Looks like for $12.99 I could take the street-wear world by storm and call myself a ‘fashion designer’. Well, maybe start with London, first.
Welcome to the first entry of any real pondering. There are a lot of brands out there, I mean, a hipster could put together an outfit of 8 or 9 different items and each one be from a different brand – let’s not even start on the label count in the wardrobe. In some light, we’re spoilt for choice – but the counter point resembles the proverb about the cooks and the broth, you know the one. However, power to those brands, and their CEOs etc. (not all the brands of course, some are straight salty garbage) for making those moves and getting to where they are.
It’s weird because I feel that a lot of my knowledge lies within what is regarded as ‘higher fashion’, ever since I was really young I was always intrigued by brands like Chanel, LV, Gucci and the likes, because that side of the industry just poured opulence into my perception. Coming up though, I met who I met, and they took me where they took me, and I began with the cool-kids, so to speak. The streetwear, the crewnecks, the t-shirt culture, the appreciation of a Michael Jordan shoe even if it looked like a coffee machine from 1994…that’s what I got into, and that’s that. I noticed how many of the people I met had an ‘idea’ for a fashion brand, either individually or collectively.
It was inspiring, I’ve always wanted to “do” fashion – be involved in some way – even considering the journalism and/or management aspects of the industry. And right before me, talking with a free Heineken in their hand outside of London’s premier streetwear outlets, after-hours at some event or release party, there were people going back and forth casually about starting up a label. There was obviously even a period for me where I’d be volleying with friends of mine about concepts and ideas – do you know how many times me and Brey were supposed to ‘release this tee’?? And what about me and Loolie starting up? It was all just entertaining fodder. But as soon as I started to take it seriously, I realised how over-saturated and seemingly easy everything was. Whenever someone would forward a new brand to me, it’d be a ‘roll of the eyes, sigh and disregard’ moment. I also realised I couldn’t put on paper an impressive logo or graphic imprint for shit…so I focused on the silhouettes of garments, the fit, the material…and this is where I lost a lot of adoration for the ‘street’ market.
Now, I daren’t say it’s effortless and not worthy of accolade to start/run a newborn street-wear brand – I know (personally) that there are people out there putting a lot of their time into it, and they’re destined for it. I mean take, for example, A Bathing Ape & Supreme. Both ‘street-wear’ brands in the eyes of the majority – they made it because of the quality and cultural imprint that the owners and curators emit…the ethos of the brand is on-point and appealed to hundreds of thousands of people.
If you ask Nigo though, if he’s a ‘fashion designer’ – I reckon you’d get hit with a blunt ‘no’. It’s a label too often self-adorned on some young creative-type who flipped a well known logo, ordered blanks from the American Apparel wholesale service, printed – and hey presto! A tee worthy of some independant clothing store’s top shelf. Monsieur Saint Laurent would be turning in his grave, no? It just irks me. A lot. Where was the ‘fashion designer’ in play there? When was material, fit and cut taken into account? The new name for that is ‘quitegoodgraphicdesignerwhoknowshowtodoasilkscreentransfer’. For those who do it well (c. Nigo), ‘brand curators’.
I still persue a career in menswear, I will continue to do so – but being so young, it’s hard to know where to go from here, since all my connects etc. are embedded in the scene that I want no creative affiliation with (speaking with reservations on my own projects and aspirations). I suppose it doesn’t make it any easier that I didn’t finish school, either. Might be time to go back unless I’m handed a life-line…
2009 will see several things come to fruition from me, and whoever hops on the spaceship along the way, but you won’t see me flip a logo from an alcohol bottle and apply it to some poorly produced blank.
………………..I never said they were going to be short posts, and I never said they were great, but that was fun. I don’t even think much of it makes sense right now…but I’m sure as hell not deleting it. ‘Til next time…
