In case you missed it, Telfar debuted an innovative pricing model this past Monday on their online shop. At 12PM EST, a 29-piece collection complete with logo’d sweatpants, t-shirts, hoodies with built-in baseball caps, and gown-length basketball jerseys went live on Telfar.net at wholesale price. The price of each piece increased every second until it sold out, cementing the price at which it sold out as the forever price. Described on the official site as “a sale in reverse,” this model challenges the fashion industry’s conception of value. Typically, fashion considers value to be positively and linearly related to exclusivity. As fewer people have access to something and exclusivity increases, value, too, increases and the item becomes more highly coveted. This never had to be true, in my opinion, but “fashion is a business,” as we are relentlessly reminded, and the necessity of scarcity, or paucity, is often toted as an economic truth. Telfar’s new model, however, turns the business principle of supply and demand on its head (which is genuinely groundbreaking considering how aggressively fashion brands are usually ruled by the business side of things). Now, the customers get to choose the prices, and the most in-demand pieces end up being the least expensive. Apparently, people really wanted the mesh drawstring t-shirt in white, oxblood, and navy, which were the first pieces to sell out at $69.62. Directly involving the consumer in this process and intentionally allowing products to be affordable is actually democratizing in a way that is new to fashion, but not at all new to the brand.
Headed by Liberian American designer Telfar Clemens and his creative director Babak Radboy, the Telfar brand is uniquely unbound, free from the limitations of the status quo. Since its founding in 2005, it has grown increasingly defiant; now more than it ever has, it acknowledges the rules of conventionality and breaks all of them. The designs are rebellious, genderless, and reconstructive— the uniform of true liberation.
In addition to customers being given a role in determining price points, a large part of the brand’s appeal is that it doesn’t commodify the “trendy talking points” of inclusivity or representation or democratization. It simply lives them. The progressive ideas that are appropriated by other brands for optics are genuinely central to the foundation of Telfar. From the business side to the artistry of the designs, its ethos extends to all aspects of the brand.
Major publications have described it as having a cult following, but it’s bigger than that. The followers of Telfar are more than mere spectators and hypnotized fans— they are an active part of what’s being created. And its world-building extends beyond its physical parameters. Along with inclusive pricing and product design, Telfar has consistently demonstrated the importance of community, and, consciously or unconsciously, this is what a lot of its customers buy into. It has constructed an entire Telfar world that continues to become more and more accessible. The Telfar Instagram account— full of posts of customers fawning over and celebrating their products (who sometimes receive gifts as a thank you for being such great marketing)— is one window into it.
Another window into it is Telfar TV, a live network launched in collaboration with the Ummah Chroma Collective (“community of color”) production company. The network is self-described as a space for “each other, the community, the conspiracy,” as well as for exclusive targeted drops (or “Drips”), breaking news on upcoming drops, and live shows.
In February 2022, after the presentation of the Fall 2022 runway collection, Clemens told Vogue of Telfar TV, “When we started this project it really came from a deeper need to connect with our community… This is the place where we can experiment, where we can talk to people directly without having to censor ourselves, without having to talk through an audience of mainstream media or whiteness. It’s not about how many people are watching it, or how many more bags we can sell, it’s literally about freedom.” This concept, original and bold, seems to still be in development, as insinuated by the If this works section on the site. The Telfar world is constantly evolving and being redefined and is expanding in all directions.
While it’s become easier and faster to create virtual community, Telfar does not necessarily value this over real-life, in-person connection. Its next big goal is an in-person store in New York City. As we await its opening, they create in-person community where they can. The Sunday of fashion week in September 2022, in lieu of a runway show, it took over the Rainbow in downtown Brooklyn and stocked it with the notorious shopping bag in every size and every color. Shoppers lined multiple blocks and waited in the rain for a chance to finally get their hands on a “Bushwick Birkin,” or to add to their collection. Legend (and TikTok) has it, salespeople vogued in the window and members of the Telfar family including Clemens himself, drummed up hype as crowds were let in 100 at a time. Two weeks later, the in-person event was replicated online for those who were unable to attend or wanted a second chance to stock up. While the Bag Security Program allows customers to pre-order their preferred bag(s) for shipping at a later date, Telfar Rainbow online was a live sale. Every color and size of the shopping bag were available for purchase at once, while supplies lasted.
“Not for you— for everyone,” is more than a catchy tagline. The creators behind the brand continue to develop unforeseen ways of making their bags and their clothing more accessible for as many people as possible, rejecting the industry’s most cherished doctrine of exclusivity.
The community aspect of Telfar’s novel approach is perhaps its largest pillar. Its commitment to their principles is admirable and in this way, along with its unprecedented success, it has effectively set itself apart from every other brand. The most exciting element of the ever anomalous Telfar brand is its imagination— its ability to see beyond the current system and position itself outside of it, whilst maintaining a perpetually growing audience and consumer base who look forward to its drops and get genuinely excited about its products. In this way, the brand is sort of revolutionary. It does not ask for permission or wait its turn; engineered by visionaries Clemens and Radboy, it creates space for itself and brings with it all the people who may not otherwise get the chance to be celebrated in fashion. As stated on the site, “The world isn’t everything.”
Girl in Brown 