Garb: For the People

What once was a hobby entrenched in the communities formed and connections made, fashion consumption, particularly that pertaining to exchanging of pre-loved goods, has progressed into a massive commercialised market. Before platforms like Grailed, Depop, and even Instagram, if you wished to participate in this niche, you needed to know people individually. Friendships and alliances were paramount if you were to become successful at buying, selling and trading your goods. This fostered a community where everyone knew everyone and life-long relationships were built, all with one central theme – the love of clothes.

With the rise of social media, it is easier than ever to produce your own professional storefront, with marketing channels akin to those used by major conglomerates, and an infinitesimally higher ceiling for success than before. This is exemplified (unfortunately) in the rise of successful sneaker and resellers opening their own brick and mortar stores, all funded through the internet. Although, with the spoils comes a major downside, all potential connections are lost, and the individual interactions which were once present have vanished. This is where Garb deviates from the norm.

Garb runs a genderless archive garment storefront based in Melbourne, where he specializes in a product selection predominantly from Japanese fashion houses, but you never really know what’s coming (apart from Needles H.D. pants) because it’s pretty much whatever he likes. While not immediately apparent when you open his IG, Garb has managed to cultivate a dedicated and welcoming microcosm which is many degrees separated from all other independent Instagram storefronts.

It feels as though there is one massive group chat of people, all of which enjoy the same niche aesthetic, and they have full trust in Garb to make fashion decisions for them. A personal shopper for all if you will. The combination of this trust, being the stylist and model for all his garms, along with the unique dual channel communication he keeps with the community, produces that same individualised and “friendship circle” feel that was common in times past.

Garb is akin to a democratic dictatorship (I know, but just hear me out). He provides opportunities for the community to provide their input on the styles, brands, and sizing that they are looking for in upcoming drops/seasons, but ultimately, he has the final say on the offerings. Everyone is happy with this arrangement, because it’s a commonly agreed upon fact that Garb knows what’s best for us before we do. It is definitely a great way to organise it, as everyone is anticipating “what Garb has in store for us this week” and as soon as it drops, it almost always gets snapped up in the same day.

On a more serious note, his most recent community bonding exercise shows that he truly cares about and has great trust in the community. The Travelling Pants is a program in which a pair of (quite fittingly) Needles H.D. pants, funded by Garb himself, is given to one person each month for a year. They will love, wear, and make one addition to the pair during the month, and it will then be passed on. This will culminate in a wearable representation of the community and their combined experiences. It is a beautiful idea, and providing all goes to plan, the product will undoubtedly be something to cherish.

I was lucky enough to ask Garb a few questions to show us some insight into the mind behind the operation. So, before I let you go, here are some excerpts of what he had to say, and check out the full interview here!

Q: Does the store relate to your current career in any way? If so, how has it helped grow your page to the point it is at now?

“I work as an Experience Designer, a lot of people now know it as UX… and that involves experience strategies of how one might experience a product or an in-store experience. … How that translates to my role at garb is that I spend time thinking about not just the clothes that go up, but how people like to shop, especially in this new paradigm of shopping through a closed-ish network of sorts (you have to discover garb and the dynamics of it before being able to shop)”

Q: What are some goals for the page which are most pertinent to your perspective of its success?

“I have shorter term goals, and then much longer-term ones. The short-term goal is to ensure garb is a financially sustainable project… for longevity, for this project to run, it needs to be financially sustainable. And I’m not even talking about it from a standpoint of “how much do I need to get paid to ensure that I’m getting compensated fairly?”, what I’m thinking about is “how can I ensure that I have enough so that I can get better pieces next month?... My extremely long-term goal is quite lofty… I want to buy a piece of land, build an interesting building/structure/space on it, and this space will be for creatives, for musicians, for people who love clothes, for the community.”

Q: I notice that you like to play around with the shapes and cuts when you put together a fit to sell a garment. What do you champion more when curating an outfit – proportion or colour?

“Proportion, silhouette, and shape is more important to me. I’ve gone through many iterations of finding out what I like to wear, and I know black and tonal colours suit my look, my personality, how I want others to perceive me the best. I do dabble with colours from time to time, I just find it slightly less interesting and less challenging. If you had an all-black out(fit), it’s way harder to elevate the outfit from good to great, if you wanted something unique in the look you’d need to play with cuts, proportions, accessories to get it from a stock standard outfit to something that makes you look twice.”

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