SCOPE
In a world of limitless choice and omnipresent marketing, trying to assert where one stands culturally, emotionally, and stylistically can feel like trying to build a house on shifting ground. LOT 2046, a subscription-based lifestyle brand, is attempting to relieve these anxieties by minimizing the decisions people need to make about their external appearance. But can its intentional ambiguity really help consumers find an alternative to the chaos of everyday life?
Launched in April 2017, LOT 2046 is a subscription service offering designer garments, accessories, printed materials, tools, and self-care items to its members. “It’s a very limited line of clothing and accessories, so we’ll be able to update it every month,” says founder Vadik Marmeladov. “We can start with simple stuff and eventually make it better.” [1] By routinely prompting users for feedback and harnessing this information to customize the items they receive, the service automates the decisions previously left up to taste.
While GQ has suggested that LOT 2046 essentially functions as a ‘goth Birchbox’, providing a more esoteric and secretive version of now-ubiquitous clothing subscription services, its minimalist products aren’t what defines the company’s objective, but are merely a means to an end. [1] “It seems to lead somewhere, like a novel told in objects, but I’m a character in its world rather than just reading the story,” writes Kyle Chayka for SSENSE. He highlights how the more ambiguous objects arriving alongside standard-issue clothing – from a necklace that transmits to other members to a tattoo gun loaded with black ink – have surprised subscribers, making them feel like they’re part of something that hasn’t yet revealed itself. A sense of mystery heightens that sense of belonging. “If a package arrived with a tab of acid, I’d take it. You have to trust wherever it's going.” [2]
CONTEXT
There’s a growing appetite within fashion to have technology improve everything from fit to styling
– exemplified by Heist’s 3D-printed hosiery and Levi’s virtual stylist . In a similar vein, online fashion retail platform Farfetch is developing what it calls the ‘Store of the Future’, which will automatically recognize customers and have RFID-enabled clothing racks, along with digitally- enhanced mirrors that let people select alternative sizes or check themselves out right on the spot. [ 3] Meanwhile, Amazon has developed an ‘AI fashion designer’ that analyses clothing images and popular styles to create new garments through a generative adversarial network (GAN). [4]
Yet haute couture remains resistant to letting tech strip away certain traditions or expectations, seeing it as a degradation of the art form. “Fashion thinks if they start to use technology, it won’t be as beautiful or as deep or as luxury. Actually, it will be so much better,” says Marmeladov, opining that the industry’s fixation on prestige and set seasons is stalling its development. [1] “They have to show a product because of the investors and the industry. We can afford not to show the product. So we were thinking we shouldn’t design anything at this point. We should design the behavior rather than the product.” [5] And why not give the job of designer and data generator to the people that the product is ultimately intended for?
Research conducted by brand consultancy Fitch suggests that Gen Zers prefer to have a product right away and ‘good enough’. Perfection, after all, is elusive, and younger generations prefer to see that a company is committed to improving its product over time. They also expect a brand’s constant innovation to be developed from the expertise of peers rather than marketers. [6] In book sent to LOT members in May 2018, the company underlines this desire for product authenticity by stating that there will be: “No investors, no board of directors, no executives, and no consultants. Fuck them.” [7] But it would be misleading to assume that LOT is dissolving its investors. The reality is that it is still owned by Marmeladov and his team. Much like Glossier, which used audience input from Into The Gloss to develop products, LOT wants its members to understand that their contributions are not only valued, but impactful.
Fashion thinks if they start to use technology, it won’t be as beautiful or as
Vadik Marmeladov, founder of LOT 2046
“We use clothing to identify who we are,” says Dawnn Karen, a psychology lecturer and head of the Fashion Psychology Institute. “There are certain clothes that you use to identify with roles in your life – ones that are attached to groups you desire to be a part of. [With LOT] it’s as if you’re canceling your belongingness to these pre-set groups by adopting a new set of clothing. You willingly give obedience to be disobedient, whether conscious or not.” [8] And there is an opportunity in being the odd one out, thanks to perennial counter-cultural cool. Indeed, just 44% of Gen Zers and 54% of Yers always buy clothes designed for their own gender. [9]
Not all are convinced that LOT 2046 is especially groundbreaking or rebellious enough against the status quo. Sophie Weiner, a critic and writer for The Baffler, tweeted: “Something about that LOT 2046 thing makes me extremely angry. Maybe it's just the continued fetishization of disposable consumer items made by low wage workers in the global south and sold as artistic rebellion.” Whatever the criticism, however, the tech industry is still moving forward, as designers do, to shape the way we acquire and interact with everyday objects.
INSIGHTS & OPPORTUNITIES
Fashion and lifestyle brands are having to adapt quickly to technological changes and the resulting shifts in consumer habits. For instance, Gen Zers are expected to make up 40% of consumers by 2020, with 98% of global web users aged 16-20 already owning a smartphone. [10][11] Additionally, 61% of 13- to 18-year-olds say that they shop online because it’s more convenient, 49% do so to find better deals, and 48% say it allows them to compare brands and retailers without leaving their home. LOT accounts for these preferences and offers subscribers a seamless way to not have to think or work for products at all. By eliminating choice, it streamlines the process of determining style and taste. [12]
“Any technology should know what you need and want more than you know,” says Marmeladov about the potential for artificial intelligence to anticipate buyers’ habits, further heightening expectations for convenience and immediacy. “Platforms will be telling you what you want before you want it.” [13] This idea is enticing for today’s consumers, who are getting over their apprehension about AI’s involvement in their lives. In 2017, 80% of ‘leading edge US consumers’ said they were excited about the ways that AI could improve daily life, while 78% reported feeling more powerful and in control of their lives due to the help provided by smart machines and robots. [ 14]
LOT 2046 aims to reach younger generations who are still negotiating their changing brand expectations – whether that means questioning how much control they have over a final product, or demanding a respite from an over-saturated retail market. By fostering a sense of belonging and allowing members to feel part of something that runs counter to the norm, LOT 2046 presents a beguiling alternative to simply clicking and buying. “When there are no authority figures visually present, but they exist, their power over you can intensify,” suggests Karen. ”You start asking, ‘Who’s this person?’ or ‘What’s this thing?’ As a result, you become drawn to the absence of
what should be a visible power.” [8]
lot2046.com
Bibliography
1. 'LOT is like a goth Birchbox, and it’s not a hoax' , GQ (May 2017)
2. 'Engineering the end of fashion', Ssense (July 2017)
3. 'Fashion in 2018 | 07. AI gets real', Business of Fashion (January 2018)
4. 'Amazon has developed an AI fashion designer', MIT Technology Review (August 2017)
5. 'Why Airbnb just bought a quirky Russian industrial design firm', Fast Company (September 2015)
6. 'Gen Z and the future of retail', Fitch (2017)
7. 'Lot 2046 #2 - The Book', Therebelqueen3 | YouTube (May 2018)
8. Interview with Dawnn Karen conducted by author
9. 'Teens these days are queer AF, new study says', Broadly (March 2016)
10. 'MNI Targeted Media releases data to help marketers win Gen Z-ers', GlobeNewswire (May 2018)
11. '98% of Gen Z own a smartphone', GlobalWebIndex (October 2017)
12. 'Generation Z: New insights into the mobile-first mindset of teens', Think with Google (2017)
13. 'Style is an algorithm', Racked (April 2018)
14. 'Why 80% of consumers are excited about the way AI and machine learning will change their lives', TechRepublic (May 2017)
