INDICE STUDIO 2018F/W “SORRY, SELECT SHOPS…” 

     There has been a tremendous shift of power in the fashion industry. Fashion used to be mysterious, exclusive to only certain class. For people who could not attend fashion week, they had to wait for magazines to see the latest collections. And had to wait for months until local retailers put the new pieces on the rack. 

     Now with the internet, without attending fashion week, anyone can still see the runway show in real time through livestreams. Prices have been so transparent that it’s been a common sense for customers to compare prices between all offerings online. Select shops often go into price wars to win over those few clicks from the customers. Who is to define what fashion is anyways? Everything is instagrammable now, have it be your fit-of-the-day or a random stranger on the street. With this irreversible trend rolling, fashion is no longer defined as a top-down process. It’s no news that fashion is becoming more and more democratized. 

     Seeing how technology has stolen power from the established (haves) to common people (have-nots), Indice Studio decided to joke about renowned select shops by putting their logos on various pieces from the AW18 collection without permission. It’s a way of empowering end-customer by saying “Select shops are no longer up-there telling you what to buy to be fashionable, you are a buyer yourself too, and have the right to voice for your selection.” Although this is overstepping in terms of legal compliance, Indice Studio will not sell the logo pieces directly to anyone. End-customers interested in the “logo pieces” may purchase them when the select shops decide to stock those items. This decision however, isn’t up to select shops alone. Indice Studio has created a bi-directional protocol for customers to speak to select shops regarding what to stock on its official website to echo and celebrate the evolving C2B trend.