With the rise of Web 3.0, creatives are gaining ever more autonomy to take full ownership of their work.
Lola Okuyiga, the founder of Wonder, a fashion and lifestyle brand, took the stage Monday at Social Media Week Europe in discussion with Adweek’s Rebecca Stewart. Okuyiga talked about how she focuses on underrepresented audiences and brands while increasing accessibility and ownership throughout the omniverse and metaverse.
Owning the unknown
In her decade-long fashion buying career, Okuyiga’s career milestones include being the woman behind Topshop’s best-selling item of all time, its Joni jean—a pair of these jeans is sold every ten seconds—and ASOS’ biggest-ever collaboration with designer LaQuan Smith that generated £6 million in sales.
Now a self-proclaimed obsessive Web3 creator, Okuyiga said her venture into the web’s new frontier was not something she had originally planned on. Rather, she says it presented the perfect juxtaposition between two of her passions: fashion and inclusion.
“Web3 kind of called me to when I was done working for other people,” she said. “When I was with ASOS, there was a real lack of representation of women at the C-suite level, but on the merchandising floor, it was predominantly women. So, I knew I wanted to create something where all these amazingly talented people could feel represented at the highest levels and all the way through. Also, when I moved into luxury buying, being Black and female, it was quite interesting to go to all the showrooms and work with some of the best brands in the world—brands that Black culture loves and who benefit from Black culture, but not seeing anyone that looked like me from a decision-making perspective.”
Okuyiga says fashion plays a pivotal role in connecting audiences with the everyday utility of the metaverse and beyond.
“NFTs are going to have a bigger comeback than the QR code,” she said. “Digital collectibles and utility are key. We’ve seen the gimmicky moments, but I call it a hardware upgrade because I feel like Web3 is taking a new approach to establishment thinking and things that we can all collectively come on board with—we don’t all understand how Web2 works, how cloud computing works. But we know how to order something online and expect it in a day or two. I think for Web3 to be mass adopted, I think things that we’re all used to using—like fashion—have to bring it to life to people in a real way.”
Defining sustainability
According to Okuyiga, true sustainability is where all stakeholders matter. She said Web3’s WAGMI (We Are All Going to Make It) principles are the future of successful marketing and hardware.
“It’s really about thinking about all of your stakeholders and consulting them all—that way, you’ll know what’s going on throughout your chain,” she said. “Sustainability is not just about what fabric you use, if it’s recycled, etc., it’s really about that thought process and mindfulness in every element of your business and listening to your stakeholders as well.”
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