ballet style, boomer dominance, sf isn't a nice city, chloe sevigny deep cuts, packaging as brand and more
pardon the wait!
Good morning… I know it’s been a little while. your girl is BUSY. The reasons why will soon reveal themselves. In the meantime…
Lets get into it!
The ballerina macro-trend adoption curve
Ferragamo put on an absolute clinic at their SS25 show in Milan; the collection was tight, disciplined, sexy and felt immediately wearable. I think so many of the people i know were most excited about it because it felt like you could already create versions of these looks from your closet.
I’ve got a little iPhone note with links to ‘balletcore’ that i’ve been updating for a while (a peek into my weird little pattern-recognition process lol). It includes this interview with Recho and Dione Davis that segues into ballet-style and life as an ex-dancer (or as they call it, a bunhead). Alo’s ballet partnership. Live the Process’s Ballet edit. Ballet-inspired styling from Sisters and Seekers. Hailey Beiber for Rhode (September, 2023 - over a year ago).
To me, this is what sets apart a forced tik-tok micro-trend (girlcore, coquette or whatever the hell they were calling this on there to try and engagement-bait their way into a by-line) from a bonafide macro-trend. A year-on-year slow burn towards an aesthetic preference across different communities that becomes a more permanent fixture. Its the same way baggy pants crept in a few years back and then just stayed here. And next thing you know we are designing our whole wardrobes around it. Which by the way, Willy Chavarria solidified - we got a couple more seasons left big-pants-believers.
Continued observation like this is what makes being ahead of the curve so powerful for organizations, if they can design into a wave and heat a specific look up at the right time.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Time to hang it up, Boomers!
No, but really - when I think of all the career pivots my own friends in various forms of media have had to make during these unprecedented market shifts (that somehow never seem to stop), and then look at things like this (which the entire internet wanted us all to see over the weekend):
I just don’t know if i have the same takeaway as everyone else lol. I didn’t get the same warm-fuzzy ‘omg look at this guy that worked at the same company forever!’ feeling; i was left with a strong pov that this simply isn’t a reality that is accessible for 99% of people in younger generations, and that the reigning class of boomers and elder gen x aren’t really making it easier for anyone.
I only want to hear about tech and AI from john mulaney.
Thank you to Mikey who sent me this. If you’ve already seen it, I apologize, but it bears repeating.
“Let me get this straight,” John Mulaney said. “You’re hosting a ‘future of AI’ event in a city that has failed humanity so miserably?”
Theres also some incredible quotes in this coverage too.
“San Francisco, you’ve always been bad at being a city, and you’re fine with it,” he said to laughs.
“LA is a county pretending to be a city, SF is a city that isn’t nice,” added Mulaney.
This 30-year old profile on Chloe Sevigny proves its really just been the same thing happening forever on repeat
I love the New Yorker. we’re so lucky to be able to read stuff this old on the internet.
“When I met Chloe, I instantly knew that she was so super-cool, and it’s been so cool to see where she’s gone from there fashionwise. She was dressing in arch preppy stuff and wide-wale corduroys, and she always had the best look. It was never off-the-rack skate stuff… She looked like a village guy who steals from Polo.” The Polo element of Chloe’s wardrobe was in part a function of a job she’d taken at the mall in Stamford senior year. Chloe tried all the stores in the mall: “I had just shaved my head and I thought it was really funny that Polo was the only one that called me back.” The safe, sporty uniform of prepsters and Westchester Saab drivers was at that moment being hijacked by rappers and skaters in a sort of inversion of the Trickle-Up Theory. “All the hip-hop kids were sporting Polo then,” Chloe explains. “They called it ’Lo. But now it’s not hip. Everyone wears it now.” Everyone but Chloe.
Unrelated but in a similar ‘time is a flat circle’ zone, this SSENSE exploration on ‘the fashion internet’ is juicy and reminds us that its often the same conversation just with different characters.
Incredible analysis on Balenciaga and the state of things
This piece is a doozy spanning all the things people love thinking about; collab culture, celeb creative directors, what even is fashion now, etc via
:People with status are consistently out of their depth creatively, dabbling in practices they barely understand yet somehow positioned at the top of their field.
This professional domain transfer allows athletes to launch makeup brands and performance artists to become stage designers, and for a time it positioned fashion as the primary medium through which culture flowed.
This piece also posits that fashion is past its peak as a cultural anchor. I don’t know what has taken its place, but i’d be curious if any of you have thoughts.
Maybe leave logos alone for a bit. Packaging is your brand too!
Loved this bloomberg write up on Graza’s squeezy bottle. got me thinking about how so many of the (rare) D2C brand hits have expressed themselves through unique, re-usable packaging that becomes a signifier, especially in super crowded categories. Glossier’s OG pink pouch. I even love the neon yellow packets Studs gives you with each purchase.
In the midst of the latest and greatest unnecessary rebrand, I was thinking about how much effort and investment goes into rethinking Logos as a default shortcut to shifting the vibe of a brand, and how there are so many other neglected, higher-impact brand expressions that could (should?) be messed with first - packaging feels like a major one.
Brand/Product launches i’ve been enjoying…
WNBA x Glossier: (YES she is aussie… <3 )
Kith released these v. clean joints to only their most LOYAL customers. I happen to know a die-hard kith loyalist with almost 15 years of data on his account and even he couldnt access these lol. #BringingExclusivityBack
Love this wales bonner internship program:
this whole FACE editorial is expertly done Adidas placement
New Rimowa bag launch is really nice:
whatever glossier are teasing… it’s being done in a fun way
Thats all for today - I’M GONNA TRY AND WRITE AGAIN NEXT WEEK, don’t be a stranger if i don’t though. I (mostly) answer emails if you reply to this!
GG x
You're so right about the packaging. It can be so much more powerful than the brand's logo.
Re: The Face - I kept checking Emma’s socials to see if she’s been named an Adidas ambassador because that was some prime placement in The Face. They must have paid her and the magazine handsomely for that.