Nobody really knew quite what to expect from Telfar TV at fashion week. The details on the invite were characteristically esoteric: Was the designer planning a runway presentation? A movie screening? The location itself—a studio space at the South Street Seaport—remained a mystery disclosed only a few hours before the event. After a relatively subdued week of shows, this seemed poised to be the wow moment we’d all been craving.
Wrapping your mind around exactly what Telfar TV is isn’t easy, partly because it’s like nothing that’s existed before. Easily the brand’s most ambitious project to date, it launched last September with the help of the Ummah Chroma Collective as an experimental 24-hour linear TV channel or content platform that operates beyond the hyper corporate realm of social media.
“There’s a bigger thing going on with how people operate. The old way of doing things and putting your work out, it didn’t feel right,” said Clemens. The Liberian-American designer has consistently marched to the beat of his own drum and in the last couple of years his tireless commitment to independence above all else has paid off exponentially. Where other brands have struggled to stay afloat in the pandemic, Telfar has thrived in ways few could have foreseen.
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