Discussions about the fashion industry thread

[FlyingMonkey]

Funny how everyone loves Free & Easy now it's gone... probably shows there is an American market for this kind of thing - if indeed there's really a long-term market for paper magazines at all.

But in some ways all @dieworkwear would have to do would be to increase the output and change the look of Put This On just a bit and you'd pretty much have an online English language (much better than just American) version of Free & Easy anyway... new partners / investors, a few more writers, regular advertisers... much, much easier said than done of course. But I'd subscribe.

 

[cb200]

Wasn't part of F&E whole thing the "army gym shop" that was attached to it? Inventory had a shop as well as the magazine. I'm sure there's some wisdom about fighting a war on two fronts. I do miss F&E but honestly part of the charm, at the time, was out was how different it was coming from Japan. So, it's a bit hard to imagine a contemporary version of F&E but for the english speaking world.

 

[styleforumfan]

Is the Versace brand still relevant in this time and age?

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Is the Versace brand still relevant in this time and age?

I think it's in the same dusty category as Armani.

On another note, Lanvin has been like a rudderless ship for a long time now, which is a shame.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Wasn't part of F&E whole thing the "army gym shop" that was attached to it? Inventory had a shop as well as the magazine. I'm sure there's some wisdom about fighting a war on two fronts. I do miss F&E but honestly part of the charm, at the time, was out was how different it was coming from Japan. So, it's a bit hard to imagine a contemporary version of F&E but for the english speaking world.

The East Group which ran Free & Easy had its HQ in the Gaienmae district in Shibuya, Tokyo, and it included an amazing shop on the ground floor called The Rugged Museum, that used to be my favourite menswear shop in Tokyo - mainly because it had an amazingly warm atmosphere. It had a lot of 'own brand' stuff that was often collaboratively produced, and tended to be a mix of workwear, 'rugged Ivy' (a stylistic variant on Ivy that they pretty much invented) and British-influenced casual tailoring (tweed jackets etc.). It also had the best curated 2nd hand selected of stuff from brands like RRL, Nigel Cabourn, Engineered Garments and obscure and vanished American, British and Japanese workwear etc. companies. It wasn't cheap but the quality was excellent.

The problems started when they tried to open a more commercial shop nearer Harajuku, which was called The Rugged Factory, which was supposed to be less expensive and a bit more popular but still have something of the same aesthetic. It was okay. I still have one shirt I got there. But I think they overstretched themselves and it started to lose them money big time.

I'm not sure what else happened - maybe the rugged Ivy thing was just played out in Japan - but they closed down. However the same folks have another magazine now, called Hail Mary, http://www.hailmary.jp/ which does similar Americana things, although it generally looks much more sports / workwear / blue collar and less Ivy-ish. They have an online shop, http://shop.hailmary.jp, which has a little bit of the remaining Rugged Museum stock, but no IRL shop.

 

[cb200]

Thanks for the added info on the shop. Sounds like, for a time, it would have been a perfect shop for lots of rugged dad types. But certainly once you've got retail and a magazine I can see getting smacked with cash flow issues. I might get a friend to send me over a copy of that mag, for sure I'll give it a follow on Instagram for moral support.

 

[dieworkwear]

Wow GQ picked up Gabrielle Paiella, former writer at The Cut

 

[dieworkwear]

Not groundbreaking news, but a short and fun watch

 

[smittycl]

Interesting. I did high school 1980-84 so the local Mall figured heavily into my childhood, mostly putting endless quarters into arcade games. Kind of depressing places in the end. Would like to see a resurgence of the town square. Plenty of space for shopping and eating but also a place to gather and hang out.

Two extremes from the Great White North. Living in Watertown, NY the locals would just shamble around the mall in the winter as it was -20 outside. Grumpy and usually eating a Cinnabon and buying useless stuff to fill their time.

Contrast that with Kingston, ON, less than an our away. People outside on Saturday in the winter, skating, running errands, and generally cheerful (Canadians after all). Plenty of shopping and dining but no Mall, just public spaces. Fun place in the summer with outdoor vendors and such. Not an even comparison as Kingston is a college town but a stark counterpoint to depressing, Mall-centric Watertown.

 

[LA Guy]

Interesting. I did high school 1980-84 so the local Mall figured heavily into my childhood, mostly putting endless quarters into arcade games. Kind of depressing places in the end. Would like to see a resurgence of the town square. Plenty of space for shopping and eating but also a place to gather and hang out.

Two extremes from the Great White North. Living in Watertown, NY the locals would just shamble around the mall in the winter as it was -20 outside. Grumpy and usually eating a Cinnabon and buying useless stuff to fill their time.

Contrast that with Kingston, ON, less than an our away. People outside on Saturday in the winter, skating, running errands, and generally cheerful (Canadians after all). Plenty of shopping and dining but no Mall, just public spaces. Fun place in the summer with outdoor vendors and such. Not an even comparison as Kingston is a college town but a stark counterpoint to depressing, Mall-centric Watertown.

We actually had quite a few malls and were quite proud of the new one when it opened to great fanfare in the mid 80s. If you had Roots and Le Chateau, you were living it large. But we also always had a vibrant downtown, with lots of stores and restaurants and even real, old holdout haberdasheries, which are where I started really loving clothes. However, on that brief, heady period when then CDN > USD, there was a ton of cross border shopping in Watertown.

The downtown was vibrant because the student population of Queens University was largely affluent and from larger cities, which increased demand for higher end stores and restaurants, and because Kingston is a regional tourist attraction, and finally because it remains a bastion of the largely affluent United Empire Loyalists, who had fled the South after the traitors of the 13 colonies had won their illegitimate war I believe that Kingston has the greatest number of restaurants power capita in Canada.

tldr: Kingston was always gentrified. We learned to ghettoize the population associated with the prison population over a century ago.

 

[smittycl]

There's always a Paul Harvey Rest of the Story!

I never went near a Mall there and only hung out downtown. Loved the Irish Pub and caught a bunch of World Cup games there with expat professors from the university. Big military presence there as well. Lots of fit folks always running and cycling about..

My kids were very impressed with the maple syrup vendors and all the different kinds available.

Definitely not an even comparison to Watertown but no one was forcing the locals to sit at the Mall all day. Our soldiers had a not-so-affectionate nickname for the locals: Citizens of Watertown (COW).

 

[Gus]

Not groundbreaking news, but a short and fun watch

Great summary.

 

[ter1413]

How former Harlem hustler Dapper Dan upended the fashion world

How former Harlem hustler Dapper Dan upended the fashion world

In the 1980s, Daniel Day, better known as Dapper Dan, made a name for himself selling leather jackets and tracksuits emblazoned with bootleg Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Fendi logos. His Harlem boutiqu…

nypost.com

 

[LA Guy]

There's always a Paul Harvey Rest of the Story!

I never went near a Mall there and only hung out downtown. Loved the Irish Pub and caught a bunch of World Cup games there with expat professors from the university. Big military presence there as well. Lots of fit folks always running and cycling about..

My kids were very impressed with the maple syrup vendors and all the different kinds available.

Definitely not an even comparison to Watertown but no one was forcing the locals to sit at the Mall all day. Our soldiers had a not-so-affectionate nickname for the locals: Citizens of Watertown (COW).

The fitness thing is real. I never realized how high level some of our athletes were until two Kingstonians, a couple, who were casual acquaintances with whom I'd shared road races, won the gold (the woman) and silver ( the man) at the inaugural open Olympic triathlon.

Even more important to us, we were the home of the Tragically Hip.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

The fitness thing is real. I never realized how high level some of our athletes were until two Kingstonians, a couple, who were casual acquaintances with whom I'd shared road races, won the gold (the woman) and silver ( the man) at the inaugural open Olympic triathlon.

Actually, Simon (Whitfield) won gold in the first Olympic triathlon. I know his family here, so I can't get that wrong!

More recently we've had Dylan Wykes go to the World Champs and Olympics in the marathon, and there are these two sisters, Branna and Brogan, who are kicking everyone's ass right now: https://runningmagazine.ca/sections...re-taking-on-u-sports-cross-country-together/ - they shot past me a few months back and disappeared into the distance...

Oh, and there is actually a mall in Kingston (the Cataraqui Centre) but we don't like to talk about it... more seriously it has caused some damge to the downtown, and the people who live round the mall and all the big box stores in the same area really don't come downtown at all because parking is 'expensive'.