LOT 2046: Subscription Box for a Streamlined Lifestyle

Scope

In a world of limitless choice and omnipresent marketing, trying to assert where one stands culturally, emotionally, and stylistically can feel like trying to build a house on shifting ground. LOT 2046, a subscription-based lifestyle brand, is attempting to relieve these anxieties by minimizing the decisions people need to make about their external appearance. But can its intentional ambiguity really help consumers find an alternative to the chaos of everyday life?

Launched in April 2017, LOT 2046 is a subscription service offering designer garments, accessories, printed materials, tools, and self-care items to its members. "It's a very limited line of clothing and accessories, so we'll be able to update it every month," says founder Vadik Marmeladov. By routinely prompting users for feedback and harnessing this information to customize the items they receive, the service automates the decisions previously left up to taste.

Context

There's a growing appetite within fashion to have technology improve everything from fit to styling. Online fashion retail platform Farfetch is developing what it calls the 'Store of the Future', with RFID-enabled clothing racks and digitally-enhanced mirrors. Meanwhile, Amazon has developed an 'AI fashion designer' that analyses clothing images and popular styles to create new garments.

"Fashion thinks if they start to use technology, it won't be as beautiful or as deep or as luxury. Actually, it will be so much better," says Marmeladov. "We should design the behavior rather than the product."

"Fashion thinks if they start to use technology, it won't be as beautiful or as deep or as luxury. Actually, it will be so much better."

Vadik Marmeladov, Founder of LOT 2046

"We use clothing to identify who we are," says Dawnn Karen, a psychology lecturer and head of the Fashion Psychology Institute. "With LOT, it's as if you're canceling your belongingness to pre-set groups by adopting a new set of clothing. You willingly give obedience to be disobedient, whether conscious or not."

Insights & Opportunities

Fashion and lifestyle brands are having to adapt quickly to technological changes and the resulting shifts in consumer habits. LOT accounts for these preferences and offers subscribers a seamless way to not have to think or work for products at all. By eliminating choice, it streamlines the process of determining style and taste.

"Any technology should know what you need and want more than you know," says Marmeladov. "Platforms will be telling you what you want before you want it." LOT 2046 aims to reach younger generations who are still negotiating their changing brand expectations.

Written for Canvas8 by Zach Soudan as a behavioral analyst.