S.Q.U.A.D.

Deconstructing my Genesis Fashion-Story NFT collection, exclusively for Vagobond Magazine.

Happy day, everyone <3

I am so excited to share with you, I recently released my first-ever web3 Fashion-Story collection - S.Q.U.A.D.! The collection speaks of my fashion journey in the traditional and the digital fashion spaces - probably why it is much more than just a ‘genesis project’ for me. Huuuge shoutout to Vagobond Magazine - they nudged me to tell all in their September Literary issue <3

SQUAD on Objkt.com

“The fashion world is upturned when a team of 20 high schoolers challenge the dark side of the system. This is the S.Q.U.A.D.”

I cannot tick just one single box to define S.Q.U.A.D. It is definitely fashion - I intentionally worked on futuristic skate looks - but the project isn’t selling fashion ideas, or fashion art. There is storytelling at its core, but it needs its fashion characters to make sense of it. Subterrain, (I realized midway) lies my purpose to introduce the fashion industry in all its glory and shame, and educate about the new ethos of fashion - one that is structured on technology and is fiercely responsible.

“S.Q.U.A.D. is a popular clique of young fashion vigilantes - high schoolers on a mission to upright the wrongs of a fashion world they see and know. The acronym spells out the first initial of each of its 20 members from the prestigious blue-league high school, Nova High. We are at a time when Earth is home to humans and artificial humans alike, [a time when] the fashion world still brings in some of its past challenges, and experiments with some newer ones.”

S.Q.U.A.D. is my genesis fashion project in web3. It is a lot about me - my experiences as creator of bespoke fashion, and my recent plunge into web3 fashion. I did not perceive this when I had initially outlined anime fashion characters. It was an indistinct outline of a fashion art project, about my fashion concepts; that is all (shrug). Messing around with the first character, nuances of its personality emerged even though I was fixated on playing with the fashion it wore. The tight lips and resolute eyes had something to say, they couldn’t be simply jpegs!

There is so much I want to share as a fashion creator and fashion writer - the unhealthy traits of the traditional fashion industry, the potential of web3 fashion to rewrite the industry’s shortcomings, and the possibilities of fashion technology from the viewpoint of a fashioner grounded in the physical reality. I write, I blog about them, but animating what I want to say hit me instantly. I was literally role-playing every character when writing their backstories!

The 20 S.Q.U.A.D.ers are created using Leonardo AI and Photoshop, and effected with glitching. I envisaged S.Q.U.A.D. holders as a cross section of creators, players, forward thinkers and disruptors - their mental age is a brew of Gen Y, Gen Z and Gen Alpha mindsets. Creating S.Q.U.A.D.ers as anime and dressing them in Street fashion was intentional. I scoured for tiny fashion details to feed the AI generator; and even though I prompted the colors, fashion, accessories, and character traits, the final co-created output was something I wouldn’t have humanly conceptualized, it exaggerated my vision. The dramatic backgrounds are glitched by photography artist @shabsiam , he conceptualized depth, wanting to ‘bring the avatar to the forefront’.

Will I build this project further?

S.Q.U.A.D. is not a ‘project’ but a platform to actualize my raison d’être in the web3 fashion world - to facilitate conversation and commerce between creators of exclusive physical wearables and art, and consumers in the web3 ecosystem. While being a stubborn advocate of web3 fashion, I am also passionate about my 25 year-long traditional career - translating a client’s requirement in my language and experiencing it materialize is deeply  fulfilling. I stand at the juncture of these two facets of fashion. A year ago, it seemed like I was rocking two boats, now I see it plausible to balance a plank between the two.

Here’s some alpha for VM readers…

S.Q.U.A.D. is collaborating with creators of exclusive works of art, fashion and literature. September 2023, S.Q.U.A.D. holders will receive a Totem for every S.Q.U.A.D. NFT owned. The totem will connect the holder to the creator. There are 20 S.Q.U.A.D.ers and there will only ever be 20 totems. I will share further details with the drop.

S.Q.U.A.D. is an ultra limited collection of 20 X 1/1 fashion story works on Objkt.com