The Weekly Roundup (week of 6.19)

SSENSE is fuckin the game up!

1. Is SSENSE hurting the cool-clothes ecosystem?

This is a really interesting, well-written deep dive into the massive but somewhat mysterious juggernaut that is SSENSE. We all shop there, we all love their deep sales, and honestly, I check their website damn near every day but how are they impacting the industry? Turns out that selling people’s clothes at a discount all the time has some pretty big negative downstream effects. They are essentially the Amazon of fashion. Read this extensive and illuminating report here.

2. The Zoomer Question

By all accounts, millennials and zoomers are the product of a quite recent departure from the norms of self-rule, both at home and at school. This is much more a retreat from the demands of civilization than a pacification of the residual barbarian in us. (Twenge has since substituted “dignity” for “honor.”)

Learned helplessness must first be taught, and the consequences for the American polity have been grave. As Tanner Greer has written, “in the 21st century, the main question in American social life is not ‘how do we make that happen?’ but ‘how do we get management to take our side?’” The resulting failure of American institutions to produce inte­grated adults—let alone address the root causes of mental illness and social decay—is finally being acknowledged, if only elliptically, by mainstream opinion as the therapeutic system grows in power; Haidt’s Coddling is the most obvious example. But the discussion of zoomer dysfunction, even as it intensifies, rarely moves from the question of increased or, at best, improved therapeutic interventions to the deeper question of social organization and the renewal of national life. Remedi­al support for anxious children, though necessary, is not enough to reconstruct an institutional imperative toward true education and the development of children’s latent capacities.

This is a long article, however, I found it to be deeply deeply moving. There is a lot going wrong with my generation and the generations that are to follow. We are plagued with record levels of depressive symptoms, mental illness, chronic illness, obesity, etc and to top it all off, our institutions and inept government are rapidly degrading by the day. Eventually, we’re going to have to step up to the plate to fix all of the problems we’ve inherited. Read here and listen to the new episode of Red Scare if you wanna hear the ladies dissect it.

3. Pharrell on His Monumental Louis Vuitton Debut: "I'm the Ruler of This Position"

Pharell Williams finally debuted his long-awaited menswear collection in Paris. Read about what inspired the show and this collection here. As for my opinion… I’m sort of ambivalent, can’t say it was super inspiring or noteworthy, to be honest, but Louis Vuitton will always continue to capture my attention which is really all that matters isn’t it?

4. Lemaire SS24 Is the Perfect Amalgamation of Functionality and Class

Just a beautiful fuckin collection. Nothing else. No fancy show or celebs to drive engagement, just really well-made gorgeous shit. I love this brand, if they’re not on your radar and you need some fine-tailored garments, check out Lemaire and peep their full SS24 collection here.