The Weekly Roundup (week of 8.14)

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1. When you know your diet, it's easy to pick your meals

A fun interview with one of the most prominent players in the sneaker industry. They talk about some of Salehe’s most treasured possessions, inspiration, and the overall creative process of design. Check it out.

2. Throwing Fits: Aminé

Another great interview from Throwing Fits. “Aminé came through to spit bars on people pronouncing his name wrong then immediately asking for a favor, getting arrested in Mexico while tripping balls, how to fire your assistant, his upcoming New Balance collab and why he picked the 610 plus a myriad of bells and whistles” and a lot lot more.

3. We Don’t Need a New Twitter

Good article in the New Yorker about the whole Twitter vs Threads debacle. The basic gist is that yeah Threads failed and is super boring, but Twitter makes people post rage bait to drive engagement. Therefore the most authentic human connections can only happen on niche small websites that group like-minded people together. The overall argument is that maybe a “digital town square” is overrated because the juiciest, most entertaining content that incentivizes people to spend more time on the app will inevitably be rage bait. “If it bleeds, it leads”, but in the case of the digital town square: “If it fills me with rage, I will engage”

4. Inside Pharrell's World at Louis Vuitton—and the New Era of Fashion He's Leading

“In light of these developments, Pharrell’s appointment seemed like the logical next step in the quickening union between fashion and celebrity culture. This was the point made at the time by cynics who suggested that the job amounted to a kind of vanity role for Pharrell and a marketing ploy for the brand. But the true scope of Louis Vuitton’s bet on Pharrell is grander than we could have realized back when it was first announced.

I wanted to know, on that afternoon in Virginia, how Pharrell was faring under the expectations of the new job. He was toiling on what would become his first collection—which he’d later unveil in dramatic fashion in Paris in June—and over those intervening months, I went on a kind of journey with Pharrell. From his hometown in Virginia Beach, to his new home in Paris, and across several intimate conversations in his studio and showroom, I was permitted to see what he was cooking up. More than that, though, I began to understand how it is that Pharrell is driving a paradigm shift, not just in the business of designing and selling luxury goods but in the whole wild, symbiotic swirl of pop culture and fashion.”

A glowing puff piece lacking any consideration for the criticism surrounding his appointment as CD but interesting nonetheless. Read here.