The Fashion DAO

What is a DAO?

The simplest form to put it, it’s a community of people with common values that work together to accomplish a shared vision. However, it is a more modern, efficient and transparent way of operating a community. Instead of a few people managing and doing majority of the work, most people work to accomplish the goals, usually under committees or groups specialized in different fields. It also uses technology tools to be more efficient especially as running a decentralized community will take more communications and processes, there is a bigger need for automation.

All these definitions are subjective and there are degrees to each. Most people are used to corporate rules and operating in fully centralized entities, but we are moving towards a creator economy where most people would like to be independent and entrepreneurs, thus we are in a transition period and on a spectrum of Decentralization and Automation that each DAO picks for themselves.

What is Not a DAO?

DAOs are the hardest things to do in Web3. And the current general attitude towards them is to either take a wait and see approach — avoiding until others figure them out or joining, observing, learning from core members while they solve challenges and make it easier for others. For leaders and core contributors, the challenge is that they need to work as hard if not harder as they would in a normal corporation while not being recognized or compensated or given power and authority to do their job as they would within typical corporate structures. Also, most outsiders and observers expect a fully Decentralized Autonomous Organization and to generate value from DAOs, without knowing what it takes to run a successful decentralized organization.

Another important point is that current DAOs are mostly investment DAOs, which means all members have financially contributed to the project, enabling the core team to have more breathing room.

Decentralization does not mean a flat power structure. People contribute through various means and degrees and have myriad personalities — e.g. leader or contributor.

Inclusivity does not mean everyone is allowed to do anything at will. We welcome everyone following our values to join as a supporter and benefit from some of our offerings but that doesn’t mean they can become leaders or contributors yet.

Anyone can birth an organization by contributing their attributes (nature if you will) but to be a good steward they must stick around and put in the work of raising that baby (nurture). This nascent organization receives direction, a vision and other attributes from the founding parents. Founders typically define at inception the principle thesis, what the values before going out into the world communicating its vision and inspiring others to join in god-parenting the new found DAO.

And as with parenting, it is normal to care and sacrifice more than others, especially as the baby is not yet able to speak or walk. The job of the parent is to be there, removing the pebbles from the road ahead to protect her from falling into traps, or gasp, being kidnapped.

While the organization grows and matures, the founding parents slowly pull away as their confidence increases with each additional member. And just as a child leaves their nest after learning the ways of good citizenship, so does a DAO graduate only after becoming strong and independent enough to run autonomously.

So, it’s my responsibility to explain how The Fashion DAO was conceived and what she really is about.

The Fashion DAO Origin

I am a woman of color, immigrant and engineer. I know more than most how it feels to be discriminated against or dismissed; so I have made it my mission in life to empower others especially women to not have them go through what I went through. That’s why I became an entrepreneur; to create a culture and dynamism I wish existed in my previous workplaces. I always loved fashion and beauty since they are tools that empower us to express ourselves and be who we want to be outside of our inherent limitations. So, I found my way into fashion through building fashion-tech startups by creating tools to make this industry more sustainable and efficient. We’ve recently pivoted towards doing just that with Web3 technologies and ethos to push the industry forward. Since moving into the digital Fashion and Web3 space, I’ve met amazing digital fashion creators that are independent, strong and hustling in this space. I’ve contributed towards their empowerment by highlighting them in my Twitter Spaces and our metaverse platforms, Queendom and Chief Metaverse Officer.

We organically created a community and became a hub for fashion experts and enthusiasts to network, get educated, ask for help and be heard. I realized there is so much potential within this community and the conversations didn’t have to end after the Twitter Spaces ended. So, I started thinking about adding some structure and taking this to another level, and what would be better than a Web3 native structure, a DAO, that also compliments my lifelong mission of empowering others!

I started researching DAOs and Web3 communities in the fashion space and realized that many of our community members were unhappy with the existing DAOs and communities for various reasons from lack of Transparency, Empowerment and Inclusivity. So we learnt from all of these to do better.

What is The Fashion DAO?

A cooperative business where independent fashion experts come together to use web3 technologies to make the fashion industry better(more efficient, sustainable, transparent, democratized).

We bridge the gap between fashion corporations and web3 native creators and brands. We offer consulting and educational services to fashion corporations that need to create 3D assets, NFTs and metaverses and then onboard their employees and customers. They will be receiving a collective of talents that have been actively working in web3 and build brands in this industry and are not just researching and surveying to share some stats and impractical advice to brands like many other agencies do. What it brings to web3 creators is a business structure governed by the ethos of web3 (transparency, inclusivity, empowerment) and the opportunity for them to focus on their strengths like designers creating designs, marketers promoting amazing work and so on without the need to be employed by a traditional corporation.

What is next?

We have lots of exciting news for you all! Follow us on Twitter and sign up on our website to be in the know!