As noted on The Hundreds’ site: Someone has started Don’t Believe The Hypebeast, and it’s pretty amusing. Early reports on the (streetwear-scene-satirizing) site include aNYthing being sold at Wal Mart “alongside other premium Walmart labels such as Wrangler, Nascar and Starter,” and a Lupe Fiasco collaboration with Maharishi and Lenscrafters. Also this: “Chuck Taylor has been tapped by Converse to create his own footwear. Ever since the announcement of this almost unfathomable collaboration, the ‘streetwear’ message boards have been on fire.”
Update (Aug.23): Streetwearing Your Way To Success — “Good luck and make sure you send us some promo tees when you get that feature in the NY Times.”
When I saw this “Stop Rockin’ Fake Shit” T, created by a Georgia-based brand called Prestigious, written up by Freshness, I was immediately interested in what Susan Scafidi would think about it. Her current project is a web site (and book in progress) called Counterfeit Chic, and it’s “about the culture of the copy within the multi-billion dollar global clothing and textile industry,” her site’s Introduction explains. “It’s about New York’s Canal Street and Beijing’s Silk Alley, but also about the cognitive and sociological reasons that make us want to buy or reject knock-offs in the first place.” Generally knockoffs are thought of as a luxe-world issue, but it’s a topic in the brand underground as well, albeit with some different spins. Whether these T’s actually get much consumer traction or not, they do express a particular point of view on conterfeits that’s worth considering. Prof. Scafidi graciously agreed to answer a few questions.
Q. In the luxe world, the fight against counterfeiters seems to play out in the form of legal and/or legislative moves, which tend to be focused more on producers than on consumers, right?
A. That’s right – we haven’t seen a grassroots “Save the Vuitton” movement or (role) models proclaiming, “I’d rather go naked than wear fakes.” Most anti-counterfeiting efforts have been pursued through the courts or through law enforcement efforts. But a quick tourist travel advisory: in France and Italy, consumers can face steep fines for purchasing fakes. Also, bringing counterfeits back into the U.S. is prohibited.
Read more
The other day I noted Target’s couture line, which is not actually available at Target. Since then, there have been a couple of interesting bits of news about America’s trendiest big-box retailer.
Notcot recounts a visit to the Target pop-up store on Melrose and La Cienega. What’s on sale there, through the end of August, is the current round of a Target series called “Go International,” which is basically collaborations with cool (or whatever) fashion designers. This time it’s Paul & Joe, a brand you can learn about at Target’s site, if you want to. Of the store/collection, Notcot says: “It is VERY impressive in presentation and packaging AND the collection was as cheap as they claim, and better quality than i expected.”
Meanwhile, Giant Robot publisher and co-editor Eric Nakamura, on his new-ish blog, offers up some pictures of items in Target’s new “‘alternative’ indie type of line, called Independent Studies.” Evan Hecox notebooks and Deanne Cheuk plates are included. Some of the stuff in this line is apparently limited edition, according to Nakmura, who adds: “While you’re at Target, get an Icee. They’re still pretty good.”
The “brand underground” story got a number of interesting reactions, ranging (predictably) from those who thought the piece was too adulatory, and those who found it too critical. The criticisms I got by email and in the comments to last week’s posting of the story on this site leaned slightly toward the “too adulatory.” Criticisms on blogs leaned a bit the other way. Obviously those who liked the story said similar things whatever by whatever means. For what it’s worth, the three main subjects of the story all seemed to think they were treated fairly, which undercuts the theory the theory that I was dismissive of them, but could be taken as evidence in support of the theory that I gave them too much hype.
Anyway, here’s a representation of what my (vanity-driven?) search for online feedback yielded.
Con: Coutorture says I’m old and un-nuanced and meandering and I just don’t get it; full-on attack by TrendyNation for allegedly being too critical and dismissive; Acronym says outsiders, contrary to what I suggest, do in fact define subcultures (or brands, which Acronym I gather sees as being the same thing as subcultures).
Pro: Thoughtful response from Heyblog; kind words from Business Week’s Jon Fine, and from Freshness; high five from Vulture Droppings for admitting that I’m not in the target demo.
I’m not sure, but interesting: PSFK says (in contrast to the above complaints that the story didn’t take the brand undergrounders seriously enough), that my take was “too romantic” (but adds that the story overall is consistent with things that other people have already said); Owlspotting examines the issues by way of a recently-received T-shirt; Pretty Goes with Pretty says “It’s a metacritical Hyperconsumerist World; We Live in It.” The always-interesting Marginal Utility wonders if “the next culture ‘war’ may be between the cool types Walker profiles who are obsessed with their own identity and measuring their own impact on the world … and the people who reject that kind of significance and atttempt a kind of anonymity that will feel more and more like freedom.”
Each category above represents a sampling, not every single relevant post. I appreciate all opinions and feedback. I don’t particularly appreciate the various blogs that simply re-published the piece in its entirety without asking. Whatever. Anyway, since the Times version many people linked to is now behind a firewall, I’ve just put the full story on this site.
August 13 Update: The NYT Mag has a sampling of letters about the article in today’s issue.
[Since the version of this story many people have linked to is behind a firewall now, here it is in full. By Rob Walker, from July 30, 2006, issue of New York Times Magazine:]
Aaron Bondaroff is 29, part Puerto Rican, part Jewish, Brooklyn-born and a high-school dropout. His life weaves through the most elusive subcultures of lower Manhattan. A-Ron, as he is also known, is one of those individuals who embodies a scene. “I’m so downtown,” Bondaroff is fond of saying, “I don’t go above Delancey.”
Even so, he longs for something bigger, like the cultural noise made by the Beats in the 1950’s or Andy Warhol’s Factory in the 1960’s or the bands and fans who clustered around CBGB’s in the 1970’s. He wants to “make history” and join “the time line” of New York. He is not an artist, an author, a designer, musician, filmmaker or even a famous skateboarder or graffiti writer. So in another era, Bondaroff might have had to settle for his cameos in some of the acclaimed images of youthful outsider debauchery captured by his photographer friend Ryan McGinley. He could be, in other words, a counterculture muse, like Neal Cassady or Edie Sedgwick.
In our present era, however, he may not have to settle. There’s a new alternative, one that’s neatly summed up in a question that A-Ron has been asking himself lately: “How do I turn my lifestyle into a business?”
The answer he came up with is worth paying attention to because it speaks to a significant but little-noted development in contemporary culture. Read more
A few weeks ago we rented The Great Rock N Roll Swindle, which I’d never actually seen, or had seen so long ago that I had basically no memory of it.
I was working on the “brand underground” story at the time, and I think maybe because of that I noticed these T shirts in one particularly absurd scene. Given the context of the movie, I assume they’re fake, and meant as satirical. But who knows? Anyway, I think somebody should make these now.
Incredibly bad movie, by the by, but some of the live-performance clips are amazing.
In addition to Consumed, this week’s Times Magazine includes my look at the “brand underground.” Here’s a no registration required link, although it’s a rather long piece to read online.
Here are some additional links related to the story. First, the three main example brands are The Hundreds, Barking Irons, and aNYthing. Also mentioned are Futura and Stash, I think the best link to give for them is the Recon Store site. My thanks to all of these folks for the time and patience.
Two of the blogs I mention are HypeBeast and Slam X Hype. If you’re curious about the parenthetical mentions: here are links related to Neckface and Mister Cartoon. If you’re curious about something else in the story that you’d like me to link to, just say so.
I was really pleased with the idea to have a T-shirt created by Kevin Lyons for the cover shot. I think this is his site. Here are some examples of his art. Here is a T-shirt of his, and some coasters, via Arkitip.
[Supreme]
The relationship between high fashion and street wear goes back a long way. In a recent book called “The Essence of Style,” by Joan DeJean, there is an anecdote from the spring of 1677, when “an inexpensive gray serge cloth” worn by Parisian shopgirls was adapted by “ladies of the court” who liked the fabric’s look and incorporated it into their elegant wardrobes. This is how it has seemed to work ever since — right up through the archetypal example of the “grunge” style associated with the Seattle music scene appearing on the runways, courtesy of the designer Marc Jacobs (then working for Perry Ellis) in the early 1990’s. In other words, the streets are raided for ideas and inspiration that get reworked in a couture context — “the aura of wealth and luxury,” as DeJean wrote of the 17th-century version of the high-low mash-up.
All of this implies tension between street populism and couture exclusivity. But in the last few years, as some sneaker shops have come to resemble highfalutin art galleries, it has been a little less clear who is borrowing what from whom. Consider, for example, Supreme. Read more
[Levi’s / Alife Custom 501’s]
Levi’s is up there with Coca-Cola and Nike as a company people refer to when they want to make a point about how pervasive a brand can be. So it’s worth wondering what this household name is up to in deciding, after more than 150 years of existence, to forge its first-ever co-brand, the limited edition Levi’s alife Custom 501’s. There will be just 501 pairs, each in one of five colors, priced at $165 and available at exactly one store — which itself will exist for just one month.
The 501 is so iconic it’s hard to know what could be left to say about it. But what is alife? If Levi’s is a quintessential mass brand, alife could be thought of as an emblematic mini-brand. This is a distinct category: instead of being known by everybody, the mini-brand is known to a very specific and even rarefied group of somebodies — somebodies who are seen (by marketers, at least) as cultural connoisseurs, with forward-thinking tastes and an influence far out of proportion to their numbers. These are consumers open to the idea that certain products — even workaday items like jeans and sneakers — can be much, much more than a commodity. This group matters to Levi’s because it has struggled in recent years to stave off trendy new competitors like Diesel and the Gap. So when the Levi’s alife 501 Concept Exhibit opens in Manhattan on Sept. 11, with a big party, in the middle of Fashion Week, what it will really be selling, aside from a few hundred pairs of jeans, is Levi’s’ cultural relevance.
Read more
Posted Under:
Brand Underground,
Consumed
This post was written by Rob Walker on September 5, 2004
Comments Off on Archival Consumed: Alife X Levi’s
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