Margins: DI$COUNT UNIVER$E
VAULT speaks to design duo Nadia Napreychikov and Cami James, of DI$COUNT UNIVER$E, about their irreverent approach to creative authenticity, and provoking the conventional fashion system. .
Image credit: DI$COUNT UNIVER$E Designers Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov. Courtesy DI$COUNT UNIVER$E
“What is life without humour?” muse DI$COUNT UNIVER$E’s Cami James and Nadia Napreychikov.
It’s a valid question, and the modus operandi for the design duo’s unapologetically irreverent brand in a fashion industry “riddled with drama, contradictions, nasty exclusivity and insecurity.” No matter the season, collection or drop, a DI$COUNT UNIVER$E garment exudes startling spunk, a spirit of defiance that thrusts a proverbial middle finger up to the conventional ‘fashion system’. Whether it be a hand-embellished ‘Pussy Power’ tank top, or a slinky white slip dress plastered with the brand’s now infamous ‘Mindfuck’ design, DI$COUNT UNIVER$E relishes in disrupting the status-quo, from conceptualisation to creation and well beyond. And don’t forget the sequins ... there must be sequins.
“DI$COUNT UNIVER$E happened super organically. We never sat down and decided to start a business!” says Napreychikov, who met James in her Honours year at RMIT University where the two became friends. “We were both working with a lot of leather at the time, so we thought it would be a good idea to make some pieces together and sell them on Etsy, which had just taken off.”
The pair went from casually selling their designs on the platform, to giving the project a name and concept, and eventually building its own independent base. In essence, the brand started as an ‘art project’, harnessing the hype of the internet and social media to cultivate an online community rather than following the traditional route of a fashion label that stocks its garments ...Subscribe to read this article in full
