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Discussions about the fashion industry thread

LA Guy

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This was my impression reading about Outdoor Voices CEO Tyler Haney. She more or less described herself as not taking problems seriously. How can you expect to solve them?

I think a lot of the problem is just venture funding hopping on the hype train. What's hot? Tech companies? Throw money at a bunch of people who say the right lingo in the right order. Women CEOs are the next wave? This one has an established personal brand!

I'm not saying any of these people are an Elisabeth Holmes-level con (definitely a number of the tech bros come much closer to her than women in fashion), but there once was a time when you had to start the company first, then get the financing.



This reminds me so much of this clip. I don't know if this is a familiar script outside the PNW but it's so painfully spot on whenever you go to anything artsy out here. It is always, always, a white lady. I have never heard a First Nation's person say these words, or ask for someone else to.

So much of this acknowledging we have to do better is just an ego salve for the cognitive dissonance of people who want to be the hero of their own story but don't want to do the damn work.

Gonna pour one out for AR, damn.


I think that it cannot be over-emphasized that a lot of these people are not particularly intelligent or insightful or self-aware. They got lucky, and they ran with it. There is no issue with that. I have never read anything about Medine Cohen r in Man Repeller that suggested to me that she had anything higher than a liberal Cosmo level of insight. She never deserved hero status, and so it should come as no surprise when she failed to live up to unrealistic expectations by others who, frankly, are also not that smart. There are a lot of women who are remarkable and impressive. Most of them just don't happen to work in fashion or fashion media.

To betray my own political inclinations for a moment, I'm going to say that Stacey Arams is just an impressive person, I don't think that there is a Stacey Abrams fashion blog.
 

peachfuzzmcgee

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I'm less cynical about it, I have worked at two very large financial institution, neither are Saint, but one definitely had far superior culture and it shows (working mom/hiring non targeted school/minority, women in higher ups etc.)

edit: and the one with superior culture at least also had superior profit (I wouldn't go as far as saying it actually drive the profit, because I doubt I can quantify that)..., and as far as my working experience goes, better, more dedicated staff

I'm not saying that all places are the same, more so that people project a lot of hopes and wishes on some of these outwardly progressive looking companies.

For example, the corporate place I worked at had far more inclusion, better benefits, and more actionable plans because they already worked on a relatively rigid framework/plan vs the more artsy progressive place was a lot more messy with a lot more things being run by emotions and on the spot ideas which sometimes left people behind.

Sometimes the corpo place can be way less toxic than the progressive sounding place and vice versa. Then again I work in high end hotels, so every industry is different.
 

blacklight

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While I’m certainly open to being wrong, my impression is that lot of these people were simply not temperamentally suited nor trained to run companies. Had the companies gotten larger, the board of directors would simply have removed them from the CEO role, but they simply never got to that stage.

One of my jobs in college was at a very well-known magazine. It took all of two days to figure that most of these "creative"/new media companies are less plausible businesses than cliques with a payroll, their founders being little more than walking lifestyle brands. Dumb as rocks, but aspirationally attractive in a way that assigns their tastes far more importance than perhaps they should have. This, of course, dovetails perfectly with influencer culture. 40 years ago Bourdieu had prophetic insight when he called new media the dumping ground for mediocre rich kids. I still think he is right.
 
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#dadcore

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I think that it cannot be over-emphasized that a lot of these people are not particularly intelligent or insightful or self-aware. They got lucky, and they ran with it.
This is true of most successful executives, too. Not sure it can be a reliable discriminator for winners vs losers in the business world
 

cb200

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40 years ago Bourdieu had prophetic insight when he called new media the dumping ground for mediocre rich kids. I still think he is right.

Unpaid internships in creative industries as a necessary gateway for consideration of legitimacy is / was limiting to voices and perspectives to those who can afford to work for free.
 

dieworkwear

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Dumb as rocks, but aspirationally attractive in a way that assigns their tastes far more importance than perhaps they should have. This, of course, dovetails perfectly with influencer culture. 40 years ago Bourdieu had prophetic insight when he called new media the dumping ground for mediocre rich kids. I still think he is right.

they dont know.jpeg
 

Epaulet

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I think that it cannot be over-emphasized that a lot of these people are not particularly intelligent or insightful or self-aware. They got lucky, and they ran with it. There is no issue with that. I have never read anything about Medine Cohen r in Man Repeller that suggested to me that she had anything higher than a liberal Cosmo level of insight. She never deserved hero status, and so it should come as no surprise when she failed to live up to unrealistic expectations by others who, frankly, are also not that smart. There are a lot of women who are remarkable and impressive. Most of them just don't happen to work in fashion or fashion media.

To betray my own political inclinations for a moment, I'm going to say that Stacey Arams is just an impressive person, I don't think that there is a Stacey Abrams fashion blog.

Eh, I can't agree with that. I lived in Brooklyn during the heyday of Man Repeller, and Medine Cohen was basically the Kanye West (style-wise only, of course) to countless New York women in their 20s and 30s. I think that she recognized a clothing movement in the early days and literally drove that movement later in her career. When my Brooklyn store sold womenswear, I heard that blog and her name dropped countless times. As the look for women morphed from "Sex and The City" to "Girls," she was on the front lines of that. I think she was very insightful and exceptionally self-aware. I'd say she's intelligent too, but this is the fashion industry... people are only "so" intelligent if you know what I mean. It's a job that rewards hustle and savvy over lots of formal education.

I definitely admire her and I admire what she did. At the end of the day, maybe she wasn't cut out to lead a really big team. Maybe she just got burnt out and disinterested.

EDIT: wow, I just looked at the site and this is her last post:

"As of Friday, October 23, 2020, Repeller is closed. The site will no longer publish new stories but the archive will remain available to access. Thank you to everyone who has contributed their talent and effort to this brand.
And thank you, the audience, for having chosen to spend time here.
I wish you all the very best."


I think we can chalk this one up to burn out. I think that a children's lemonade stand could do a better job of a heartfelt goodbye than that. She's over it.
 
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Zamb

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Damn, abasi is gone? Was going to commission something with them, explains why I never got a response to my inquiry.
Yes, and several other brands too that I won’t name as it isn’t my story to tell. But it’s not a good time for a lot of small brands.
I’m friends with Abdul and knew this for months but just keep quiet.
Even my own brand, business is down more than 60% of what it was last year. With people not going out much and not traveling I can understand. It’s a tough time and a lot of people who could have been helped with PPP, EIDL loans and other things seem to not get any.

Cushnie said in an article that she tried to secure additional investment, but was told by everyone that they wanted to wait until after the pandemic
 

LA Guy

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Eh, I can't agree with that. I lived in Brooklyn during the heyday of Man Repeller, and Medine Cohen was basically the Kanye West (style-wise only, of course) to countless New York women in their 20s and 30s. I think that she recognized a clothing movement in the early days and literally drove that movement later in her career. When my Brooklyn store sold womenswear, I heard that blog and her name dropped countless times. As the look for women morphed from "Sex and The City" to "Girls," she was on the front lines of that. I think she was very insightful and exceptionally self-aware. I'd say she's intelligent too, but this is the fashion industry... people are only "so" intelligent if you know what I mean. It's a job that rewards hustle and savvy over lots of formal education.

I definitely admire her and I admire what she did. At the end of the day, maybe she wasn't cut out to lead a really big team. Maybe she just got burnt out and disinterested.

People outside of academia overestimate the value of analytical abilities, and underestimate the value of "savvy and hustle" in success in academia. A PhD is simply an invitation to the party, and a PhD from a top tier university is the equivalent of living in the New York fashion ecosphere vs., say, Clieveland. As I've pointed out elsewhere, academia, famously known for "smart" people, is only loosely a meritocracy. That said, I'd say that the mean intelligence, in terms of cognitive ability, in academia is considerably higher relative to the rest of the population.

I would not say that that is the case for fashion and fashion media.

My impression from reading ManRepeller was that she caught the zeitgeist, and became emblematic of the shift from Sex in the City to Girls, but I never saw anything particularly in her writing that was not already being discussed. I'm sure that she contributed something to the conversation, but my reading is that she was better at articulating what was already there in the ether, rather than forwarding any really new ideas.

I would love to see a lot more scholarship in fashion and fashion media, but that will take some time. There simply is not a critical mass of scholars interested in fashion right now.
 

sushijerk

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I really liked some of Abasi'as designs, but I do wish that instead of just taking functional garments (an outdoor vest) and adding really greast cutting and tailoring materials, they had aksi kept some form of performance.

Just as an example - I love my shawl colar vest, but because they made it in beautiful flannel instead of nylon ripstop, but also did not add things like taping at the shoulder hole, the damn thing snagged and tore on its second wear. I would have bought a lot more the stuff had kept a bit more performance. I don't expexct to use it to summit Denali, nut it would be nice if it retained more of it's original functionality. That's one of the reasons that Battenwear worked for me, though I understand that that is different concept altogether. Also why early Engineered Garments worked for me, but much less so in later years.
I actually like the design of the Abasi aviator jacket a lot and was waiting for them to do it in a more functional fabric. The last two iterations were in a tassel fabric and a suiting wool which were both too delicate for my taste. Sad to see them go. I enjoy the pieces I do have and they seem like nice guys.
 

Zamb

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I think that it cannot be over-emphasized that a lot of these people are not particularly intelligent or insightful or self-aware. They got lucky, and they ran with it. There is no issue with that. I have never read anything about Medine Cohen r in Man Repeller that suggested to me that she had anything higher than a liberal Cosmo level of insight. She never deserved hero status, and so it should come as no surprise when she failed to live up to unrealistic expectations by others who, frankly, are also not that smart. There are a lot of women who are remarkable and impressive. Most of them just don't happen to work in fashion or fashion media.

To betray my own political inclinations for a moment, I'm going to say that Stacey Arams is just an impressive person, I don't think that there is a Stacey Abrams fashion blog.
Sometimes connections, PR and the hat one has to say dovetails perfectly with the times....and when that happens it can like a magic carpet takes one to hero status
 

dieworkwear

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I think there's a lot of smart fashion writing, but the point of Man Repeller isn't to give you some smart analytical take on gender identity and clothing. It's a fun, whimsical blog designed to give you style inspiration. I don't think that necessarily means the person behind the site has to be dumb. People can compartmentalize themselves for different roles in their life. And people can consume "dumb" things and still be smart.

There's good, analytical, and even scholarly fashion writing out there. A lot of it is just dry and boring, and not very interesting to people outside that field.
 

Zamb

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I think there's a lot of smart fashion writing, but the point of Man Repeller isn't to give you some smart analytical take on gender identity and clothing. It's a fun, whimsical blog designed to give you style inspiration. I don't think that necessarily means the person behind the site has to be dumb. People can compartmentalize themselves for different roles in their life. And people can consume "dumb" things and still be smart.

There's good, analytical, and even scholarly fashion writing out there. A lot of it is just dry and boring, and not very interesting to people outside that field.
The kind of writing FOK is asking for often does not work well in fashion. Fashion people have a tendency to see critical analysis and someone being overly smart as “taking themselves too seriously”
 

jah786

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Just read the full Man Repeller piece and I continue to think Rachel Tashjian is GQ's best contributor. It sounds like the Man Repeller business, like pretty much every media co, was seriously wounded by the impact of Covid and cut budgets from brands. With the social/political complications of this year on top of the blow back from people she was getting - likely earned and somewhat thrust upon her by expectations of her market - on top of this **** sandwich of a year with suddenly dead revenue? Don't blame her for saying, "why bother?" It was her ball. She can take it go home, and have a nap if she wants.

I agree, I think Rachel Tashjian is GQ's best contributor for this kind of journalism about the industry. I also like that GQ posted something about women's wear, this was an interesting article to read for anyone that cares about fashion whether you personally follow women's fashion or not.
 

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