I paint on clothes - do you think custom 1of1 hand-painted pieces have a place in Streetwear?

[EtherealRegalia]

Hello everybody!
I found this forum a few days ago and have been lurking the threads in the "Streetwear and Denim" section. I read a lot of diverse opinions on a lot of diverse topics and I wanted to start a thread myself to get a discussion going on custom hand-painted 1of1 clothes.
I paint myself (won't be linking my work since I don't know if it is allowed) and have been making a variety of different pieces. To best explain what I do I'm just going to drop a few photos below:

These pieces are painted with textile paint and are machine washable. Some of these took a day to make, some of them took a few days. Some are more expensive than others, too (I price them depending on the size of the "painting" and how long it took to finish).

My questions to you are - do you think such pieces could create enough hype for someone like me to be able to sell them at a price reasonable enough for me to use this as my actual job? Also do you think it is better for such pieces to be directly sold or auctioned?

 

[MooToo]

This is cool. You have real talent. Have you tried Etsy or Shopify?

 

[EtherealRegalia]

This is cool. You have real talent. Have you tried Etsy or Shopify?

No, not yet - most people get my stuff from Instagram or my website.

 

[MooToo]

That’s good. Are sales increasing regularly?

 

[EtherealRegalia]

That’s good. Are sales increasing regularly?

veeery slowly... really depends on what I pump out though - I've been painting for 10 months and during those 10 months there's been months during which I don't sell more than 1-2 pieces.

 

[pleatedjeans]

These are cool man! Do you have an insta or someplace you post these things?

idk much about this sort of thing apart from like...the bootleg community stuff like Mobshity, doing sharpie drawings of old band designs and stuff, sells through bigcartel

(@mobshity) • Instagram photos and videos

38K Followers, 925 Following, 2,051 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from (@mobshity)

www.instagram.com

 

[Snoopy]

Fantastic work.

 

[EtherealRegalia]

These are cool man! Do you have an insta or someplace you post these things?

idk much about this sort of thing apart from like...the bootleg community stuff like Mobshity, doing sharpie drawings of old band designs and stuff, sells through bigcartel

(@mobshity) • Instagram photos and videos

38K Followers, 925 Following, 2,051 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from (@mobshity)

www.instagram.com

Thanks for the love! my insta is @EtherealRegalia
Link to Insta

 

[nomed]

Cool **** dude. I think some more abstract patterns would be nice. Having big pictures painted on is a hell of a lot cooler then having them just printed on, but im just not big on having big graphics, or whatever, on my clothes.

Except maybe hats... Paint some baseball caps bro. I bet if you did custom paint jobs of people's favorite sport teams, or show/movie/whatever, you'd sell a lot of ****.

So get more abstract, AND/or more specific..

 

[EtherealRegalia]

Cool **** dude. I think some more abstract patterns would be nice. Having big pictures painted on is a hell of a lot cooler then having them just printed on, but im just not big on having big graphics, or whatever, on my clothes.

Except maybe hats... Paint some baseball caps bro. I bet if you did custom paint jobs of people's favorite sport teams, or show/movie/whatever, you'd sell a lot of ****.

So get more abstract, AND/or more specific..

I do have a lot of abstract pieces too:

 

[Sartorium]

My questions to you are - do you think such pieces could create enough hype for someone like me to be able to sell them at a price reasonable enough for me to use this as my actual job? Also do you think it is better for such pieces to be directly sold or auctioned?

I think the key variable is "like you." I think you clearly have enough talent, but you're trying to place your work at the intersection of art and luxury, two industries where talent is necessary but not sufficient. They are both mostly about your ability to connect with and stir emotions in an audience. I think the market is there, but whether you can reach it, and make people feel about your work the way they need to feel to part with enough money to support you in exchange for it, I can't really say.

As for the second question, I think unless you get into extremely rarefied air, a set price is always going to be better than an auction. It gives you better control of the signal you're sending. If a piece or two slips and sells for smaller amounts, it might signal to others watching that the brand isn't what you want or need it to be, isn't high art, isn't luxurious, etc.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

I do have a lot of abstract pieces too:

View attachment 1251749 View attachment 1251751

These are great.

 

[EtherealRegalia]

These are great.

Thanks! They sold immediately .