Beyond the Hype: Why Telfar is a Brand for the Future

If there’s any brand to exemplify the future of fashion, it’s Telfar. A favorite in our office, the brand’s signature shopping bag is everywhere. Carried by everyone from your fave creatives on Instagram to Issa Rae’s character on Insecure, the “Bushwick Birkin” is the It-bag of the current generation. A few weeks ago, the brand launched the Bag Security program, a 24-hour preorder event for customers to order as many bags as they desire and be produced specifically for them. The program was born as a way to counteract the surge of bots buying out all of their bags at every drop, only to then resell them at a markup. Offering preorder allows Telfar to take back control of their distribution and block out infiltrators trying to mess with the very identity of the Telfar brand.

These vulture resellers aren’t inflating hype, as the creative communities around the globe, notably Black New Yorkers, have already made the Telfar Shopping Bag a contemporary icon. This is an artificial inflation of scarcity. The Bag Security Program challenges a long-standing industry belief that luxury equals scarcity. This high-fashion accessory is designed to be accessible in terms of price, functionality, and timelessness, and not for a second has this made it any less desirable. Inclusion is woven into the very nature of Telfar, which is exactly what draws their cult following into the world of the brand.

What this disruption to the markup market, a predatory system that has infiltrated fashion since the beginning of online shopping, reveals is that the concept of hype is shifting. Often, hype is seen not as a reflection of an item’s desirability, but rather as its perceived value as an economic investment. Brands often drive up hype through the infuriating unattainability of their most coveted items, which in turn makes the item seem more expensive. Resellers are treating Telfar bags the same way, but what’s distinctly different is that the hype comes from an authentic interest in the brand. Most buyers don’t see the bag as a return on investment, but rather as their own belief in what Telfar is doing. Playing fashion for profit crumbles in the face of a product that inspires genuine enthusiasm.

The Bag Security Program signals a turning point for our culture of scarcity. American consumer culture in all spheres focuses on what we don’t have rather than what we do. As the world went into quarantine, the rapid pace of consumption we’d been accustomed to was no longer viable. Amidst economic anxiety, the speed and newness that drive our consumer culture can no longer hold their allure. Conversations about wealth, quality of life, and access to living essentials turned our philosophies of product towards that which can be accessed by many. Our culture of scarcity, which states that the things most desirable can only be had by the few, has begun to implode on itself.

Telfar Clemens is challenging many of the basic assumptions within the fashion industry and has been doing so for quite some time. The hype around this brand is not coming from manufactured celebrity sightings or mass editorial spreads or resellers trying to use fashion as an economic game. Telfar produces a loyal following of passionate advocates because they continue to do what other brands are too scared to do. The gender-free, Black-owned, anti-pretentious label has a true innovative spirit that can’t help but inspire their audience. By offering a moment of recalibration to the fashion supply chain model, Telfar offers us a glimpse of what a brand of the future could look like.

This call for a critical reevaluation of industry practices has been further supported by the recently published statement from the British Fashion Council and Council of Fashion Designers of America. In their joint statement, the BFA and CFDA encourage brands, designers, and retailers “to slow down,” recommending “designers focus on no more than two main collections a year.” Just this past Monday, Alessandro Michele announced plans to do exactly this. Gucci will now show just two, ungendered collections per year, becoming the first major “brand to commit to a permanent rethink” of the fashion system.

As we continue to live alongside a pandemic, people are sick of silently living amidst injustice. There’s a reason Telfar is the favorite brand of leftist creatives, activists, and progressives– Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez carries a large in oxblood. Ethics, especially when forged at the beginning and fiercely maintained throughout the rise to success, play an ever-more important role in consumer decisions. As the Shopping Bag cements its status as an iconic and ubiquitous piece of fashion history, Telfar continues to reassert their brand motto: “NOT FOR YOU, FOR EVERYONE.”

Lots of love,

Doug with tp*