Editor’s Comment:The following article was written prior to SSENSE’s filing for creditor protection. After the news broke on August 25, 2025, we had internal discussions regarding the timeliness of the piece. Nevertheless, SSENSE has long led the online fashion industry with one of the most tech-oriented approaches in the field. We believe that an analysis of the trajectory SSENSE has charted over the past decade—shaping new consumer patterns—still offers valuable insight into understanding both the coming of a “post-SSENSE” era and the shifts within the broader fashion retail ecosystem. This article does not address the U.S. administration’s imposition of Canadian tariffs, which is thought to have been a decisive factor in SSENSE’s filing. ©SHINSEGAE The Mitsukoshi Gyeongseong Store at that time was more than just a department store for selling goods. It was a ‘cultural salon’ that introduced and popularised the latest culture, and it was the most famous spot in Gyeongseong for experiencing modernity directly. This is why the exterior of the Mitsukoshi Gyeongseong Store was often featured on postcards, whether they were introducing the city’s modern culture or as souvenirs for tourists.¹ In the past, department stores offered consumers the convenience of comparing and purchasing various products in one place. They presented a high-end lifestyle and the latest trends through their dazzling displays behind glass windows. Consumers would observe new products and trends through the massive windows that adorned the department store facades, and visually savour high culture while being stimulated to make purchases. This was the beginning of a modern consumption experience, where one could experience a lifestyle through the displayed merchandise and where following trends itself became a source of pleasure. In today’s digital environment, SSENSE is demonstrating another paradigm shift comparable to the rise of the department store in the past. While many competitors are focused on replicating department stores’ showcases onto websites, SSENSE is fundamentally reshaping consumption patterns, just as the first department stores once did. Instagram @ssense SSENSE’s signature staging – models' standardised poses, indifferent expressions, gazes that turn away from the camera – unifies all styles and designs, from high-end fashion to emerging designers and street fashion, under a single visual grammar. This highly controlled method removes the individuality of garments, such as a garment’s three-dimensional form and tactile qualities of fabric, leaving only flat, visual information. They demonstrated that the digitalisation in fashion consumption does not necessarily mean picking virtual clothing for metaverse avatars. Rather, the shift proposed by SSENSE occurs during a digital arcade experience where users endlessly scroll and wander through clothing images arranged in consistent sizes and spacing. In this process, the sensory experience of clothing is naturally excluded. As a result, consumers unconsciously adopt a new consumption pattern where they rely on the visual persuasiveness of the images themselves to make purchasing decisions. Instagram @ssense SSENSE has greatly strengthened its content creation capabilities by recruiting key industry figures, including 032c founder Joerg Koch in 2015 and former Highsnobiety editor-in-chief Thom Bettridge in 2022. SSENSE, having already challenged traditional retailers like department stores, has expanded its ambitions to legacy media platforms. Rather than acting as tastemakers who unilaterally define and promote specific trends and tastes, SSENSE mirrors the immediate, spontaneous reactions that bubble up from the public, much like memes that spread rapidly on social media, in their content and product curation. This strategy makes consumers feel that their perspectives are reflected in SSENSE’s content, leading to an unconscious familiarity with the platform and the formation of emotional bonds. The result is that SSENSE has secured recognition as a democratic and open space that provides a sense of being on-site, as if strolling through department stores or streets and mingling with others, while being based on individual tastes rather than trend following. Captured from SSENSE.com on July 28, 2025. However, this facade of equality and autonomy lies in invisible control created by a combination of SSENSE’s well-known identity as a tech-centric company² and its market dominance. In other words, this platform that once shared risks with designers has gradually transformed into a market predator that all brands have no choice but to depend on for survival. While being listed on SSENSE is seen as a gateway that somewhat guarantees success for new brands, it has paradoxically resulted in brands’ commercial success or failure being determined by the platform's editorial agenda, consumer data holdings, and recommendation algorithms. For example, SSENSE’s market influence forces brands to participate in its large-scale discount policies. This has faced criticism for inflating the overall price of products in the long term while seriously undermining brand profitability, ultimately threatening the survival of emerging designers with limited capital.³ Moreover, SSENSE leverages its internal data and trend forecasts to direct designers on what to produce, effectively guiding brands to create products they did not originally intend to produce.⁴ Long before designers like Virgil Abloh, Demna Gvasalia and Matthew Williams became superstar stewards of some of the oldest luxury houses in fashion, SSENSE was selling their debut collections. (...) SSENSE also supported the French designer Marine Serre from the earliest days, when she was still showing her collections in her Paris bedroom. “It was really quite special when they came to me,” Ms. Serre said. “They had ideas. They were ready to take risks.”⁵ ©Canadian Business / Richmond Lam SSENSE’s supposedly ‘democratic’ platform appeared to have broken down the hierarchy once dictated by the vested interests of the legacy retail industry. However, behind their ethos that “try to quietly put something out and just let it (the product) speak for itself,” and “we try not to make it about who’s creating the thing,”⁶ there is a reality where all designers must first pass through SSENSE’s gate to gain the opportunity to speak. In the end, online platforms like these are not blurring the boundaries between trend leaders and followers that were once demarcated by department store windows. Instead, they are making fashion into an area where correct answers exist by using the data they collect as new criteria. Whether designers, consumers, or editors, we are all censoring ourselves and being evaluated to see if we meet the standards of ‘fashionable’ that can be distributed within the platform. “A designer who sells on Matches and SSENSE told me that both sites' merchandisers and buyers have suggested specific pieces for his line to produce, based on internal data (...) It gets a lot of brands to do stuff they wouldn’t do, and the upshot is it homogenizes everything."⁷ ¹ Bae Bong-kyun (2015.07.11.) An icon of modernity, Korea's first department store (Part 1), Shinsegae Group Newsroom, Available at here ² Current and former employees said the company(SSENSE) resembles a tech firm more than a purveyor of cool clothing, where each decision must be bolstered by numbers. Nathan Taylor Pemberton (2021.11.24.) What Is SSENSE?, The New York Times. Available at here ³ Charles Etoroma (2025.04.15.) Is SSENSE Sale Culture Damaging the Fashion Industry?, COMPLEX. Available at here ⁴ Blackbird Spyplane (2023.06.20.) Is SSENSE hurting the cool-clothes ecosystem?. Available at here ⁵ Nathan Taylor Pemberton (2021.11.24.) What Is SSENSE?, The New York Times. Available at here⁶ Charles Etoroma (2024.08.05.) The creative behind the marketing phenomenon SSENSE, NSS Magazine. Available at here ⁷ Blackbird Spyplane (2023.06.20.) Is SSENSE hurting the cool-clothes ecosystem?. Available at here BY MUYO PARKOCTOBER 13, 2025 >READ THE KOREAN VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE> READ OTHER ARTICLES