EYES ON CULTURE #002
31st August 2022
Fini Fashion
EYES ON: Finiliar's Fashion
While a lot of NFT collections draw on themes from the traditional art world, Finiliars – in all their unbelievable cuteness – drew from the fashion history books.
WHY WE’RE WATCHING:
How could you not!
Painstakingly detailed across the entire collection, these little guys are each adorned with their very own outfits. Some of those outfits are rather familiar with elements alluding to design disruptors of the past...
Fortnite’s Summer Lookbook
EYES ON: This Summer's Fortnite Battle Pass Lookbook
Aptly named the Vibin' Battle Pass, Fortnite's collection for this summer's new skins had a seriously bizarre aesthetic.
With images that appear to have come straight out of tumblr, the look and feel of these teasers point to a larger trend in digital culture.
WHY WE’RE WATCHING:
Online commentators across the board noted that Fortnite's new skins were heavily inspired by street culture with sneakers and tracksuits dominating the set.
This streetwear presence is unsurprising. One look at this past year's fashion X gaming collaborations (a good example being Balenciaga's own foray into Fortnite) shows that the rise in digital streetwear aesthetics was inevitable.
To us, what's more interesting is the digital nostalgia dripping from the images. Hyper stylized, oozing teen angst and reminiscent of an early instagram profile, we're forced to ask: what do these images tell us about where we are headed in the world of Digital Fashion photography?
Untraditional Traditional Garments
EYES ON: Diego Porres' Threads
Threaded History (2020) reveals the history of the Mexican and Central American traditional garment, the huilpil.
With a model – StyleGAN2 – trained to generate a visual journey of huipils from Guatemala and Mexico, a shared culture is woven together though each frame of the video.
WHY WE’RE WATCHING:
The use of StyleGAN2, here, works to give us a new view of the traditional weavings; one which emphasizes their visual similarities. As pattern and colour bleed into each other across the screen, a unified history of the materials is brought to life.