The concept of clothing supposedly originated between 114,000 and 30,000 years ago utilizing fur, leaves, and leather. As societies from the East pioneered methods to weave textiles during the late Stone Age, clothing as we know it now was discovered.
Tales carry on of local mothers in India wrapping their newborn babies into soft fabrics for protection, love, and safety. Materials have stories.
Yet sadly, our relationship with clothing has been tainted. A sense of unawareness exists towards the cascaded impact it has on workers and the environment.
Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity's carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams. Even worse, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year, and washing certain types of clothes sends a significant amount of microplastics into the ocean (UNECE, 2018).
‘On 24th April 2013, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which housed five garment factories, killed at least 1,132 people and injured more than 2,500’ (International Labour Organization). These factories were producing for fast fashion brands that we all know, who provided no compensation to the families of those who lost loved ones.
These families depended on the garment industry for their livelihoods, and many still do! For example, the textile and garment industry is the third-largest employer in India, employing about 45 million people throughout the country (Fair Wear Foundation).
This tragedy rippled throughout the fashion industry with non-for-profit movements like The Fashion Revolution Foundation and their #whomadeyourclothes campaign spreading awareness of the issues within the garment manufacturing and supply industry.
Now, 10 years later, customers are increasingly feeling responsible about their purchases, and brands want access to sustainably sourced materials from suppliers they can trust. However, competing against centralized supply chains requires collaborative supplier and producer networks to scale sustainable production.
Enterprise software solutions have tried to bring visibility to a product’s provenance. However, such offerings have failed to package and track the value generated by each contributor at each stage of the product life cycle. Hence losing out on the knowledge, techniques, contribution value, incentives, and general data trails that each is already generating.
The move towards standardized garment playbooks with co-sourcing models enables creators and brands to tap into a collaborative network of micro-suppliers and factories.
Signature Capsules is our first sustainable fashion collective that uses co-ownership models to rewire incentive structures and foster the growth of independent designers, makers, and micro-factories. These models have the potential to disrupt existing vertically-integrated, value-extractive centralized supply chains in the fast fashion industry by building incentives to drive economies of scale and inter-community network effects.
Each collection launched by Signature Capsules will bring collaborative product creation on-chain by leveraging smart contracts (on the Crowdmuse protocol) with revenue-sharing models that distribute value transparently to the supply chain partners (designers, suppliers, producers) behind each garment.
Furthermore, these smart contracts enable the Crowdmuse collaboration protocol to attribute tech packs, supplier networks, product contribution, and individual contributor value at each stage of the supply chain in order to unlock true product provenance and value flows on-chain.
Contributions made to the Signature Capsules project contract may include tech packs, techniques, best practices, material specs, and product information—all with contributor incentive models built in and available for licensing on the Crowdmuse protocol to be utilized and reused by other communities.
You can own your contribution and your on-chain ID will be linked forever to the product you create or contribute to—meaning that the contributor at the source of the supply chain can finally get the exact value return they deserve.
Customers buy or pre-order the final product as an NFT to enjoy a ‘phygital’ experience in which they are able to own both physical and digital versions of their product. This unlocks the ability to verify provenance and impact at each step of the supply chain with community ownership incentives generated through product NFTs minted on the Crowdmuse protocol marketplace. Purchase of an NFT essentially becomes an investment as it entitles a user to royalties in the form of tokens as the product value chain grows.
We have mapped this out to show you how this works. The image below shows the revenue and token distribution to partners from Collective 1, as well as the Signature Capsules project ownership. We believe this is the blueprint to create regenerative flywheels that build a healthier and more decentralized fashion supply chain led by creators, suppliers, farmers, and their community.
We want to put this to the test.
As part of the Crowdmuse protocol beta launch, we’re calling for independent designers and makers, and micro-factories to join our first sustainable fashion collective, Signature Capsules.
This experiment aims to curate a collective of existing creators and suppliers in bringing collaborative product creations on-chain.
Fill out the form below to join the alpha collective if any of these contributor profiles describe you:
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Independent fashion designers and makers looking to collaborate in a sustainable fashion collection with our existing suppliers
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Micro-farmers, producers, and factories looking to access and fill capacity demand in facilities and production lines
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Additional: partners and expert advisors in sustainable fashion who wish to independently or collectively contribute to the project
Become a Signature Capsules Contributor
We have partnered with micro-factories, farmers, web3 fashion communities, and independent fashion designers who share the same vision of supporting decentralized brands. Key partners include:
MetaFactory - Composable merch platform and OS for web3 communities
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A decentralized culture factory building the open metaverse
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Leaders in premium apparel for the web3 ecosystem
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Working with designers and brands to produce merch from their micro-factories in Berlin and New York and create virtual store-fronts
WeSeeClearly - Core Contributor and Expert Designer in Residence
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Leadership & oracle roles across Art, Fashion, Culture, and Tech, now focused on bridging digital and legacy industries through blockchain technology.
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11 years of experience at the intersection of art and society as an internationally recognized artist (Venice Biennale 2013+2017, Manifesta 11, solo presentations in Europe and the US Armory, Volta, Liste, among others)
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Wes is a trusted advisor to many prominent individuals and organizations in Tech and the Arts because of his synthesis of cultural diversity, his keen awareness of micro and macro trend horizons, and his creative resourcefulness
AVA XYZ - Advisor and Expert in Residence
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Fashion industry veteran with 15+ years of global experience working with luxury goods brands & partnerships
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10+ years in fashion technology as a Founder & Fashion Editor
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Digital Fashion Advisor & Angel Investor in DAOs & projects
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Sustainability & inclusivity advocate for the future of fashion & web3
AVATA - Curating the future of digital art & fashion
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With over 18+ years of curatorial experience, AVATA was born to discover, support, and spotlight digital artists and designers, helping traditional brands connect with this growing market
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Creating real-world opportunities for their creative collective to thrive, bridging the physical and the digital to engage and inspire the public
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Supporting designers globally by exhibiting incredible digital designs and art in physical spaces through major exhibitions, festivals, and brand partnerships
Pranav Khanna - Micro-factory and supplier representative in India
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2 decades of garment manufacturing and exports
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Working in sustainable fashion and circular economy since 2013
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Business mentor at Circular Design Challenge, Lakme Fashion Week.
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Associated as Mentor with Fashion for Good, 500 startups, Amrita TBI.
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Contributor to program on Circular Economy at Terra.do
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UN/CEFACT - Contributor - Traceability for Sustainable Value Chains, Textile and Leather Sector
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Currently focused on Web3 business models for Circular Fashion and the intersection of Climate X Crypto.
Earthist Network - Hemp micro-farmer, producer and supplier in Turkey
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Regenerative hemp network for infrastructure, carbon sequestration, regeneration agriculture, and public goods
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Production capabilities for rugs, garments, accessories, cosmetics, and packaging. Producing both blends with Cotton and 100% Hemp capabilities.
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Focus to unlock regenerative agriculture with hemp and best practices bringing access to hemp production
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Example of existing product lines under the carbon-negative arts and crafts collective called Vanara
Thomas Rothery aka Slow Crypto - Menswear Designer & Maker
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Senior Menswear Designer
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Worked with brands such as Pentland Brands, Fila, Republic, and USC
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Talks and workshops are given at UAL (University of the Arts London)
To become a partner feel free to reach out directly to gm@crowdmuse.com