The Weekly Roundup (week of 2.19)

ABOLISH CORES NOW!

Feb 23, 2024

the teenagers crate-digging through these details, arguing about “dark academia” versus “light academia” or the differences between “goblincore” and “crowcore” — it doesn’t seem to me that they want to negate meaning. It seems as though they are looking, hard, for identity, for validation, for the dignification of their taste. It’s just that they are being presented with these thin cultural planes that barely exist outside their devices.

On the surface, you gotta admit it does seem like subcultures in the traditional sense are fading into irrelevance. However, I think the article is mainly pointing out the real phenomena of a capitalistic aesthetic obsession. This is the natural consequence of a market-driven content ecosystem rooted in advertising and consumption. Furthermore, young people are more and more obsessed with looks, our culture is deeply narcissistic. A majority of content revolves around the self and the validation of the self. Our modern culture of mental health often provides counter-productive solutions that only enable and further worsen our conditions due to their ego-driven axioms. Indeed, young people today are clearly lacking a true sense of community in our increasingly atomized society. They’re riddled with anxiety, and it seems as though burrowing into their curated digital worlds provides relief from the burden of engaging with reality. That being said, I tend to disagree with the crux of the argument, I don’t think subcultures are fading into irrelevance, you just have to try harder these days and go out of your way to belong to one. The writeups about Dimes Square are indicative of a trend that will surely mature over time, scenes are a core aspect of cultural evolution. Scenes are out there in the flesh, but you have to divest from your digital world to actually find them!

I think a lot of these pronouncements from the media, and selective editorializing of niche fashion micro-trends are mostly driven by the fact that a lot of media reporters are just going off of what they personally see on the internet. They’re not really in the streets making culture they just report on it, and they’re usually late as fuck. The fact that you can look at what skaters are wearing (Skinny jeans, baggy jeans, workwear, jorts, etc ) and see a direct correlation with the styles that go in and out of trend is proof that subcultures still have a large impact. Queer culture is another example of a highly impactful subculture that has legitimate aesthetics, shared meaning, art, etc.. Read the NYT article and feel free to let me know what you think in this lonely comment section.

2. NIKE x JACQUEMUS

A simple, effortless, and highly effective piece of marketing. Sure, is the bag kind of unpractical? Yeah but who cares, it’s cool and gets Nike in the minds of the consumer.

3. How Matthew Belloni became the must-read columnist for Hollywood’s executive class.

The newsletter in question, Puck’s What I’m Hearing, with 15,000 paid subscribers (and 35,000 more unpaid ones who can only read snippets), has steadily become the go-to chronicle of Hollywood, a must-read among the entertainment power elite, those who aspire to join its ranks, and many whose livelihood depend on that elite. “They are like religion to me,” says Mark Shapiro, Endeavor’s president, of Belloni’s missives. Published twice a week, What I’m Hearing is a rap sheet chronicling the industry horse race: who’s up, who’s down, what’s happening, what’s being talked about. “You never quite know what Matt’s about to say,” says Brooks Barnes, who covers Hollywood for the New York Times. “I open each newsletter and immediately wonder, ‘Is he going to ruin my day?’”

Read here.

4. PREP IS GOING NOWHERE

while the energy behind quiet luxury begins to stutter, prep appears to be taking the baton. FW24 men’s shows were characterized by a return to clothes everyone can actually wear. “What’s fun about this moment in men’s fashion, and what we saw in Milan and Paris, is ‘wearable’ clothing is becoming much more interesting,” said Sam Hine, talking to SSENSE’s Steff Yotka about the men’s FW24 shows. Therein lies one of prep’s biggest and most timeless attractions: its versatility and wearability. A relaxed seersucker sports coat will always, for the rest of eternity, look good over a knit polo like this Wales Bonner iteration, just like a pair of tailored pants will always drop effortlessly on freshly polished penny loafers. This rings true across menswear and womenswear. With wearability at the top of the agenda for luxury fashion for the foreseeable, bet big on prep.