Discussions about the fashion industry thread

[jah786]

RIP Virgil.

Whether you liked his work or not, he was one of the most influential designers of the past decade. His ideas moved the needle of fashion and popular culture. I loved his products for Ikea. They were controversial, created a lot of discussion, and sold out instantly. I'm not really into sneakers culture, but his vision for Nike classics was so interesting - twisted and tweaked placements of sacred nike branding like the swoosh and he added that brilliant text. He struck me as the Marcel Duchamp of sneakers - were those quotes serious or satire? His unique mind and point of view will be missed.

 

[mhip]

(would be interested in hearing why @mhip added an angry emoji to that comment)

I just can't stand the guy, and I haven't liked anything he's come up with.
That doesn't mean I necessarily disagree with your thesis though.
My anger emoji is that he's had success.

 

[double00]

Come on. Posting this right now after he died is tasteless

*what* is tasteless ? what is the issue exactly ?

 

[London]

This came up before on the forum and I'm surprised by how many people disagreed (would be interested in hearing why @mhip added an angry emoji to that comment). Kanye has helped launch so many careers -- Matthew Williams (now Givenchy), Virgil (LV), and Jerry Lorzeno (FoG and recent collab with Zegna) among them. He also helped start so many trends: Chelsea boots, MA-1 bombers, double riders, overlong shirts, etc. He also predated a lot of this streetwear fashion stuff. If people remember, fashion houses didn't want to work with Kanye because he was too "urban" and just a "rapper." Then he proved that he can move units, and suddenly, lots of flagging fashion brands wanted to have streetwear cred. Not to say that he was solely responsible for the fashion streetwear trend, but he played a huge part in the beginning.

There was a time between late 1990s and about 2010 when rap and streetwear cuture weren't a big part of mainstream fashion. I think it was big in the late 90s, then died down, and then there was the whole Mad Men thing. I remember when the switch happened and Rocky and Kanye started to play more of an influence. And now it's just normal -- Travis collabs with McDonalds and Dior.

Heron Preston was another and an army of creatives came out of his camp. Kanye had early sneaker collaborations with Louis Vuitton. That never happened before. He was a bridge between backpack and mainstream rap and he took that same energy to bridge streetwear and luxury in the current era, but the pioneer of that was Willie Smith. He was bridging street and high fashion and doing limited edition collaborations in the 80’s with artists and graffiti artists way before the Japanese, Stussy and Supreme.

 

[clee1982]

will smith as in when was still a rapper? How long ago would have that been…

 

[London]

will smith as in when was still a rapper? How long ago would have that been…

My point is that the Streetwear high fashion thing ain’t new. Kanye was a catalyst of the latest version.

 

[zissou]

*what* is tasteless ? what is the issue exactly ?

Are you asking this question as a rebuttal, or do you actually want to understand @London 's perspective?

 

[double00]

i can do this via pm . no prob .

what is the issue ?

 

[London]

will smith as in when was still a rapper? How long ago would have that been…

Willie Smith was a designer not a rapper

 

[clee1982]

Ok before my time I had no idea who that is before googling…

 

[dieworkwear]

I think if you were to list the top three most influential men's style figures in the last 15 years, kanye would be number one, followed by mafoofan and voxsartoria.

 

[Zamb]

whatever ones thinks about him, he worked his way up to the highest heights of fashion and accomplished a lot.

If one wants to know how immense his influence was, consider that Ghesquire is artistic director of Womenswear at LV, coming from literally rebuilding BALENCIAGA and at times was regarded as possibly the most important designer, at the height of guys like Theyskens, Mcqueen, Galliano, Chalayan, Marc Jacobs etc. the attention Virgil brought to LV as its menswear artistic director, far outweighed that of Ghesquire.

Today when I heard of his passing, my thoughts were towards his children, his wife, his parents and his family who lost a man who was relatively young at time when they need him most.
LV will continue without him, but his family must figure out a way to move forward, especially his young children without a father...........

May God grant them peace and comfort at this rough time

 

[Zamb]

This came up before on the forum and I'm surprised by how many people disagreed (would be interested in hearing why @mhip added an angry emoji to that comment). Kanye has helped launch so many careers -- Matthew Williams (now Givenchy), Virgil (LV), and Jerry Lorzeno (FoG and recent collab with Zegna) among them. He also helped start so many trends: Chelsea boots, MA-1 bombers, double riders, overlong shirts, etc. He also predated a lot of this streetwear fashion stuff. If people remember, fashion houses didn't want to work with Kanye because he was too "urban" and just a "rapper." Then he proved that he can move units, and suddenly, lots of flagging fashion brands wanted to have streetwear cred. Not to say that he was solely responsible for the fashion streetwear trend, but he played a huge part in the beginning.

There was a time between late 1990s and about 2010 when rap and streetwear cuture weren't a big part of mainstream fashion. I think it was big in the late 90s, then died down, and then there was the whole Mad Men thing. I remember when the switch happened and Rocky and Kanye started to play more of an influence. And now it's just normal -- Travis collabs with McDonalds and Dior.

while I agree with some of what you said, I dont know if my personal bias clouds my thoughts
Yes streetwear became high fashion, and it opened the door for Kanye West to become an influential figure, but it terms of menswear in the last 15 or so years, I think Thom Browne and Raf Simons (Raf especially with his take on streetwear) should be considered more influential in the menswear sphere than Kanye
the BIGGEST most influential personality in all this may be Hedi Slimane.
Slimanes Work at YSL (first go round) and then Dior far outweighs anything that came after, up to even now.


there are a number of things that took place that made people like Kanye and Virgil incredibly relevant. the rise of Instagram/ Facebook and streetstyle. the fact that they did other things and had/ has the ability to keep their audience engages and interested in what they do, even if the actual content/ product/ project is meh.........

 

[zissou]

i can do this via pm . no prob .

what is the issue ?

Son, when someone dies, the tasteful thing to do is say something nice. Or, at very least nothing at all.

 

[dieworkwear]

while I agree with some of what you said, I dont know if my personal bias clouds my thoughts
Yes streetwear became high fashion, and it opened the door for Kanye West to become an influential figure, but it terms of menswear in the last 15 or so years, I think Thom Browne and Raf Simons (Raf especially with his take on streetwear) should be considered more influential in the menswear sphere than Kanye
the BIGGEST most influential personality in all this may be Hedi Slimane.
Slimanes Work at YSL (first go round) and then Dior far outweighs anything that came after, up to even now.


there are a number of things that took place that made people like Kanye and Virgil incredibly relevant. the rise of Instagram/ Facebook and streetstyle. the fact that they did other things and had/ has the ability to keep their audience engages and interested in what they do, even if the actual content/ product/ project is meh.........

I think of Raf and Thom Browne as falling just a little outside of that 15-year time frame. I remember when Thom Browne first started his brand in 2001 and thinking that his cropped suit look was a bit odd. Then it quickly caught on and came along with a bunch of other preppy-with-a-twist brands such as Band of Outsiders, who similarly sold shrunken clothes. By 2006, he won a CFDA award and then was appointed to Brooks Brothers' Black Fleece. But the line didn't do well and his rise came before 2006, peaking around 2010, and then slowly waning. I also think of Raf's moment as being late 90s.

By contrast, Kanye's fashion influence rose along with his music career, and the last fifteen years have really been amazing for him. College Dropout and Late Registration fall just outside of our timeframe (2004 and 2005, respectively). But in the last 15 years, he's put out Graduation (2007), 808s and Heartbreak (2008), My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010 and when his fashion career really started to take off. 2009 is when he collaborated with Louis Vuitton and Nike), Watch the Throne (2011, another banger), Yeezus (2013 and shortly after, signed a contract with Adidas. IMO, he made Adidas relevant again), The Life of Pablo (2016), Ye (2018, and IMO the start of his downfall), Jesus is King (2019), and then Donda (2021, and now with The Gap).

I don't know if Kanye's influence will ever be as big as it was in 2010 or so, but I think of the last 15 years as being Kanye's moment, whereas I think of pre-2006 as being Raf and Browne. Plus, on topic with Virgil's passing, Kanye helped a lot of influential people's careers.

I agree about Hedi, however. When I walk around San Francisco, I don't see that many examples of Raf and Browne's influences. But I see a lot of people dressing like Kanye. Second to that, at least from what I've seen, are people who are clearly just wearing whatever Hedi makes.