The Weekly Roundup (week of 9.11)

NYFW has the think-pieces flowing

1. Lost in the Machine

This excellent piece from The Cut is about how the suits and marketing execs at fashion companies are messing up innovation. Part of the reason we see Pharrell as CD at LV (no disrespect to skateboard P but he’s not the next Martin Margiela) and not some young emerging talent is because of short-sighted business decisions to drive sales.

We are actually at that point again, not unlike the disruptive ’90s, when the industry must reckon with the newer beliefs and values if it wants to stay relevant. The question is whether the corporate executives who make many of the decisions about fashion will have the nerve and know-how to spot such a talent and then help bring that individual along. It could change the world again. As things stand, brands are undergoing their own internal changes with more executives coming from other industries, like finance and consumer goods. As one executive said, “People think it’s easy, but, you know, fashion is a strange way.” With new people come different objectives — to open new markets, to grow more efficient, to be better at retail and communications — which could stall design innovation indefinitely. “If fashion were in the business of airplanes, we’d have people dying,” the executive said. “People in the industry think they know what they’re talking about, but sometimes they don’t have a clue.”

Read here.

2. The food industry pays ‘influencer’ dietitians to shape your eating habits

Well, I can’t say I’m totally surprised by this. This is one of the more pernicious and downright evil trends to emerge during the modern age. A lot of these dieticians manipulate people who are already being fed bullshit by delusional “experts” on the internet. This particular article was sparked by a recent study labeling aspartame as a carcinogenic, which is used in most diet sodas. This is part of a larger trend in society and the body positivity movement as a whole that tends to manufacture anti-science answers about the body to remove self-agency and divert blame back onto society, further exacerbated by proclaimed “experts” and academics touting authority. I myself lost 80 pounds and I know how hard it is to struggle with weight and self-esteem issues. It fuckin’ sucks, it’s a daily struggle that affects every waking thought at times. Even after losing all the weight I am scarred with the emotional baggage. That being said, what these dieticians are doing is basically feeding into the lies that are being sold to people around the country all while being bought and paid for by big food corporations. You even have other TikTok influencers bullying others with proclaimed positions of authority. One famous video had a user claiming that she had a bachelor’s in chemistry, a PhD in Cell molecular biology, and did her thesis on metabolism. She then went on to claim that calories in/calories out is a lie, that the “law of thermodynamics” is just a theory, and that because it was discovered in the 1950s, she implied some sort of racist origin. Deflecting blame back onto society and taking away personal accountability is a powerful and intoxicating coping mechanism and unfortunately, misinformation coming out of powerful academic institutions has been completely hijacked and manipulated by larger corporations who don’t care about the societal effects of hiring influencers who then weaponize social justice language to prop up revenue streams. Read here.

3. Bernard Arnault Built a Luxury Empire on ‘Desirability.’ Who Will Inherit It?

The French media is full of headlines comparing the Arnaults to the Roys, the fictional family in the HBO series. There are TikTok videos explaining why the Arnaults are “the real ‘Succession’ family.” The family hates this talk, and takes pains to play down parallels to the show.”

Really fascinating look inside the most powerful family in France. Read here.

4. Who Deserves to Eat at Noma

Jason Stewart of the cult favorite podcast, How Long Gone, wrote a wonderful piece on his experience at the legendary restaurant, Noma. Check it out if you want something light to read.