Imagine buying the perfect pair of pants. Their hem length and bagginess were debated and voted on by their future wearers. Their fabric was sourced ethically, and you can look up the metadata of where it was milled. And instead of the pants pattern belonging to the brand for the rest of its life, it will have a life of its own, moving fluidly between design teams and production houses, with the creators paid equitably at each step.
This is what designers Jeremy Karl and Eugene Angelo want decentralized garment design to be. The drop, which includes hoodies, t-shirts, and hats, launches Thursday, April 7. Neither is satisfied with the way the mainstream fashion business works. Ten years ago, he was still in climb-the-ladder mode and happy to have made it inside those conference rooms at all.
And he did. But today, Karl is frustrated that his era-defining style Tumblr, TechSpec , was an industry anomaly. His dream: A future where techspec. Though you could pay him a consulting fee in ETH.
Karl and Angelo believe the answer lies in blockchain, a technology with the potential to serve as an immutable ledger of pretty much every aspect of the creation process, from brainstorm sessions to shipments β and the people and institutions who help bring each garment to life. So far, chatter around blockchain in fashion has largely centered around legacy brands using ledgers of provenance to nip high-street cooptation and Canal Street counterfeits in the bud.
Karl and Angelo are more interested in establishing provenance for the sake of profit redistribution, especially for creators who have accrued cultural capital without monetary gain.
