Thrift culture vs. couture in the meta-world
Created
Aug 1, 2022
Date Published
Jul 29, 2022
Author(s)
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cover story //
When Depop and The Sims announced their first collaboration, it raised the question of who needs who more. Does fashion need technology, or is it the other way around? In the 2010s, fashion pieces were bursting with tech-infused designs. It was the beginning of a time in fashion history that never really fermented into anything other than a blip: the moment of the wearable. Tommy Hilfiger’s solar panel jackets to charge iphones. Google Glass. Couture got techy, too, like Anouk Wipprecht’s spider dress. For a second, fashion needed technology to flex its understanding of the future consumer’s needs.
But we vastly underestimated how technology would need culture’s underdog – fashion – and not the other way around. Whereas designers once scrambled to have the latest wearables, they’re now racing to create designs that exist only in a technical world - and are not physically worn at all. Tech is calling (and paying), and designers are answering.
Now in a blink of an eye the most valuable fashion piece does not physically exist.
These digital designs have a broad history but being coveted by culture has never been part of the narrative… ‘till now. (Heck, back in 2008 I was embarrassed by a gig I had designing costumes for a now-defunct video game. The clothes, I swear, were not the downfall).
We see the emergence of digital fashion moving far beyond video-game avatars and into a tense dichotomy: The high-flung fantasies of couture, as exemplified gorgeously by Dani Loftus and her new marketplace, Draup; and the accessible, upcycled thriftwear from users on secondhand social commerce network, Depop, via The Sims 4 pack that dropped yesterday.
Earlier this month, Dani Loftus, founder of This Outfit Does Not Exist, announced her $1.5m capital raise for platform Draup which aims to democratize access to digital fashion by offering “virtual wardrobes through which digital fashion can be curated, displayed, and ported into off-platform virtual environments.” Draup will also “curate a community of digitally native creators and consumers, providing them with the access and education they need to maximize the value they get from digital fashion.”
Loftus is capitalizing on technology in the space founded by the likes of The Dematerialized, the leading experimental ecosystem for digital fashion assets and authenticated virtual goods by Karinna Nobbs and Marjorie Hernandez. (Try it for yourself on mobile - and learn more here).
Cred: thedematerialised.com
But creators of The Sims 4: High School Years Expansion Pack have recognized that their userbase wants more - or shall we say less - when it comes to fashioning their avatars. In an effort to encourage thrifting IRL and online, five Depop sellers – @internetgirl, @happyxloco, @selenasshop, @judaku and @furrylittlepeach – have designed in-game garments that are sold in the game’s new thrift store and boba hangout, called ThriftTea (that’s right, kids. It’s a digi-fashion thrift store). Furthermore, users will be encouraged to resell their outfits via rewards on the new Sims app, Trendi, which mirrors Depop’s IRL experience (Vogue Business).
Depop empathizes with their core market of the under-24 set: “Those high school years can be awkward. Finding yourself, figuring out your style – it’s hard. That “right” outfit comes in the form of upcycled designs and vintage-inspired pieces that mimic what hangs on the racks of your latest Goodwill. Authenticity, creativity, and self-expression via accessible design are the name of this virtual-game, in stark contrast to the couture creations by the likes of Balenciaga for Fortnite, Dolce and Gabbana’s $6M NFT, and more represented by platforms like Dematerialised and Draup.
On Depop X Sims, users can use in-game currency to shop virtual thrift store, ThriftTea. Cred: Depop
Depop and The Sims get everything right with this collaboration. The partnership recognizes that while the digital world needs fashion, the fashion it needs is still what is most authenticate to its community. And in this case, that may just be flared jeans and a peasant top. It’s normcore via 90s in the metaverse, and it’s good.
mindshare //
Where have all the cowgirls gone? Maria Raga, CEO of Depop, announced her resignation last week just a month after Julie Wainwright, Founder and CEO of The RealReal, stepped down from her role. Both women were responsible for leading the resale industry’s growth. I look wistfully back at the time when Depop, TheRealReal and Poshmark were the three leading resalers, and with two out of three of them being helmed by women, that was something to be proud of.
Which leads me to my next point. Do conscious commerce founders have an obligation to be more ethical - or at least good, solid humans? Hell yes. It’s not a question I had to think about until this week’s Twitter Spitzstorm by Sam Spitz of Wearloom/Gently, an emerging resale startup, in which he tweeted this shameful rant below (I’d share the thread but he blocked me when I expressed my disappointment). Bye, Spitz (says I, investors, and any potential female/sentient being future hire).
@samuel_spitz
look book //
Cred: @Val_Voshchevska and Annie Leibovitz
The Vogue cover story on Olena Zelenska (October 2022), the Ukrainian first lady, has been largely supported by Ukrainians but received backlash from Republican politicians criticizing the U.S.’s aid “while Zelensky is doing photo shoots for Vogue.” If the story wasn’t in a fashion mag would we have seen the same reaction?
Credit: Beyonce
Renaissance-style portraits from Beyonce’s new album, “Renaissance,” which officially released today. References to Queen Elizabeth (left) and Queen Nefertiti (right, against church) document Beyonce’s desire to be portrayed as the holiest of holy grails in music, fashion and culture.
Cred: @MetaBirkin (now removed)
The “MetaBirkin” NFT artist vs. Hermes saga continues, and can set the precedent for fashion IP in the metaverse. Read the court opinion by Judge Rakoff (who will be officiating my sister’s wedding, nice!).
Cred: Old Navy
Old Navy is selling Bored Ape Yacht Club Tshirts for $18.99, a sign that NFTs have gone mainstream. Original BAYC owners, beware the hype when NFT art goes mass-market - as it heads into retail and risks becoming, well, boring.
Cred: Antwan Sargent
Guards in Abloh-designed uniforms at “Figures of Speech,” the Brooklyn Museum’s Virgil Abloh,retrospective. Sargent, lead curator of the exhibit, writes in his eulogy for the late designer that museum uniforms were one way “for V to play with the dynamics of power and history that had largely kept Black art off the white walls of art institutions.”
cheat sheet //
Read: From Obama’s reading list, Candy House by Jennifer Egan. Character Bix Bouton’s technology, “Own Your Unconscious” experiments with “externalizing” memory… tech that we are seeing develop IRL before our very own eyes.
Read: Circular Design for Fashion by Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Bonus: “The book was brought to life by sustainable printers who used 100% recycled materials, generated no paper waste, and applied waterless printing technology, entirely powered by renewable energy.”- Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Listen: “Visions” Podcast by FutureCommerce Prologue on themes of commerce as identity exchange and a vehicle to change one’s world. Listen, ruminate, repeat.