How Premium Mediocre Fashion Conquered the World

[Anton]

Faust, great article! "Here, the paradox of providing an air of exclusivity without excluding anyone is key." This is definitely a thing right now (you can find a parallel in music - bunch of vinyl releases limited to "200" copies.) but also, it has a lot to do with who the brand is attached to. Celebrity culture is thriving, and hype is what is important. If someone is 'cool' or 'known' is wearing, buying, following, liking it (whatever it might be) then people are immediately are all over it.

Regarding the quality itself, companies have been lowering the standards over time and they see that sales are not being affected by the quality of the product. The industry is mostly interested in profits and infinite growth, so CEOs are making decisions that will make the shareholders happy. People consume more, for higher prices yet production costs for these companies went down (since quality has dropped significantly), more money is being earned and everybody can "keep their job".

As mentioned by Zamb and Upsilonkng - Musicians should know how to play music, painters should know how to paint etc' etc'. Today you can throw some garbage on a canvas and suddenly you're "an artist", buy a small Eurorack case and a microphone and you're a musician making "experimental noise". In the last couple of decades it went from "I wish I could do that" to "My 5 year old could do this". There are of course experimental artists that make things different, but it just became an easy way out for most. If you want to make clothes you need to know how to and understand the process, unfortunately it is no longer like that. Today its basically people telling others what they want and then they take all the credit, or simply people produce utter garbage and be praised for it. People want everything immediately and everything needs to be accessible, skills take years to develop so everybody just pretend and the standards drop.

[Ahimsa]

Re:Artists
If you can communicate an idea or emotion well, you don’t have to be the best at a technical skill. In that case, your creativity is displayed in a different way.

This is exactly the problem with the premium mediocre fashion though, and Off-White etc. It's by no stretch well made clothing or original, but it conveys "IDEAS".
A good key to being good at art/music/fashion etc. is to learn all the rules first so you can forget/break them.
M.C. Escher is a good example though of someone who isn't "technically" the best traditionally, but he was definitely the best at his particular technical skill.


I'm honestly just waiting for all these brands to Coach themselves with this absurd amount of goods. Add to this the recent Carlyle Group buy of Supreme, who are definitely going to pump-and-dump them, I have some solid hope of all of this imploding in a few years.

[matglenn]

let me guess ur in college majoring in brand management....
if u dont take ur craft seriously do u expect others to? to me its simple, if u say ur an artist then if i gave u a pen and paper u could prove it. im a guitarist, if im in a restaurant and someone asked me to entertain w/ a guitar u bet im able and depending on how many drinks are involved probably willing. its simple, be who u say u are and be good enough to not have any hangups or excuses involved. well i uhhh.. curate a store or pop ups.. u mean u hang clothes and tell them where to put the mannequin?

The idea is that reducing ones practice exclusively to technical ability doesn't inspire new ideas. I doubt Iris Van Herpen would be 3d printing dresses if she exclusively abided by these values, but fortunately she doesn't

[zamb]

The idea is that reducing ones practice exclusively to technical ability doesn't inspire new ideas. I doubt Iris Van Herpen would be 3d printing dresses if she exclusively abided by these values, but fortunately she doesn't

you are not arguing with honestly and i actually hate when people do that.
No one is saying that art should be exclusively within the fundamentals. we are saying that the fundamentals should be the foundation from which art springs. anyone who lacks the fundamentals but expect to get credit as an artist, a musician who doesn't play, a designer who cannot sketch/ drape/ cut/ sew/ a sculptor who doesn't sculpt and so on, those people are frauds, and we are now living in the age of the frauds.............
We have a US President who is not presidential. a man who is winning at politics who is NOT a politician.

Look at someone like Cardi B, who cannot rap, sound inarticulate but has risen to the top of Rap Music..........
the most successful designers no are those who can use Instagram or paying someone to do it or them.......
Plebs now think they are the most well dressed and stylish people.......you my friend are defending the indefensible

[Faust]

let me guess ur in college majoring in brand management....

if u dont take ur craft seriously do u expect others to? to me its simple, if u say ur an artist then if i gave u a pen and paper u could prove it. im a guitarist, if im in a restaurant and someone asked me to entertain w/ a guitar u bet im able and depending on how many drinks are involved probably willing. its simple, be who u say u are and be good enough to not have any hangups or excuses involved. well i uhhh.. curate a store or pop ups.. u mean u hang clothes and tell them where to put the mannequin?

This is somewhat off topic, but you keep harping on excellence in everything, but you write like shit. I don't engage with you because I can't stand the way you write, not because I don't like what you are saying. My eyes hurt just seeing all the "u"s and "ur"s. Is it really so fucking hard to write out the words and capitalize them? I doubt you play this sloppy.

[Faust]

Faust, great article! "Here, the paradox of providing an air of exclusivity without excluding anyone is key." This is definitely a thing right now (you can find a parallel in music - bunch of vinyl releases limited to "200" copies.) but also, it has a lot to do with who the brand is attached to. Celebrity culture is thriving, and hype is what is important. If someone is 'cool' or 'known' is wearing, buying, following, liking it (whatever it might be) then people are immediately are all over it.

Regarding the quality itself, companies have been lowering the standards over time and they see that sales are not being affects by the quality of the product. The industry is mostly interested in profits and infinite growth, so CEOs are making decision that will make the shareholders happy. People consume more, for higher prices yet production costs for these companies went down (since quality has dropped significantly), more money is being earned and everybody can "keep their job".

As mentioned by Zamb and Upsilonkng - Musicians should know how to play music, painters should know how to paint etc' etc'. Today you can throw some garbage on a canvas and suddenly you're "an artist", buy a small Eurorack case and a microphone and you're a musician making "experimental noise". In the last couple of decades it went from "I wish I could do that" to "My 5 year old could do this". There are of course experimental artists that make things different, but it just became an easy way out for most. If you want to make clothes you need to know how to and understand the process, unfortunately it is no longer like that. Today its basically people telling others what they want and then they take all the credit, or simply people produce utter garbage and be praised for it. People want everything immediately and everything needs to be accessible, skills take years to develop so everybody just pretend and the standards drop.

I know :/ The masses have won a decisive victory. We are back in the underground, which is surreal. Funny, we thought there were no subcultures anymore, and now maybe meritocracy and elitism will be the new subculture. Need to think about this some more.

[upsilonkng]

This is somewhat off topic, but you keep harping on excellence in everything, but you write like shit. I don't engage with you because I can't stand the way you write, not because I don't like what you are saying. My eyes hurt just seeing all the "u"s and "ur"s. Is it really so fucking hard to write out the words and capitalize them? I doubt you play this sloppy.

Haha that's actually pretty funny. I should and yet I haven't and if I was applying for a job maybe I would. But it's a msg board so some shorthand for quicker replies I don't think is entirely out of line. There are plenty of professional writers that actually write "lol" etc... also Prince only writes "u" for you as well.

[Nickefuge]

also Prince only writes "u" for you as well.

And where did it lead him? lol

This is exactly the problem with the premium mediocre fashion though, and Off-White etc. It's by no stretch well made clothing or original, but it conveys "IDEAS".

Of course the ideas have to be new. Or at least your own.

[mrbeuys]

Also that payless thing - all of it >>>

These videos have been done forever.