Wes, artist and former contributor at MetaFactory, joins us for a compelling edition of ORBIT: Creator Editions where he shares his vision on the convergence of web3, community, and fashion.

Our conversation is rich with insights, ranging from the evolution of fashion brands to the composability of creativity onchain to incentivizing collective contribution in communities.

Wes’ interview is definitely one of the most comprehensive we’ve done in terms of breadth and awareness of the evolution of the fashion industry.

In this interview we explore:

🟥Headless brands and Wes's journey from a full-time artist to a Web3 enthusiast via MetaFactory
🟥Intellectual Property dynamics in fashion, emphasizing on a collective bank of ideas and contrasting brand attitudes towards IP sharing
🟥Democratization and web3-driven innovation in fashion, including MetaFactory's transparent, community-driven model
🟥Challenges in decentralized coordination within DAOs, the idea of negative incentives for unproductive contributions, and accountability
🟥The role of hands-on creativity and AI in fashion's future
🟥The concept of licensing and how important grassroots exploration is in the industry

Some of our favorite takes include Wes’ unconventional view on how the path to success in fashion lies not in going to expensive schools but getting your hands dirty and learning how to use the machines…

“I really don't believe in fashion schools or art schools right now.

I see a kind of Grassroots Revolution that may never touch you know the higher echelon

it's been so so healthy for me to kind of connect my body to my creativity again.

I think that you have to touch all different things to inform a novel process. if you're just launching another fashion brand that doesn't have any web3 strategy that's all about designing a beautiful collection.

I see so much beautiful clothing that will never gain traction because they've lost touch with bringing more and more in.

I do think that this world suffers from narrow focus and I think too broad of a focus is also suffering. I think that this kind of education by curiosity is like super important and I hope that

more people just come in and actually touch a sewing machine because that's where you can start to bring in new things you know. That's when you can actually make a creative decision about something novel that's going to be eye catching.

If you never touch a machine you're always just going to be limited by what you know as the capability of that machine. For most people is literally an SVG file you know all of this takes time it takes attention it takes curiosity so I see a kind of grassroots revolution that may never touch you know the higher echelon.

It's giving me a lot of satisfaction to break down the walls of like “oh I'm not trained in a fashion school so I can't do this”. No I think today is actually the perfect time to not go through the normal schooling system because you may realize very quickly that you're shooting yourself in the foot if you think that today's the day spend $100,000 on a fashion show and do pants and jackets and whatever like on the one hand because I like to watch I'm sitting on the sidelines on the other hand I'm deep in it with my studio like…

I have everything going on here with machines, cutting boards, working on this blazer, learning a shit ton about how to actually use this stuff.

It's been so so healthy for me to kind of connect my body to my creativity again and not just think innovatively but actually try and innovate through Body Mind connection.”

…and how as archives become licenseable, entirely new monetization models will emerge for big brands along with fresh opportunities for pioneers to get a leg up in the industry:

“One thing that I don't know how far off we are but in terms of again the place where traditional brands stand so let's take like the house that's been around for a century like Louis Vuitton or maybe something more designy like Balenciaga..

Their archives are not in the public domain. People who don't have access to their physical archives do not know everything that happened there so think that in a world where so much of so many portfolios that are on websites and such have just been like taken and put into these these generative models, those design houses may actually have a real leg if they can leverage their own history and archives to kind of create models that are licensable and if those models can be tuned well enough that they generate content that Balenciaga is happy with then I think there's a whole another economic structure around Fashion of Licensing whether it's a design house or whether it's a creative direction like your taste profile becomes something that you can license out and I think that that's definitely in the cards for the future.

There's a part of me that is like you know always want there to be a chance for the underling or the new upshoot to be able to come into the market and fashion is notoriously one of the most dominated by the top 10 heavy players it's pretty bad it's like the fashion conglomerates basically own the fashion industry and so it's only it's really only if they want you up there that you'll join and I think like how does the person without any archives without like any of the kind of leverage points that these other brands have? How can they play in this new space?

For myself I never want to forget that a lot of it will come down to people exploring outside of their narrow focus.”

Join us on our journey as we unlock more insights from creators.