Web3 Fashion

Published originally on Synthetic Futures in Janurary 2023.

What is it?

Walking the streets of the city, any early 21st century modern city, most people you see don’t think much about fashion. They use it. Wear it. Maybe buy it, borrow it, or are given it.

Felt in the urban and routine, with the backdrop of highrises, concrete pavement, brick and glass facades, and old hints of forgotten industry, the visceral experience of fashion carries how we communicate with each other, through, with, and despite our surroundings. Fashion demands immediacy in the plainness of every day, far from the fantasies of studio runways.

It’s often the small details that reveal the most about fashion, and ourselves. It’s the way we mix and match unexpected pieces to experiment and take risks. The bold patterns and classic traditional prints. The way we play with proportions for weirder and more exciting looks. The kind and quality of materials we choose. How, exactly, we add in custom pieces, handmade accessories, and collected retro clothing from local designers. It’s the out of the way thrift shops where we scavenge for better expressions of who we are, if we’re so sure we know.

When you look closer, the material is intimate. So much more than just clothing. The interface, and protective layer, between us and the world. Even when that’s just playing on repeat.

You notice someone coming closer up ahead on your side of the sidewalk. A few buildings down, not a minute to spare. Their outfit steals your attention, a collection of simple, earth-toned fabrics worn with a vibe of casual indifference. The textures show their history — frayed edges, distressed finishes, and the unmistakable feel of well-loved items.

Your eyes stay a second too long on their high-waisted, baggy corduroy pants and the oversized denim jacket decorated with hand-stitched patches. The plain white t-shirt hugs their body, tying the look together. It’s a style that stands apart from the crowd, without being all that unique, while communicating a subtle hint of defiance.

Worn black leather boots, scuffed at the toe, add a touch of roughness to the public voyeurism of the sidewalk runway strut. Accessories, each with their own story to tell, complete the thing — a chunky metal chain necklace, a silver charm bracelet, and a leather strap watch with a minimalist face.

Is this a carefully curated ensemble outfit or a happy accident of personal expression?

Whatever it’s meant to be, what we wear carries a lot. It talks for us in vector language: where we’ve been, what we’re not sure we want, where we’re doing tonight.

And yet, despite its closeness, fashion is a subtle paradox.

It cuts an artificial line between producers and consumers, distorting markets and divorcing consumers from the practice of inherent interests and skills. An antagonistic stance, to increase barriers for entry. Not just because the old industry’s overwrought.

Stale brands control everything. Raw materials. Work intensity. Safety. Work hours. Whether you get paid. If they decide to lock up your passport on a whim, or if you even get one. Marketing budgets. Supply chains. Ads. Ads. Ads. And that flaming spectacle made awful by the letter E, and what happens when rocket engines meet bird apps that used to fly pretty well. They also instill this nagging, baseless, yet fascinating, gripping fear that only they have the skills, connections, influence, money, time to design what markets consistently want. To challenge them is worse than foolish, or exhausting it seems. Or, it has been.

There’s no shortcut around it, the fashion industry is a shrine to rivalry and petty status. And at every chance it gets, it is anti consumer. But it doesn’t have to stay as it is.

What is it about web3 that changes any of that? Don’t say ‘all of it’, even if it’s kind of true in a way.

The fashion industry shifts all around you as AI, web3, and the miniaturization of factory machines made by code, silicon, and more flexible parts change the way we approach style. Gone are days filled to absurdist nihilism, with static designs and limited self-expression. Instead, you imagine a pulling back of the curtain to see how indie creators realistically bring unique visions to life without the pockets emptying barriers of up front inventory and expensive mass production facilities. This world is printed, on demand, all-over print what you wear, and minted on chain.

Here, unexpected art and subversive meta-irony are indispensable to fashion, and what we wear becomes more than just an aesthetic choice. NFTs unlock doors to exclusive communities and allow creators like you to engage with your friends and fans on a deeper level. There’s more to micro-brand loyalty than a git commit.

You can focus on your message, your passion, and honing your skills, without being bogged down by logistics. Test new ideas and designs, cutting through the CSR soundbites to settle for nothing less than an infinitely more diverse and non-exclusive fashion market.

But it doesn’t end with simply offering unique designs, and busting down lukewarm war walls.

This new freedom of creative experimentation feeds algorithmic discovery of unconventional designs and niche interests to help you find your place in uncertain terrain.

As the distance between our online presence and physical reality continues to blur, decentralized social media protocols step in to replace the old centralized networks which have held us and our content hostage for too long. These new networks offer the persistent uptime, user directed operation, portable social graphs, flexible co-ownership of an unending myriad of micro-cultural assets, uncensorable peace of mind, and non-excludable sharing of messages in the public memory. They serve as catalysts for new channels of microcontent distribution, and through them, connection with each other. By recognizing the autonomy over our personal data and lifestyles that we as free and creative people have always had inherently, (but rarely had in practice protected by governments or companies at any time before consensus mechanisms), these platforms change everything, again.

Microcontent emerges to remake marketing. As vital for creators as air to breathe, to connect with collaborators and customers, to spread your message through pixels and fabric, and bypass old intermediaries to stamp direct to consumer relationships indelibly on chain. Captivating, bite-sized content has a hook to it. It hits. And markets can’t get enough, fast enough.

This shift in engagement dynamics allows creators to better understand the needs and desires of previously distant customers, driving incentives for more tailored designs and seeding a stronger sense of community as a refreshingly sincere byproduct. (As an AI language model might say: gm, you all.)

This decentralized approach to social media also carries significant implications for the fashion industry’s power dynamics. No longer beholden to the whims of centralized platforms, creators like you can take greater control over your online presence and connect with everything and everyone you’re looking for more authentically.

By collecting unique and limited releases of web3 fashion, you can make a statement and show your support for creators you admire, want to emulate, or just plain cozy up to — and gain access to a wild range of programmable value. NFTs are not merely digital collectibles, though. They also serve as catalysts for the emergence of entirely new creative ecosystems, where artists, designers, and technologists collaborate on boundary-pushing projects.

Web3 fashion puts the power of interactivity and choice irrevocably into the hands of creative consumers. Maybe that’s why the CBDC brigades want to choke off access before mass adoption. Think it’s a bit late for that. The power of communication expressed movingly through words, music, and visual content of all kinds is hard to beat once it’s been released. Look at the uproar when ChatGPT is down for a few minutes, and you’ll see a taste of what the hyperregulatory beltway have coming.

It’s not all chatslinging roses and diffusion sunshine. We can’t ignore the challenges you face.

While the potential for growth and self-expression is immense, there are still very real obstacles to overcome. And the backlash, while absurd most of the time, can be intense.

Indie creators are in the lead here. Using low-latency modeling, optimized synth machines, local manufacturing, and generative AI, they can create unique, high-quality fashion lines and accessories to compete with the potential for impressive scale, and do it quick.

Partnering with local fulfillment networks, these designers can bring their vision to life while supporting sustainable practices and reducing the environmental impact of the fashion industry.

But what happens when you can’t keep up with the bills? It’s not all as easy as the hypersaturation of YouTube and TikTok marketing influencers make it seem.

Hard work, and an obsession with studying every nook, fold, stich and pattern of where web3, decentralized commerce, micro-manufacturing, and generative AI combine are the price for entry. It’s an uphill climb.

In the vast vagueness of the creator economy, a place as tumultuous as it is vibrant, we find ourselves straddling a paradox. Creators, armed with the power of the internet, are given access to tools and platforms to build your empires, and yet, for all its promise, the landscape remains riddled with pitfalls and scams.

Ah, the subscription model! That bastion of hope, the gateway to passive income, the panacea for creators everywhere. But dig a little deeper, and we find that this shimmering vision is not without its flaws. It lures creators with promises of regular income, but it can also be a double-edged sword. These recurring payments demand consistent output, a never-ending cycle of content creation, which can quickly turn from dream to nightmare. As creators chase those subscriptions, they often find themselves in a race against burnout.

And what of the platforms themselves? YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, and their ilk, have become the very lifeblood of the creator economy. They offer exposure and opportunity, but also wield immense power over their users.Algorithms and policies can make or break a creator’s career. The rules are opaque, sometimes arbitrary, and always in flux, leaving creators walking a tightrope of compliance and creativity.

Monetization is a fickle beast. It is a dance of supply and demand, of finding the sweet spot between offering value to your audience, sometimes your real friends and rivals, or extracting value for the short term at your own expense later on. You must strike a delicate balance. There’s no other way around it.

The pursuit of creative freedom, clawing past all the broken bits, has always been at the heart of artistic expression.

This newfound freedom of expression has inspired a generation of designers to experiment with bold ideas, pushing the boundaries of fashion.

As we keep looking through every angle and understanding of an industry in the process of underappreciated tranformation, and near total unbundling, it’s clear the mix of web3 and fashion refreshes the meaning of style. By combining irrevocable creativity, personal autonomy, and decentralized tech, monetization, and governance, the fashion industry is being transformed into something startlingly interactive. Can’t imagine wanting to create anywhere else.