Telfar Clemens concluded New York fashion week with a press conference discussing the debut of his new television channel: Telfar TV. The channel will be the only place where customers can acquire some of the brand’s newest launches. This method has potential to make it easier to obtain the highly sought-after shopping bag.
On the sixth day of New York fashion week, Telfar Clemens- accompanied by 12 familiar faces including A$AP Ferg, Jonte’ Moaning, and Ian Isaiah- took to Instagram Live to broadcast a press conference, during which he shared some information regarding the future of the Telfar brand. In this shift from the Ready-to-Wear runway shows that he has conducted for his past fashion week appearances, Clemens announced the upcoming launch of new Telfar duffel bags, as well as Telfar TV: a 24hr “public access” network through which viewers will be able to purchase products, participate in giveaways, and submit their own content for the chance to be featured.
Telfar TV, currently available on Apple TV, Roku, and Google Play will sell products to customers by displaying an on-screen, scannable QR code available only to the viewers actively watching the channel. This code will function as the only link that will allow the purchase of that specific product at that time.
Telfar TV Logo Courtesy of the Roku Channel Store
“Telfar TV will feature the drip. A drip is not a drop- a drip is never announced. A drip is bot-free,” according to the brand during the press release, and provided by Nylon.
For further clarification, Telfar added that “…If 100 people are watching Telfar.TV, we can drip 100 bags, and 100% of them get a bag. The drip is for the real ones. The deep cuts we play for those still rocking with us at 6:00 in the morning.”
In the past, many potential consumers have expressed difficulty in acquiring the Telfar shopping bag, nicknamed the Bushwick Birkin, citing the growing Telfar resale market as making the bags unattainable to most during drops. The all too familiar Telfar drop struggle has been previously addressed by the company’s “Bag Security Program”- 36 hours during which customers could pre-order any bag they want, expecting a fulfillment window of anywhere between four and six months for their items.
Holding true to the brand’s popular slogan “Not For You, For Everyone”, the purpose of the “drip not drop” process is to ensure that the coveted accessories are accessible to the fans that want to purchase them in the most efficient manner possible.
However, the sole purpose of Telfar TV is not to sell products. In an interview with CBS Mornings, Clemens told Gayle King, “How people did learn about the brand is through social media, and social media has a lot of…regulations…. And rules.” he then continued to tell King, “ I don’t like a rule, when there’s too many rules I move on to a thing that has no rules, that’s mine, you know? When we appear on other people’s platforms it’s just really not necessarily getting the message across…It’s just going to be a lot easier for us to be ourselves and do what we do.”
To maintain Telfar’s FUBU-esque “for the people ” platform that they have built through their existing social media presence, the brand is removing the barriers that prevent it from communicating with its audience in a manner that it sees most fit.
So far, it seems as though much of the content of the channel will be provided by the audience themselves. Through the already-live video submission form available on the telfar.tv site, viewers can submit videos- accompanied by a caption- to potentially be displayed on the site. Video submissions will also provide viewers with the chance to win a free bag or even a collaboration with the brand.
“Basically we launched a TV Channel without any content — because we are tired of being content for other channels. When you watch TELFARTV you will see the channel take shape LIVE — and you can take part in what it becomes by sending us your videos.”
