Business of fashion

Trend report: What to wear for SS23



WWD backstage at Jil Sander SS23

Let’s say it now, there’s not a lot of newness around at the mo. The world’s in flux, designers are scared for their jobs, no one’s taking risks and the big brands especially just wanna sell. Who can blame them? BOF’s Angelo Flaccavento was maybe a bit harsh with his ‘clothes to die from not for’ (lol) summing up of MFW SS23, but he had a point. It’s a commercial season, so let’s just get that out of the way. Honestly, I’m not sad about the black-everything revival, I can’t complain about the loafer love-fest and as a New Luddite, it’s great to see women’s watches in the spotlight. Read on for my round-up of what I’ll be wearing and doing this season… (more…)



The culture of fashion: AKILA x Keith Haring eyewear



AKILA x Keith Haring eyewear Paradise red

What’s the deal with all the Keith Haring collabs? The FT has the answer to all my questions here (pay wall), looking at the legacy of Keith Haring as an activist and accessible artist who coined the phrase “art is for everybody”. The company responsible for the never-ending list of collabs (Uniqlo, Primark, Junya Watanabe and Coach among them) is Artestar. The licensing agency also represents photographers, designers and creatives, and its success highlights the merchification of culture in the modern age.

But this latest Haring collab isn’t just a print slapped onto a tee. (more…)



Into this: Air Mail’s new beauty beat



Air Mail look - Barbara Sturm profile

“They bled in velvet-tufted hotel suites and town-house living rooms. They bled in conference rooms at Condé Nast and Net-a-Porter. They bled at the bar of the now- defunct Cafe Clover in New York’s West Village neighborhood while the scents of lavender waffles and quinoa pancakes collided in the air for one of the brand’s earliest recorded press events, in 2016. I didn’t get to go, but my boss at the time did. She returned to the office a few fluid ounces lighter, painted with a newfound glow. Not the glow that could, in theory, be delivered by the blood’s own healing proteins when applied topically to the skin—her blood cream would arrive a week later—but the incandescence of somebody recently exposed to an intense source of light. She had met Barbara, and she had fallen in love. The doctor’s charisma had seared her to the bone.” (more…)



Quote of the day: Emma Chamberlain



Emma Chamberlain Louis Vuitton - Paper magazine

“There’s definitely a formula for getting views. It’s something extreme, something eye-catching. I used to play into that a lot more, and that started to feel inorganic. The formula for growing at an exponential rate — it’s kind of always remained the same. It’s click-baity.”

YouTube sensation Emma Chamberlain, New York Times (no paywall) (more…)