It is always a shock to see how your own lifestyle is assimilated into the arbitrarily “newâ€? that is Fashion Week. The culture industry is an odd one and everyday is filled with new pushing, pulling, and hustling from the players working to stay that one fresh step ahead of the next 25 year old marketing consultant peddling “cool.”
And the peddling of cool this year hit a little close to home. Collections from Trovata to Vena Cava, Vera Wang to DKNY all pulled inspiration from the downtown creative lifestyle that looked scarily similar to the wardrobes that both Phil and I sport; a wardrobe that was built for ease of use and economy over anything else. With streetwear meeting hipsters and artsy easy layering finding happiness with the just enough structure to keep out the world, this spring will be the season of the LES.
And while plenty of other people are going to call this life a “trend” anyone who reads this blog knows I don’t don’t even really believe in the idea as a concept. I have a few other fish to fry here on the topic.
I think that cool hunting, trend forecasting, and everything else in the culture industry may just be morally bankrupt. The internet has added new layers to the question of “fresh� but I don’t think it is ostensibly changed the way culture moves or flows. It only gives the illusion of being a step ahead to the many new cultural commenters who work to break the next big thing. And that has given a lot of people running trendspotting sites and online magazines a pretty big ego. You see, so much of what counts for hot, now, cool, or whatever is just a repackaging of something authentically representative of regular people living their lives.
If you don’t happen to be living that life then perhaps you don’t need to buy those particular products. Buy products that work for your life instead of hoping that buying products meant for another lifestyle will somehow fill a void in you. It wont. Only you can do that. If you don’t pound pavement kicks or flats might not be your thing. If you work in an office with lots of lighting the no makeup look probably isn’t wise. The first rule of fashion has always been wear what works for you, but so many trendspotters seem bent on letting you know just how uncool your life must be if you can’t sport any of these new “happening” trends in the current manifestation of your life. And I think that is downright awful.
Don’t believe the Hypebeast! Don’t listen to Josh Rubin (dude doesn’t get irony) and more than anything else don’t believe that these dudes know any more than you do. Technology enables schmucks and hot things alike and you are just as capable of finding out what is “next� as the dude next to you. And then deciding if what is hot makes any sense for you.
OMG Props for this post!
I clicked on the link to Mr. Rubin’s Coolhunting site and found it amusing to see that someone has started a blog to continue the exact kind of inane, automaton-like product worship that I abandoned print magazines for. It’s hilariious to find that one can speak of things like fruit-holders, books on pranks, and urban horseback riding. At the end of the day these are just pursuits and shit to purchase.
The sad thing is that I have a short stint as a “coolhunter” on my resume when I lived for a year in Miami. Working for an account planner friend of mine, I was to troll high schools and collect “artifacts” from the South Florida area for my friend to amass in a report of nationwide “coolness.” The whole experience revealed to me how futile it is to track what is entirely subjective and mutable. My findings on what the overwhelmingly Latino population were into there failed to impress her boss, who seemed to be interested in validating the pursuits of your average white hipsters: data that supported how knitting circles and PBR were on the rise were clamored for, details of the rise of reggaeton fell on deaf ears. That experience finally made me understand the sham that is coolhunting.
I was reminded a little bit of that in checking out these sites. Judging by the mentions of ad industry demo mags like Archive, they seem to be referencing points for out-of-touch creative execs in what the kids like–you know, if every kid were a young, white, male urbanite in a media career who still owned a skateboard ten years out of high school. I have no real problems with anyone who lives that lifestyle, but it seems as if the scribers of these magablogs are either interested in funneling all young people down a rather myopic vision of creative expression or just passing off cheap plugs as informed information.
Amen, sisterfriend.
this post has made my evening.
Simple pleasures, Julie, simple pleasures. Calling out the irony of the whole charade? Another simple pleasure. What are you going to do about it? Change the whole human condition with wordplay?
I dunno, maybe, but it’s been tried before with little effect.
[...] Today I had one of those rare moments when I realized just how an article of clothing that is supposedly cool happens to fit authentically into my current life. Check out my new tee-shirt designed by Leah McSweeny. [...]
Hmmm. I don’t know.
If hiding your ‘true self’ from the world by continually changing your look to imitate the look of some other group, don’t trends “work for your lifeâ€?? You can see the trend followers as apart of a genuine group of their own, a group that continually brings to light a variety of visual trends typically associated with another group. Parasitic? Yes, but not necessarily morally bankrupt. I mean can’t we choose to separate what we wear from who we are?
Just a thought.
Oops. That was supposed to be:
“If you are hiding your ‘true self’ from the world by continually changing your look to imitate the look of some other group, don’t trends “work for your lifeâ€??”
Superbly said.
We see “home truths” like these propagating on blogs. On the one hand it is a surprise to see someone have the idea appeal to them in such a fresh and compelling way, but because it does, they go to a lot of effort to articulate it and make it convincing to anyone to whom that idea hadn’t occurred before.
[...] Forget the assimilated negro, I am the assimilated downtown street urchin. Remember what I was saying about my lifestyle being appropriated by the glamour industrial complex mere days ago? While I guess the process is further along than I thought. [...]
I appreciate all of the comments here, but do feel a need to point out that, despite the name, coolhunting.com is just a catalog of stuff we like. We never actually tie our posts to any trends nor do we profess that anyone should like what we do.
It’s funny because when I started the site almost 4 years ago it was just meant to be a personal reference tool. But then more and more people started reading it and now we have an audience and a little business. I named it haphazardly because the phrase ‘cool hunting’ was synonymous with ‘finding inspiration’ which is what I spend a lot of time doing because my day job is as a designer.
don’tbelievethehypebeast rules! irony is the social currency of the cerebrally bankrupt and emotionally atrophied… oh yeah, and rich white coke heads.
[...] Democray implies equality. But in the case of the aesthetic realm, it is quite clear that not all participants are not equally talented or deserving. As consumers we can demand equal access to information, and our decisions are the arbiters of all fates when it comes to the fashion industry. Furthermore, thanks to a host of technological developments and a flowering of dilettante interest across the globe anyone can be in the know now with very little effort. [...]
[...] Fashion is not a democracy Democray implies equality. But in the case of the aesthetic realm, it is quite clear that not all participants are not equally talented or deserving. As consumers we can demand equal access to information, and our decisions are the arbiters of all fates when it comes to the fashion industry. Furthermore, thanks to a host of technological developments and a flowering of dilettante interest across the globe anyone can be in the know now with very little effort. [...]