the art of mourning

welcome to issue #08 of moments, our bi-weekly newsletter. if you’re new here, this is the space where we share product updates, news from our community, and a curation of the best things we’re seeing online and offline. and if you’ve been around for a while, thanks for being a member of our community. you’re among a select group of cherished friends, family, and early supporters.

the past two weeks have been busy: we’ve been hard at work on new releases, chatting with our community, and planning for an event-packed spring.

so much to share – let’s get into it :)

we spent the past two weeks doing a lot of polishing. you might not notice any big changes but there are lots of small updates to the primitives experience. a few to keep an eye out for:

• request notifications 📣 – your requests now live in your notifications! tap into the chat icon to see any pending requests and start sharing your work

• moment counter ➕ – we added a counter at the bottom of the discover page. we’re working on building the largest permanent media archive in the world - now you can watch it happen in real time :)

• refresh for new content ♻️ – hit the “shuffle” button on the discover page to see new content and get inspired

we have a big launch coming next week (our biggest yet?!) – stay tuned for news on that front. one hint: it’s related to an app 👀

our featured creator this week is fashion designer and illustrator, maya shah. a new york-based creative, maya’s work infuses western fashion with indian culture. her choices of rich brocades, bright colors, and vibrant textures creates uniquely immersive clothing that we can’t get enough of. we recently sat down with maya to chat more about her inspiration, reference points, and thoughts on the digital world.

how would you describe your style?

i really love colorful things. i love embroidered things or shiny, sparkly things. i feel like my style is very playful and fun. i like evening wear most or going out kind of clothing as opposed to something more casual / everyday. i like to make big event things. i love brocade — i love that it's shiny and patterned and you can get cleaner lines when you sew it.

what influences or inspires you the most?

so many things! i can be influenced by other fashion designers, travel, culture (the list goes on). there are so many places to take inspiration from. a big one for me (and something that started getting me into fashion from a young age) was indian fashion. being half indian and getting to wear indian clothing and dress up for cultural events was something that i always loved. and i loved how heavily embroidered the fabrics were and all of those things that just made it really fun. that's a huge inspiration for me when i design. and my ideal piece to make would definitely be some form of a dress or evening wear, something that's embroidered and long and kind of crazy and fun!

i'm super inspired by alexander mcqueen, dolce and gabbana, christian cowan, papa don't preach (which is an indian designer). there's so many simone rocha, vivienne westwood...

@primitives_xyz

emerging designer maya shah on what melding culture with fashion means to her ✨ “i have a specific vision for how i want to combine indian... See more

do you have any prior experience in the web3 space?

before using primitives? i didn’t. i was surprised that the whole minting process was a lot easier than i expected it to be and was something that now i would do more because of how simple it was. i knew a little bit about nfts, but not a bunch. using primitives made it super accessible and so that i didn't really have to know everything right away, and gave me an opportunity to learn about it. i also like that it’s bridging this gap between the crypto world and the creative world and giving a platform for creatives to become a part of that space.

what does being a creator mean to you?

i feel like being a creator is someone interested in making things and applies their artistic mind to any aspect of their life.

want to own one of maya’s moments? head over to her portfolio on primitives and collect a few to add to your collection.

as the primitives community has grown, we’ve been thinking more and more about how to bring everyone together. starting in new york, we’re thrilled to kick things off with a few IRL events (think speaker series & a gallery show). want to get involved? shoot us a dm :)

what else have we been thinking about recently? should users be owners of the platforms they use? the definitive look at marketplaces, uh oooh uh oooh, the real atlanta, and transporting films at MoMA.