Online retailer Slam Jam launched a new wing of its website this week: W3W, or “Wisdom of the Third Wave”, created with Italian consultancy and clothing brand Rayon Vert. Beyond being just a Y2K time machine, the hub hosts a new collection from Rayon Vert…which you have to sew yourself.
The brand has always emphasized affordability, but their new $157 dollar shell jackets and $52 dollar bags are only possible because they pass the labor onto the consumer, a shared work philosophy they hope turns “consumers” into “prosumers,” a term coined by futurist Alvin Toffler.
“As society moves into the Post-Industrial Age, the number of pure consumers will decrease and be replaced by ‘prosumers,’ people who produce some of the goods and services that go into their consumption. They can be found making their own clothes, growing their own food, repairing their own cars and hanging their own wallpaper. When people produce for their own usage, production and consumption are united in the same person,” he wrote.
This quote is the foundation for the W3W clothing collection, which includes two shell jackets, overshirts, T-shirts, a crossbody bag, shorts, zippered sacks and an apron. The hub stores all of the instructions for each DIY kit, plus a list of repair shops that will help if you get stuck. There’s also a chat forum hosted on Reddit, where “prosumers” can share their creations.
The kits are merely a starting point — something easy to assemble to learn the ropes. What you build next is up to you, and Rayon Vert hopes this experiment is just a starting point.
Build Your Own Wardrobe
Slam JamRayon Vert W3W Seasnake Shell Jacket
Difficulty: Medium
You’ll Need: Sewing machine, polyester thread, needles, thread measure, chalk, pins, iron and scissors
