Welcome back to Runway, where we report from the front lines of the digital fashion revolution. Today we bring you exclusive images of DRAUPa digital fashion platform from Danny Loftus (maker of This outfit does not exist) launched on April 25.
Supported by Variant Fund, Flamingo DAO, Ian Rogers, GMoney, Cozomo de’ MediciTrevor McFedries and others proposes to DRAUP a mission to “pull the creative and technological boundaries of digital fashion”.
Every collection created under the DRAUP house brand is done in collaboration with a pioneering artist. The inaugural collection, #00: Seen On Screen, is featured Nicholas Sassoon who has worked with Uniqlo and Balenciaga, among others.
Read on for exclusive virtual wardrobe photos, images of the ecommerce experience, and details on the upcoming release.
Code is in the couture
The vision behind DRAUP is that “code is the couture;” with this in mind, each digital fashion drop is created using generative algorithms – code-based systems that dictate elements in a creative process. In the case of DRAUP, a generative algorithm determines the cut, color, material and patterns of the garments.
But DRAUP is about much more than just looking good. “The purpose of the platform is to promote the perception of digital fashion as not just wearable clothing, but as collectable art,” Loftus now tells nft. “To elevate digital fashion to this status, the platform optimizes for narrative: story around each collection, story around which brands we bring (in the future), and story around our craft.”
A French Canadian artist whose work explores the imagery of early computer graphics. Sassoon’s practice spans visual arts, fashion and film. With works exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art and MoCDA, Sassoon has long explored the tension between the pixel and the screen. His work, which often consists of immersive or large-scale animations, sheds light on the construction of the digital image.
With Sassoon’s 15-year exploration of pixels as a material, Seen On Screen takes moiré patterns – an optical phenomenon with a wavy or watery appearance that originated in textiles but is most common on screens – as its subject. Inspired by the composition of screens, each piece in the inaugural collection is artfully composed of multiple layers that define the cut, material, moiré print and color of each individual garment.
“Building on our generative processes, the platform optimizes for a collector’s understanding of the unique composition of their couture. The set of properties that make them up, their rarity and the story behind each are available to explore when an item is purchased and when it exists in a consumer’s virtual wardrobe,” Sassoons now tells nft.
In any garment, the specific properties of the layers – their alignment, scale, pattern, spacing and viewing angle – all affect how and if the moiré shows up. By integrating a generative process into creating prints that could only exist in the digital, with screen-inspired silhouettes, 3D objects are created that enable entirely new, dynamic experiences of the pixelated patterns in digital garments.
“The wardrobe is designed as an ideal and intimate environment for users to experience the garments as dynamic and optical digital sculptures, while bringing a playful analogy to traditional wardrobes, where one would reflect on their most cherished fashion items,” explains Sassoon out.
Unlike other brands that allow digital wear across multiple platforms (which may diminish the prestige of those garments with low-quality graphics), DRAUP offers a “collection space” where you can also see the garments in their highest quality. see as interactive with them as digital 3D sculptures.
Expand your digital cabinet
DRAUP’s inaugural drop consists of 648 generative pieces across five clothing types (eight coats, 24 dresses, 88 pants, 176 tops, and 352 hats). The sale will begin at 9am ET on Tuesday, April 25 and will take place in three tiers.
First up is The Hero Piece Private Sale, a condensed collection of eight items available to SEAL holders and Nicholas Sassoon 1/1 collectors. Next up is The Main Collection, a long generative collection available to DRAUP Discord INSIDERS and 9dcc, Admit One, Ledger, and SYKY communities. Part three is The Open Edition, where those who applied through the public admission list can claim a token-gated wearable based on Sassoon’s previous work, Waterfalls.
The launch of DRAUP enables a revolutionary new vision of fashion, aligning the creative concepts of couture with the digital principles of crypto, showing that code can be just as luxurious as couture. Through generative garments and a collector-oriented platform, DRAUP is setting the tone for a whole new era of fashion.
“We believe that couture finds its natural evolution in generative digital fashion: both are based on the principle of creating a unique item that is connected to a wider brand (or in our case an algorithmic thread),” Loftus shares.
Inspired, we begin to daydream about the endless generative possibilities for our growing digital closet.
