An Inside Look at Digital Fashion Platform DRAUP

Runway is back! We bring you the latest news from the digital fashion revolution. We are bringing you exclusive visuals today from DRAUP, a digital fashion platform by Dani Loftus Creator of This outfit Does not ExistLaunched on April 25, 2019.

Backed by Flamingo DAO and Ian Rogers. Cozomo de’ Medici, Trevor McFedries, and others, DRAUP proposes a mission of “expanding the creative and technological bounds of digital fashion.”

Each collection created under DRAUP’s in-house brand is done so in collaboration with a pioneering artist. The first collection, #00, Seen On Film, features Nicolas Sassoon He has worked at Uniqlo, Balenciaga, and many other brands. 

Here are exclusive virtual wardrobe images, pictures of the ecommerce experience and details about the upcoming release.

The code is in the fashion

The vision behind DRAUP is that “code is the couture;” with this in mind, each digital fashion drop is created using generative algorithms — code-based systems that determine elements in a creative process. DRAUP is a case where a generative code determines the pattern, color, and material of the garments.

DRAUP is more than just a way to look good. “The aim of the platform is to promote the perception of digital fashion as not just wearable garments, but as collectible art,” Loftus tells nft now. “To elevate digital fashion to this status, the platform optimizes for narrative: Narrative around each collection, narrative around which brands we bring on (in the future), and narrative around our craft.”

A Franco-Canadian artist whose work investigates the visual language of early computer graphics, Sassoon’s practice spans fine art, fashion, and film. Sassoon’s work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoCDA and other museums. His work, often involving immersive or large scale animations, illuminates digital image construction. 

Taking Sassoon’s 15-year exploration of pixels as materials, Seen On Screen takes moiré patterns — an optical phenomenon of a wavy or watered appearance originating in textiles, but most commonly seen on screens — as its subject. Inspired by the composition of screens, each piece in the inaugural collection is artfully composed of multiple layers which define the cut, the material, the moiré print, and the color of each individual garment. 

“Building on our generative processes the platform optimizes for a collector’s understanding of their couture’s unique composition. The series of traits that make them up, their rarity, and the narrative behind each are available to delve into both when an item is bought and when it exists within a consumer’s virtual wardrobe,” Sassoons tells nft now.

In each garment, the layers’ specific qualities – their alignment, scale, pattern, distance, and viewing angle – all affect how and if the moiré emerges. The 3D objects created by combining a generative print process with screen-inspired silhouettes and a digitized print are able to create entirely new dynamic experiences for the pixelated patterns of digital garments. 

“The wardrobe was conceived as an ideal and intimate environment for users to experience the garments as dynamic and optical digital sculptures while bringing a playful analogy with traditional wardrobes, in which one would be contemplating on their most cherished fashion items,” Sassoon explains.

In contrast with other brands that allow digital clothing to be worn on multiple platforms (therefore potentially reducing the prestige of those garments with low-quality graphics), DRAUP provides a ‘collector space’ where you can see the garments in their highest quality as well as interact with them as 3D digital sculptures. 

Grow your digital wardrobe

DRAUP’s inaugural drop consists of 648 generative pieces across five garment types (eight coats, 24 dresses, 88 pants, 176 tops, and 352 hats). The sale starts on Tuesday, April 25, at 9am ET in three levels.

The Hero Piece Private Sale will begin with a curation of eight short-form items for SEAL holders and Nicholas Sassoon 1:1 collectors. Next up is The Main Collection. This long-form generative set will be made available to DRAUP’s Discord INSIDERS as well as the 9dcc and Admit One communities, Ledger community, and SYKY community. Part three is The Open Edition, where those who have signed up via the public allowlist can claim a token-gated wearable based on Sassoon’s previous work, Waterfalls.

DRAUP’s launch enables a revolutionary new vision of fashion where couture’s creative concepts are aligned with crypto’s digital principles, showcasing that code can be just as luxurious as couture. DRAUP, with its generative clothing and collector-focused platform sets the stage to a new era of fashionable.

“We believe that couture finds its natural evolution in generative digital fashion: as both are based in the principle of creating a unique item tied together with a wider brand (or in our case an algorithmic thread),” shares Loftus.

Inspire, we begin to daydream of the infinite possibilities for our digital closet.