some pfw highlights, soulless collectibles, willy's world, the birkin is overexposed, gatekeeping n more
Hi friends!
Here’s a lil round up of what i’m #noticing on the internet and off it the past week or so.
please don’t read this if its more than 48 hours after ive sent it… its already old news.
my unified theory of REAL PEOPLE make everything MUCH cooler
I had the most absurd collection of links to summarize telfars’ show in cortland alley (if you’ve been here a while you know i’m a fan girl for everything they do and the ways in which they do it) - but in an act of restraint, i will not inundate yall too badly. i do love the photos in this NYT piece though.
To me, telfars’ pre-PFW NYC celebration set the tone for the coming few weeks of fashion coverage and had me #noticing-
the parade bore about as much resemblance to a traditional fashion show as Mr. Clemens’s signature tank tops — twisted, asymmetric, backless, upside-down — do the standard undergarment. Instead, it was a celebration, a happening and a collective shout of triumph in the face of the current political climate.
You can feel the energy in this vid from Face:
Yesterday morning i woke up and saw Camiel Fortgens also showing in paris in the street, i believe it was their first presentation in Paris and a 15th anniversary effort.
One of the more interesting things to me about June PFW is the fact that (from my vantage point - i.e not as a local and certainly not as an #insider) fete de la musique seems like a bigger pull with a more interesting cultural impact. the adjacency to fashion week makes the crowd an interesting mix but i also think fashion NEEDS that energy to have any relevance whatsoever.
I think we are seeing a cycle of clothes and style in the real world - with plenty of real proof of wear- being the ultimate mark of prestige and culture.
It trickles out into things like the below - the actual workers at fashion week are more sartorially compelling even for traditional editorial outlets than ‘the talent’ or even traditional “influencers”.
relatedly, i loved this peek behind the curtain at Jonathan Andersons’ dior debut - a collection heavily inspired by Basquiat, drawing on deeply lived-in clothes and aesthetics from a last vestige of a different downtown creative scene. JA brought in those close to them such as creative director Karen Binz to advise, consult, and form a crew to lead the effort so that it was more closely connected to the real people and real narratives of the time.
the part that made this a democratic aesthetic to me, to bring it back to the ‘real people’ theme was how deeply it reflected his forays with UNIQLO. people really WEAR those clothes. Theyve been a not-insignificant part of building j.w andersons brand with everyday folks. I love that he is blurring the lines of what luxury means and who defines it.
(i’m legit about to start a section called ‘per my last email’ in this newsletter where i just keep hammering readers with my main key points til people believe me.)
“when collecting turns soulless” and the latest ‘memestock’ plushies - labubu are ultimately still a soft power story for China above all else
I think plenty of folks smarter than me have been trying to understand precisely wtf is going on w/ regards to Labubu’s and their trinkety kinfolk. I’m not here to provide yet another (boomer-timed) trend report on these, just some dot connecting below. The more compelling assessments i’ve seen :
the ever practical
accurately assigning Labubu’s the label of a ‘memestock’- “a frenzy of desirability created by a lot of people wanting the same thing at the same time.” my inference w/ this analogy is that to assign cultural value to a Labubu beyond a short-lived resell boost and participation-high would be akin to thinking Gamestop is the next big thing.- at wrote about "when collecting turns soulless” -
”While the criticism of overconsumption is valid, what's really driving it is how the rise of micro-trends has stripped the soul out of collecting, turning it from a personal passion into a Supreme-esque status symbol.” Honestly, many parallels here to the explosion of sneaker culture and secondary markets over the pandemic. i especially appreciated her insight that “… as dumb as it sounds, collecting was never about owning the rarest charm—it was about curating things you genuinely liked. [..] collecting was never meant to be this soulless.” in the NYtimes, an exploration of “Can This Not-Particularly-Cute Elf Make China Cool?” - suggests that China’s longer term investment in creating cultural influence with home-grown products and trends beyond its borders is finally paying off. “An analysis published in May by Morning Consult showed that for the first time China’s global standing surpassed that of the United States, including among American allies. Even in the United States, where views of China remain overwhelmingly negative, the share of Americans with an unfavorable opinion of China fell for the first time in five years in March. Younger Americans in particular are less hostile to China.”
I personally think that the West is losing ground as an agent for creating, shaping and amplifying trends, so to me the final story is the most interesting one.
side note - enjoyed this bit about what Chinese billionaires are wearing (Arcteryx).
gerontocracy persists (so basically we all have the same problems everywhere)
I’ve written about boomers unwillingness to move aside ad nauseum so i won’t go further into it here, but interesting to hear about the below in japan, especially during the country’s insane tourism influx.
willy’s world - street casting, wild postings, and more
without going into the content of his show or the actual clothing, i really do admire willy chavarria’s world-building and overall brand ecosystem. the lead-up to his show in paris felt not dissimilar from an album roll-out, with open casting:
striking visuals:
(legit felt like the Clipse roll out, which is happening concurrently.)
willy went into his street casting approach here:
and brought his adidas collab into the runway moment with equal weight and footing (pardon le pun)
Contemplating what happens when Luxury gets overexposed, as the luxury market begins its earnest decline. Your most-seen ambassadors are where your brand lives and dies - plus, how (not) to entice a new market
it’s going to be a ‘soft’ next few quarters as they say in ‘the biz’, but i think especially in luxury. A lot of people think brands that exist at the upper quartile of 1% spending are a safe harbor for earnings, even in this kind of economic cycle, but I feel like it’s actually weird times for some of the more dominant luxury brands. I found this piece from
about “Can Birkins Be Overexposed” fascinating not only for the content, but for the comments - an eye-opening dive into what turns off the luxury consumer. Summarizing where it all went wrong for the Birkin below;in fascism-fraught countries like Hungary, Birkins have become entwined with politics and ‘not in a good way.’
Brand damage by association - ‘Real Housewives, Kardashians, Melania. Not a club I wish to be a member of!’ - “Once the Kardashians own something, I lose all interest. I don't like their style and to me, they represent a culture of excess.”-“the connection to tacky, marginally-talented "reality" stars is such a turn-off. I see a Birkin and I just think of Kyle Richards and I'd rather not. I don't want anything that's just fodder for competition and one-upsmanship among the flashy haves and socialites.”
this is such an inversion of what most marketers learn and are driven to do, which is get as many eyeballs on a piece or a collection as possible, using ultra-famous people as a vehicle to do so.
the new entrants:
“I feel like the Marlo and Margaux (from The Row) are the new definitive status bags.”
AND- a note on “from paris to india” while we think about luxury brands’ overexposure
An equally interesting answer to overexposure for brands and luxury’s’ imminent decline is of course ‘new’ audiences and new markets. Pharrell’s latest show was a homage of ‘paris to india’ as LVMH are poised to establish a deeper presence in the market. i thought Hetty Mahlich’s breakdown for Showstudio was deeply insightful and well-reported - will embed below. Pharrell’s role of ‘cultural conductor’ fell short on a deeper and more meaningful engagement with India’s aesthetics, history, or stories, defaulting to a white-gaze wes-anderson lite interpretation.
gatekeeping is all the way back
there’s a reason i don’t write about any of my real favorite shit in here! tyler explains it well.
this topic has come up A LOT in research i’ve done for work this year - a lot of people are trying to find ways to keep their favorite, most beloved things protected from the algorithm, or curate environments and circles that aren’t necessarily ‘exclusive’ but also aren’t algorithmically ‘discoverable’ per se. I almost feel like we’re at a point that people intentionally post ‘decoy’ brands/ products/ places to distract from the things they really like- until those things hit the tipping point and then its on to the next one. It’s why, to me, primary cultural research built on real relationships is extremely important vs. people at a distance trying to make assumptions built on shaky algorithmic foundations. ‘explore page’ anything is literally a derogatory term in enough circles in big cities with a real scene.
I am curious to see how gatekeeping is solved for behaviorally in future, where people want the upside of online distribution without the downside of whats been happening the past few years. (no one come in here with any commentary about the blockchain please).
i also saw an interesting take on ‘anti-aesthetics’ which i think we’ve all probably noticed recently, and how it comes about due to algorithm rebellion - basically the visual story on how people are subconsciously rejecting optimization.
food for thought!
social + creative + content things i’m loving // things i just thought were interesting
this is such a great little example of pivoting in the moment from Danielle Levitt:
i looooove the way this lil ig baddie brand, garage has a regular brand account with brand assets -
and a separate ‘people’ account for garage people & their stores/pop ups-
such a no-brainer for any brand wanting to build community or a more ‘connected’ presence off rip.
the sports content and analysis the people want and crave:
fascinating look at NYC voter turnout/alignment relative to subway lines
who wouldve thought actually sharing space with other people would make you more progressive? :)
i’m loathe to contribute to discourse about this campaign, even though it was an extreme highlight for it to be my first voting experience in the USA- but this stood out to me:
this is what makes coverage around the campaign focused on social content such a miss.
love this series of cyclists crossing the williamsburg bridge into manhattan - real style. i cant embed the post for some reason so here you go.
in chic hardware news —-
been waiting for Bose to do something cool - here we are. A wales bonner custom.
google getting a stake in gentle monster- this feels like a match made in heaven to me. this is how you actually make tech feel like a part of culture.
very curious to see the continuation of meta’s AR tech with oakley (gentle monster acquisition clearly a direct response to this sort of thing)
finally the pendulum is swinging back against the outlander-ification of culture media
interesting take on ‘secondary media’ as a parasite via
- this week we saw the reveal of a fake frank ocean campaign as a stunt from an agency in japan. i’m not going to comment on the ‘campaign’ (hijacking /deceiving fan communities with no payoff isnt my thing), but the article breaking it down has some bangers about what i’ll call ‘moodboard accounts’;They regurgitate information, work, and art made by others, stripping images from their contexts to plaster onto moodboards. They reduce historical and socio-political subtexts into aesthetics, offering no real conversation, critique, or framing.
The worst part is how effective they are. Every like, comment, and share becomes data for brand decks. Suddenly, they are “the voice of a generation” or “tapped into the zeitgeist.” Their business model is built on selling cultural relevance back to us. They take money from clothing brands and music labels to tell us who’s hot, what shoe defines the summer, or what sound is about to blow.
By liking a photo of 2000s Pharrell or a blurry snapshot of a Japanese nightclub, you become part of a data package used to secure brand partnerships without your consent or awareness.
yikes!!!
Shoes + Feets zone…
moodboard-bait phone slides from Canya-on. I like these as an art piece but i am ready for footwear and footwear moodboard accounts to move on from ‘novelty’ at either end of the sustainability/waste spectrum. just make things people want that they can really live in for longer than a season. anything else just let it be art! thank you for coming to my ted talk.
Li-Ning have entered the chat and i’m listening:
asics x issey miyake.. neon szn is coming. more info on their joint venture here
very cool to see NB continue their premium-niche-mens-craft run w Drakes
i am admittedly tough on puma (just not my thing, and the materials feel cheap) but these piqued my curiosity
ok jjjjound also did their thing here - i have been unsure of mostros but would wear these in a second
insane set of CDG drops/leaks: ASICS, New Balance, Nike???
really nice chic new low pro from adidas and Song For The Mute. I know PFW was all about the jellyfish, but this is gorge to me. I think its time we all admit adi are absolutely running laps around nike.
if you’re not in footwear, seeing adidas do the below will give you an idea of how long it takes to get a shoe to market even in the speediest possible scenario where you are not doing any conceptual / design heavy lifting. (Miu miu first debuted their new balance sneaker of which this is a clear derivative in october, 2023 - approx 1 year and 9 months ago).
thats all for now. byeeeee
GG x
neon season yes. v pleased I have ordered neon Havaianas