just pre-consumers: Their sway and leverage over adults' purchasing decisions surpass any prior generation, market researchers say.

Most won't remember a world without COVID-19, an iPhone or the threat of environmental Armageddon.

"When they have all been born [2025], they will number almost 2 billion — the largest generation in the history of the world," according to Mark McCrindle, the Australian social analyst who coined the term "Generation Alpha."

It's no coincidence that Instagram and the iPad were introduced in 2010 —the year this generation was handed the torch — or that "app" was named word of that year.

•

• •

"They are very sophisticated," McCrindle, the founder and principal of McCrindle Research in Sydney, tells Axios. "We can no longer design products for them and push the products at them. They want a seat at the table."

They're unusually visual in how they consume content, highly networked in how they socialize, and global in their outlook and perspective.

"They can send a trending hashtag, they can start a social media campaign and bring about change," says McCrindle, who published a book on Generation Alpha this year. "They’ve seen that in their own experience, in #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter."

The intrigue: Generation Alpha will grow up knowing that they don't need to be old enough to vote to influence the ballot box.

• •

Creating mountain-moving hashtags and memes is second nature to them.

They'll be aware of influencers like the teen TikTokers who helped get President Biden elected and the youth organizers who targeted individual politicians and voter turnout campaigns in 2020.

Between the lines: Global marketing giants are already in awe of Generation Alpha's might, and using all their powers of social listening to tap into what they're thinking.

• •

•

•

Brands like Mattel are "reading the writing on the wall and rolling out the welcome mat for Generation Alpha," per AdAge. "Like their elders, they care about issues such as sustainability and social equality — but unlike previous generations, they have embraced activism from a very young age and expect brand change as a result."

While the group is still evolving — and some still haven't been born yet — "if current trends hold, Generation Alpha kids will be more racially and ethnically diverse than their Generation Z counterparts," says the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to children and families.

"Members of Generation Alpha will also be more likely to go to college, more likely to grow up in a single-parent household and more likely to be surrounded by college-educated adults," the foundation says.

From research into Gen Alpha, I’ve discovered that McCrindle research is extremely popular and has a lot of people using it as a reference and source of information, which is useful because many people interpret the information differently and it’s interesting to read. This is because of the different perspectives and reasons people are looking at it in the first place that makes it eye-opening in a way which I really enjoy.

20 Surprising Influencer Marketing Statistics

by Digital Marketing Institute

Posted on Oct 19, 2021

As social media has become a more integrated part of our lives, influencer marketing has exploded. People are turning to their favorite Instagram stars, Twitter personalities, and YouTubers for advice and recommendations on purchasing decisions. To get the most out of any influencer you may use, it’s crucial to build an influencer marketing strategy.

These influencers are trusted by millions of consumers, and marketers are paying attention. It turns out that 48% ran influencer campaigns with interest in using influencers on TikTok rising 325% in just one year according to The State of Influencer Marketing 2021 research.

Social media has given normal people an opportunity to build their own brand through stimulating content and engagement. These new influencers are more relatable than traditional celebrities.

After all, countries across the globe are using social media platforms in one form or another. And, since more people are joining social media networks every day, companies have realized they can leverage these platforms for marketing.

Influencer Marketing Statistics Interest in influencer marketing has only grown, which means a lot of research has been conducted, producing interesting statistics. So let's take a look at some of the most eye-popping results of these studies. Here are 20 influencer marketing stats that will surprise you.

1. 70% of Teens Trust Influencers More than Traditional Celebrities It's extremely difficult for brands to build the same level of trust that influencers possess, but thanks to influencer marketing that trust can be transmitted to your brand. So much so that 4 in 10 Millennial subscribers say their favorite influencer understands them better than their friends.

Another effect of influencer marketing is that brands don't have to waste resources promoting themselves, and instead use influencers to speak on their behalf and deliver the message they want people to hear and trust.

2. 86% of Women Use Social Media for Purchasing Advice This statistic should be important to any brand that either has women as their primary target audience or within their scope of ideal customers. It seems if you want to reach more women and get them to buy your product or service, you need to be present on social media and aware of the influencers they are interested in. And this behavior is growing, as 78% of women are active on social media with a preference for Snapchat and Instagram. When it comes to influencer marketing, over half of women made purchases due to influencer posts. The key to engaging this cohort through influencers is to be genuine and inspirational.

3. 49% of Consumers Depend on Influencer Recommendations This statistic demonstrates the growing importance of social media influencers for brands to connect with their audiences. Not only do 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations, 40% had purchased something after seeing it on Twitter, YouTube or Instagram. If consumers feel confident about an influencer's recommendation, they are more likely to make a purchase. Brands are able to piggyback on the trust of influencers.

4. TikTok has created a $1 billon Creator Fund to nurture influencers To encourage creators that dream of making a living from TikTok using their unique voice and creativity, the platform launched the TikTok Creator Fund in 2020. This fund requires creators to have up to 100,000 video views over a month to be eligible and is a reward to TikTokers for bringing joy to large audiences. The fund started at $200k and is expected to grow to $1bn in the U.S over the following three years. Their aim is to build an army of influencers that can make a living through brand partnerships, sponsorship and representation deals. Some of the first recipients of the fund were chef Matt Broussard, ‘Kombucha girl’ Brittany Tomlinson and prankster David Dobrik.

5. Influencer Marketing Campaigns Earn $5.78 for Every Dollar Spent The State of Influencer Marketing 2020 found that 66% of marketers plan to increase their influencer marketing budgets, this area of marketing is becoming the fastest-growing channel for brands, beating organic search, paid search and email marketing. In addition, businesses earn $5.78 for each dollar spent on influencers, with some seeing as much as $18. That's a significant return on investment and you can figure out your ROI using a social media calculator. In terms of influencer channels, Instagram and Twitter are cited as the most effective platforms.

6. Influencer Marketing Helps Brands Acquire Better Customers It's becoming more important than ever to build relationships with influencers who resonate with your brand and to create campaigns that are aligned with the values of an influencer's followers. In addition, 51% of marketers say influencer marketing helps them acquire better customers.

7. 57% of Fashion and Beauty Companies Engage in Influencer Marketing Fashion and beauty are industries that rely heavily on influencer marketing, as organic growth for brands has become more challenging without advertising and amplification. In this sector, 57% of companies now use influencers as part of their marketing mix, while 21% are planning to add this to their strategy in the coming year. Many brands now use influencers to great success such as Tropicana using @foreveryoursbetty, Tess Daly who has landed deals with Benefit and boohoo gaining hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram. However, while many fashion and beauty brands are keen on using influencers, many want to ensure that those they choose have social consciousness sincerity to drive success.

8. Major Brands Plan to Increase Spend on Influencer Marketing More brands and marketers are coming to realize the incredible results that influencer marketing can produce. This impact is resulting in an increase in spending, with some 71% of marketers planning to increase their budgets in the next 12 months with the majority preferring to work with micro-influencers. Not only is spend increasing to help boost brand awareness, reach new audiences and improve brand advocacy, but it’s also fast becoming an important channel, with many marketers setting campaign KPIs to measure success.

9. The Influencer Marketing Industry is Expected to Hit $13.8bn by 2022 As an industry, influencer marketing has expanded exponentially over the past two years. Worth just $1.7 billion in 2016, the industry is set to reach $13.8 billion by 2022 as the industry witnesses more growth and becomes a more effective marketplace. This growth means more widespread use and will require marketers to evolve influencer marketing strategies in the way campaigns are measured, create analytics to scale campaigns and look at how to manage relationships between brands and influencers.

10. 82% of People Trust Social Networks to Guide Purchasing Decisions Over three-quarters of consumers trust opinions they find on social media, including those from friends, families and influencers, to help them make the right decision about buying a product or service. This creates huge opportunities for marketers in the promotion of products (sponsored or not) to reach new audiences and influence key cohorts by catering to Gen Z and Millennials.

11. Social Media Marketing Has Surpassed Print Marketing What this means is brands are undergoing a transition in the ways they spend their marketing budgets. Expensive and inefficient ad buys, such as many of those found in newspapers and magazines, are giving way to influencer marketing. The return on investment in social media marketing is now far outpacing any traditional medium.

12. 42% of Customers Use Ad-Blocking Technology More and more Internet users are removing traditional ads from their online experience. In the US ad-blocking usage is 37% on laptops and 15% on mobile, as consumers are tired of being hammered with pop-ups and banners. But influencers are now filling the gap. People aren't blocking videos from their favorite social media celebrities - in fact, they're eating up every word they say. Advertising power is shifting to real people and influencers.

13. Marketers Spend up to $100,000-$500,000 on Influencer Marketing Campaigns Spending on influencers has gone up over the past few years, and it's only going to increase.

Many budgets for influencer marketing are on the rise, with 19% of marketers expected to invest an average of $1,000-$10,000 followed by 18% spending $100,000 to $500,000 in multifaceted campaigns.

14. 41% of Twitter Users Intended to Purchase Based on a Tweet It seems Twitter influencers do, as a matter of fact, have the ability to impact the purchasing decisions of followers. On the platform, influencers are now rivaling friends in terms of building trust, with 61% of Twitter users following a creator resulting in a 61% lift in brand favorability and a 64% increase in recommendation intent. Engaging in marketing campaigns with influencers clearly has the potential to drive up sales of goods and services and newsjacking on Twitter may also be something to consider.

15. Couples are changing influencer marketing Couples are emerging as a new wave of successful influencers across platforms. Using their relationship, many are leveraging their status to build a brand. Reality TV is one of the main drivers with participants in series such as ‘Love Island’ and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ creating stars that can influence an audience. Think Joe Sugg and Dianne Buswell or Tommy Fury and MollyMae Hague. With over 10 million followers the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex (otherwise known as Harry and Meghan) combine their star power on Instagram to great effect.

16. Facebook is the Most Influential Social Media Network With about 2.89 billion monthly users across the world, Facebook is one of the most influential social media channels, with 52% of purchasing decisions being influenced by the platform. Other social media networks are catching up to the giant, but Facebook is holding its own, especially with its ownership of Instagram and WhatsApp. Therefore, it's vital to stay active on Facebook and engage with influencers to expand your Facebook reach.

17. YouTube is Hot on Facebook's Heels While Facebook is still the alpha dog, YouTube is snapping at its heels particularly when it comes to making millionaires of its influencers. The platform has made celebrities and influencers of regular people (think PewDiePie and Ryan’s World) and fame is open to all age groups and demographics. There's something for everybody on YouTube, and marketers are taking notice by putting more money into influencer marketing on the platform.

18. 60% of Consumers Have Been Influenced by Social Media or a Blog While Shopping at a Store This changes the meaning of comparison shopping. According to research, 3% of consumers would consider buying a product in-store if promoted by a celebrity, compared to 60% for an influencer. Not only is the influence greater, but over half of customers are consulting blogs and social media on their mobile devices prior to shopping, highlighting the importance of easily accessible information and posts (social and blogs) to reveal a product's reputation.

19. Purchase Intent Increased by 5.2x by Influencers on Twitter Part of influencer marketing research means discovering which social media networks are most suitable for promoting your brand and where your target audience can be found. According to Twitter, influencers created a 5.2x increase in purchase intent when users were exposed to brand and influencer tweets compared to 2.7x when just shown brand tweets.

20. 71% of Marketers Believe Influencer Partnerships are Good for Business Influencer marketing campaigns should not be a one-and-done proposition. They are a valuable ongoing strategy in a marketer's toolkit, with a Mediakix survey revealing that nearly three-quarters of marketing professionals cite them as good for business. If you can partner with them and create a long-term relationship, making them ambassadors of your brand, the message they portray comes across as more trusted instead of promotional. It helps to boost your brand's credibility if you're seen as trusted by an influencer.

This stats are important as I think gen Alpha will only increase the influencer market, by becoming and supporting the new ways of working and this will definitely become one of the biggest marketing strategies in the next ¾ years compared the marketing sector as a whole.

'Squid Game's' Lee Jung-jae Appointed as Gucci Global Brand Ambassador Following the announcement of ‘Squid Game’ Season 2.

Nov 11, 2021

TEXT BY Aaron Chow

South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae, best known for his role as Seong Gi-Hun in Squid Game, has been announced as Gucci‘s newest global brand ambassador.

Seong Gi-Hun’s announcement follows Jung Ho-yeon‘s appointment as brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton earlier this year and the confirmation of Squid Game Season 2. In a recent interview, Squid Game creator and director Hwang Donghyuk promised viewers, “Gi-Hun will come back, and he will do something for the world.” In the meantime, Lee Jung-jae is currently working on his directing debut for the action-drama Hunt, in which he also stars. The upcoming film is set to release later this year and follows an NSA agent chasing after a North Korean spy.

Also joining Gucci as a brand ambassador is South Korean actress Mina Shin from My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. Both actors are dressed in Gucci’s new Aria collection for their profile shots.