Balanced Fashion used to be a network of fashion professionals who are focused on creating a more sustainable, regenerative and technologically advanced industry. I used to write a bi-weekly newsletters with curated list of news and events, publish in-depth research and report papers, organized monthly physical events and consulted brands and tech start ups. It was fun and rewarding. My blog was popular and was referenced in different industry publications, my authority in the fashion world of the US was very strong, fashion industry knew my name and my work. The events series was popular, at some points a single event was attended by more than a hundred people. I was leading the only conscious fashion tech community in NYC. My consultancy was striving. It all felt great! By 2019, Balanced Fashion became a strong, vibrant, future-focused brand that brought me lots of joy and fulfillment. I had the largest newsletter following in this whole industry niche. Sustainability back then was a super hot topic and technology solutions were still emerging. The market was flooded by analytics tools that eventually became ai merchandising tools, various niche marketplaces with unique features, customizable fashion creation solutions and on-demand production initiatives. Brands started to become tech companies and tech companies became fashion brands. Sustainability was really trendy, for some, it became more important than sales numbers.
The new industry was emerging. By new, I mean the industry that is based on conscious consumption, ethical production and sustainable use of resources. With my colleague, we have developed a strategy where new fashion was focused around 3 factors: artistic expression (craftsmanship, fair-trade, ethical, durable), service (rentals, subscriptions, recycling/circular fashion businesses, repairs, sustainable production technologies, new fabric science, on-demand production/automation, customer education and transparency technologies) and immersive experiences (3D modeling & visualizing, analytics/AI/big data).
In 2020 it all shifted. In the beginning of the year, I started digitalizing my wardrobe by marking it, taking photos of all my possessions and telling stories about my favorite items during my social media lives. I felt like by sharing what I owned and how I take care of it I can create trends in more conscious consumption and inspire people to engage in slow fashion. By that time, I hardly bought any new items and only was wearing what I already owned. Later that year, due to being stuck in our digital cages during quarantine, we got into a short-lived era of digital fashion hype. Fashion NFTs by 2021. Dressing for social media. Fake clothing. The hype ended by the emergence of ai fashion in 2022–2023. Generally, the intention of producing less was pure, yet, it was still focused around over-consumption and fake materialism that is still driving the industry.
Around then I paused my engagement in fashion narrative because I got bored of increasing green washing, lack of true progress, governments aiming to force passports for our clothing, digital, fake-looking garments…. Productions has since been increasing and not seeing a slow down that I so hoped for in 2020 when I thought we are finally slowing down the industry’s pace… I felt like I needed to do something more meaningful and impactful than trying to shift the fashion industry. It lacked open sourceness, it lacked collaboration, it lacked transparency and it lacked…purpose. I had to take a break from fashion. That is how Balanced Culture emerged in 2021, a cultural research mechanism for Balanced Humanity.
In the industry, everything basically went back to normal, no slowing down was on the horizon. We just numbed ourselves with consuming even more than before. Conversations and leadership initiatives on conscious fashion got nowhere. Sure, we are observing more garments made out of organic or recycled materials, yet there are more garments produced overall. It has been difficult to find hope for fashion’s future. I kind of gave up on it.
Balanced Culture was an alternative for me to focus on initially. Looking at the overall culture, rather than a single industry was my strategy. Narrating on good things I saw emerge in the world, the initiatives in regenerative design, extravagant experiments all over design industries and arts, creative applications of tech solutions across industries… It still felt really shallow and consumer-driven. I was a bit lost there. It all felt like I was supporting to sell more hyped stuff, not really influencing towards the shift in our core consumption habits.
Until the concept of Decentralized Fashion came up in early 2022. Slowly, it started to shape up, over the following months and years. By summer 2024 it was clear on what it was: an ecosystem that facilitates up-cycling and re-cycling existing fashion pieces left unsold from past seasons by tapping into the network of local creators. This ecosystem is still in development and I will be reporting more on its progress in the coming months.
So eventually, I gave up attempting to rebalancing the fashion industry and even creating a new one. I chose to focus on slowing down my own consumption even more, developing meaningful relationships with independent fashion creators, customizing my own wardrobe and finding a way to effectively approach brands and retailers at scale to develop a mass-customization mechanism for old stock by tapping into emerging, independent talent.
Decentralized Fashion is a key building block for the emerging Decentralized Humanity. It is a way for us to recognize each other based on our values, coordinate more effectively and enjoy beautiful, durable, unique and high-quality wardrobes. Decentralized Humanity will be the best dressed movement ever. Eventually, brands will not hold as much power as people who touched our clothes and the energy that our fashion pieces hold.