Sophie Bernard's Thought Process
I collaborated with a friend who is an illustrator and animator from my BA course. I showed her my inspiration from Bauhaus, Rick Owens DRKSHDW, Aphex Twin, and Raf Simons Graphics from his early seasons. I showed her my color palette and the military style texture I was trying to achieve. I drew it out of her and we went from there. I am extremely happy with the outcome as I never had an emblem when I first worked on the app, just the font and the word. So this was exciting!
I have been reaching out to those 27,000 members within the online Facebook group ‘High Fashion Talk’ in order to directly talk to my future consumer, and gain insight on topics that relate to Youniform to gain feedback and new information. Originally this idea started as a test to see if people would even respond to my questions, and I have gained a large amount of feedback! I continued to do so each week, to see what the general public within this community had to say.
Recently, I attended the Westminster Menswear Archive Exhibition. This exhibition focused on, ” the invisibility of menswear due to its intrinsic design language that concentrates on the reiterations of archetypal garments intended for specific functional, technical or military use; designers have disrupted this through minimal, yet significant modifications to produce outcomes that both replicate and subvert their source material.” (Invisible Men Exhibition Website).
I wanted to explore the unique perspective of how individuals appreciate certain pieces and the ideations that go along with them. By looking at pivotal pieces designed by creatives from brands such as Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, it highlights the notion that consumers praise these individuals and the work they create. It was interesting to note the connection between workwear from those in the force as well as daily jobs, to brands such as Stone Island and CP Company. Personally, I noticed a lot of pieces and got very excited to have the chance to see them in person. I noticed around me were students, studying the shapes and hemlines of each piece for long periods of time. It was inspiring to see a room full of mannequins wearing items of clothing could mean so much, while being so simplistic.
After reading books like: The incomplete: Highsnobiety Guide to Street Fashion and Culture (2018), This is not Fashion: Streetwear Past, Present and Future (2018) and Streetwear: The Insider’s Guide (2007); I gained insight on the large culture of Japanese Streetwear. It’s minimal design and aesthetic is similar to that of Archive Streetstyle. I mixed the two by looking at UX design on dribble (a Pinterest like website for digital design) and and Pinterest for old luxury fashion campaigns for layout inspiration from brands such as Helmut Lang, CDG and more. I decided to show these moodboards for my interview meetings I had with some potential collaborators from the MA UX Design course at LCC.
As I watch YouTube videos from influencers that are categorized as minimal luxury street wear enthusiasts, I have gained a sense of understanding within their liked design elements as well as color scheme. I pulled some of their outfit pictures posted on instagram as reference, and tried to create a new rebranding color scheme. I looked at Avery Ginsberg and Kailee McKenzie, the couple who started STAATSBALLET- a sustainable clothing brand. I also looked at Jakob Hetzer, who is beloved by companies like GRAILED and has created his own clothing line called Jakob Hetzer Archive. Someone who is a YouTuber that has a more modern approach to the archive market is @Whoisjacov- an instagram influencer who shows his DIY aesthetic through YouTube as well.
I am interested in continuing my mobile application YOUNIFORM. Although, I want to make some changes. Originally the app catered to the mainstream community of streetwear and luxury fashion, highlighting the convergence of the two within the industry. Although, with sustainability on everybody’s minds, it becomes relevant to question how long streetwear will be a viable culture – if we are killing our environment in the process. This also goes to question fashion as a whole!
Through prior knowledge, I had followed influencers as well as digital shops that promoted the purchasing and selling of archive of luxury and streetwear pieces. Trying to buy the most rare runway pieces to post on your instagram, or sell online. The first physical experience I had of this was the store Horro Vacuo. Located in Los Angeles, California it sold a variety of pieces, all rare. I have included some images of influencers who I know support these core values, as well as the shop. I also included a funny breakdown by Mushpit Magazine, reposted by four pins (a fashion meme account) of how men divide when it comes to this streetwear / luxury community.
Within the luxury street wear community’s online presence, there is large meme culture. This is based on the age range of those who are a part of online facebook groups. Boys and girls as young as 15 converse online with those as old as their mid 40’s, to discuss the love of fashion and the history of street wear. There has always been a humor and lightness to this culture which translates into the online media of memes. Throughout my research into understanding my consumer, I created a mood board to breakdown of just a few memes of stereotypical groups of dress within this subculture. I have also attached a few memes that I believe relate to the more mature consumer and design I am trying to appeal to through the garments they tend to wear.
Due to the recent events and protests worldwide in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement, protests have resulted in looting of small businesses. One of them being Round Two. Round Two is a popular streetwear resale store off Melrose in Los Angeles, California. They have built a culture starting in VA and taking over 3 shop spaces in LA. Bobby Kim- someone who I reference a lot as his views are very interesting posted this as his store the hundreds was in the middle of the police throwing teargas bombs, a very meta concept as his logo is the atom bomb. Virgil Abloh, the creative director of LV also commented on the looting of Round Two, although recently he was caught in a social media fire when posting only $50 to donations (although he did donate more, just had posted one from a chain of donations), while his company is worth 11 Million GBP.
In order to produce a viable business plan, I decided to work with my consultant as well as my collaborative unit AMFI student who is also creating an app to help me understand how to create a financial breakdown projection. I have created one with a schedule, best case and worst case scenario. I have also attached a financial start up cost with a financial breakdown.
Here is my business model attached: Youniform’s competitors are separated by two categories: platforms and mobile applications. News platforms such as HypeBeast / HypeBae, Complex and Highsnobiey are news outlets for the streetwear industry. Grailed, SLYDE, and NTWRK are all mobile application competitors with differing features, from rating users outfits to shoppable video content. Youniform’s unique selling point is that a multi-feature social networking platform for streetwear has never been done before. Platforms such as Grailed (although a marketplace application) and NTWRK (a video marketplace application) have proven that this niche subculture of sreetwear has actually taken over the digital fashion marketplace.Youniform will be sustainable due to Gen-Zers who will run this new community is also known to be Gen ‘Me’, marketed by brands constantly due to their desire to document online in search of status, clout or as a meaning to belong. The target market for this platform would be those involved in the UK (which is the epicenter of this new wave) elevated streetwear community, or those who want to be involved. This target audience is a mix of Gen Z-ers (20-24 years old) and younger millenials (24-28).  This audience is important to target as they command $44 billion in buying power (Khoros, 2019). There is a desire from this subculture for a social networking platform to connect the community (Reddit Streetwear group, 2018).  The total market of GenZ within the UK is £12,000,000 (statisa, 2020) and within London is number of genZ in London that are in the streetwear community £2,400,000 (BOF, 2018). £720,000,000 is how much as a small start up we can achieve according to our low budget. The business model of Youniform is based upon payment for paid advertisement within the mobile application. Similar to apps like Instagram, Youniform plans to charge users for promotions and advertisements within the application. Initially, Youniform will not need to purchase any property, plant or equipment. In the first year, start up costs will add up to £11,553.64. This start up cost is relatively low to the amount of revenue that will be collected in order to show positive profits and cash flows in year 1. Start up costs will include software and development, salaries and wages and marketing. There is a one-time fee of £1,500 for any coding that cannot be done in house and needs to be outsourced, as well as a one-time marketing fee of £ for the launch. Main costs and expenses to the business include software maintenance, development, salaries and wages and marketing. Marketing will prove to be the largest initial cost to the business because to create a community for initial customers there needs to be a significant amount of initial users to prove value to the business model as a universal platform for community based interactions, inspiration and effective exposure for promotions which will be the company’s main source of revenue in its initial years. First year profits will be reinvested in the business and put towards marketing spend and user capture in the amount of 5,039. In year two, after the launch we will raise our digital marketing expenses by 5%, keep investing in a digital marketing specialist for £700 p/m and will keep spending £64.6 p/m on mobile application hosting. Due to our small team and limited knowledge of digital marketing, there may some failures and loss. If there is money left over from this profit, it will go towards understanding the marketing, attending events and developing future revenue streams. Profit and Loss projections are within the financial breakdown attached.
I collaborated with a business consultant who advised me on what would go into my supporting document to apply for the UAL Creative Enterprise Awards. I then did my research to conduct and define this. This information is key towards my start up journey.