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Discussions about the fashion industry thread

London

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Is he the biggest amplifier because he did it in a unique way (blended these trends well, made them more approachable, or whatever else), or were these style ideas going to blow up and he was there with the right combination of reach + early?

I feel like it was the latter, but I'll admit to it being a feeling, and perhaps I was standing too close to the proverbial Nick Wooster. Sales is a talent, and Kanye is probably the best salesman of self of his generation (it's basically him or Kobe: both really good at what they do, both given more even credit than that because they made sure they would get it, both attained legendary status off the synergy). But it feels weird to give him all this credit for a thing that was already happening. It's not quite calling Malcolm McLaren the father of punk (Ye has a lot more actual talent and a lot less cheap huckster), but it's not not that (I feel like SuFu absolutely should get more credit here, given those dudes were dressing like Kanye while he was still in his Polo hangover phase). As much as the ideas don't matter in world where cash in the register is the measure of us all, they do obviously matter on some level.

Who was the most influential men's fashion figure before Kanye?
McLaren was the father of punk as was Russell was the godfather of Hip Hop. They took underground scenes and brought them/sold them to the masses.
 

Reginald Bartholomew

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That comparison gives McLaren too much credit. He was a flash in the pan that fizzled out before he could cash in, and Russell Simmons arguably built the business foundation for all of hip hop.
 

BlakeRVA

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Ironically, this video got recommended to me yesterday.

Their list was:
10.) Jun Takahashi (Undercover)
09.) Hedi Slimane (Saint Laurent, Celine)
08.) Raf Simons (Dior, Calvin Klein, Raf Simons)
07.) Alessandro Michele (Gucci)
06.) Phoebe Philo (Celine)
05.) Demna Gvasalia (Vetements, Balenciaga)
04.) Virgil Abloh (Pyrex, Off White, Louis Vuitton)
03.) Kanye West (Yeezy, Louis Vuitton x Yeezy)
02.) Rick Owens
01.) Rei Kawakubo (Commes des Garcons)

Personally, I think Kim Jones should have been included in lieu of Jun Takahashi or Hedi Slimane. I probably wouldn't have put Rei Kawakubo at #1 either.

 

smittycl

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"The company’s detractors say its business model relies on tax loopholes, a flexible attitude to intellectual property and scant regard for corporate and social responsibility. “I think it should be closed down,” grumbles the chief executive of one big fashion retailer.

But its young consumers appear to care little and Shein’s rock-bottom pricing plus its growing dominance in mobile apps and social media favoured by that cohort has started to cause concern in western boardrooms. In the first few months of 2021, its app downloads were second only to Amazon and its engagement levels on TikTok were notably higher than those of rivals."

 
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cb200

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It took 10 years to build these supply chains because most suppliers don’t want to sell you only 100 pieces,” he adds. Payment terms were one way of convincing them. “We started with 30 days, unheard of at the time. We were able to get buy-in for Shein’s way of sourcing.”"

Super interesting. Smaller batch sizes makes sense for production speed. For design and development cost it doesn't as you have to spread those costs across a small number of units. No wonder there is so much borrowing of designs from elsewhere. It is just faster and cheaper.
 

clee1982

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"The company’s detractors say its business model relies on tax loopholes, a flexible attitude to intellectual property and scant regard for corporate and social responsibility. “I think it should be closed down,” grumbles the chief executive of one big fashion retailer.

But its young consumers appear to care little and Shein’s rock-bottom pricing plus its growing dominance in mobile apps and social media favoured by that cohort has started to cause concern in western boardrooms. In the first few months of 2021, its app downloads were second only to Amazon and its engagement levels on TikTok were notably higher than those of rivals."


the supply chain and force consistent warehouse software is more impressive to me
 

double00

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It took 10 years to build these supply chains because most suppliers don’t want to sell you only 100 pieces,” he adds. Payment terms were one way of convincing them. “We started with 30 days, unheard of at the time. We were able to get buy-in for Shein’s way of sourcing.”"

Super interesting. Smaller batch sizes makes sense for production speed. For design and development cost it doesn't as you have to spread those costs across a small number of units. No wonder there is so much borrowing of designs from elsewhere. It is just faster and cheaper.

it def explains the vast oversupply of sameness
 

Mariokartfever

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I'm currently meeting with some investors on my hyperfastfashion startup. We use AI and machine learning to guess what the next fashion trends will be, before they are even relevant or desireable. Garments are built soup-to-nuts in a totally autonomous factory then carried out by drones and physically forced onto unsuspecting pedestrians with the proper BMIs ("agressive trend building").
Billing is handled entirely on the blockchain via our own proprietary cryptocurrency.

Currently offering 15% off our first deployment for SF family, DM me for details.
 

BlakeRVA

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I'm currently meeting with some investors on my hyperfastfashion startup. We use AI and machine learning to guess what the next fashion trends will be, before they are even relevant or desireable. Garments are built soup-to-nuts in a totally autonomous factory then carried out by drones and physically forced onto unsuspecting pedestrians with the proper BMIs ("agressive trend building").
Billing is handled entirely on the blockchain via our own proprietary cryptocurrency.

Currently offering 15% off our first deployment for SF family, DM me for details.
You could probably use this exact pitch to raise $1M in Silicon Valley, sell a few SKUs and you could raise $10M.
 

gdl203

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Just add "Metaverse" to the pitch and enroll a fashion brand e.g. Gucci in the project and you're a pre-launch unicorn ?
 

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