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Epaulet

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Isn't that around the time that Instagram became 100% ads? I stopped logging in when they started asking for me to prove things "for security" and haven't logged in since, because it's just 100% ads in the feed now.

Yeah, that probably would correspond to when Instagram really went downhill. I still log in there but rarely post. I do enjoy the content from a few particular brands and some posters but yeah, the number of ads on there has gotten out of control (I’m also not really a big fan of all the videos from random users that show up on my feed on there).

Agreed with both of you guys on Instagram. Honestly, social media in general is a tough place for me, these days.

As you wrote, IG is filled with ads and bots. And the explore function is so distracting with all of its video content. So instead of browsing the people that I choose to follow, I end up being shown a bunch of nonsense... which more often than not is either Boston terriers or weight lifting stuff. And if I click on one of those, then the algorithm just sends me more of that.

Facebook... I can't even. I do enjoy how easy it is for posting family pics and such, but just going on the app will quickly drown you in a cesspool of arguments or moronic comments or posts designed to only get clicks and responses.

I'm into browsing Reddit for sure, but it doesn't have the community feeling. It's hard to get to know people on there, and comments are quickly lost in the fray.

In many ways, chat forums like Styleforum are absolute dinosaurs in tech. But I've been putting more work into keeping this going - like the podcasts and this collab - because it's kind of the only option to really post and discuss these things. And even if you wander over to more current events / politics / COVID-19 stuff... it's still far more intelligent and respectful than anywhere else. That's valuable.

It's certainly the only place where I feel like I actually know people and have friends. Things can be clunky here, and it does seem hard to get younger customers onto to platform, but it's still the best we have... at least IMO.
 

Texasmade

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Facebook... I can't even. I do enjoy how easy it is for posting family pics and such, but just going on the app will quickly drown you in a cesspool of arguments or moronic comments or posts designed to only get clicks and responses.
I've had to mute so many friends on FB because all of their posts are political. It's just so much bullshit that it's hard for me to even hang out with them in person at this point. I haven't posted anything on my FB in years because it's hot garbage.

At least with Instagram, the algo is feeding me stuff I like such as weightlifting, Porsche cars, watches, and bespoke clothes.

SF is still by far my favorite place to post.
 

Epaulet

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^ Good to see J. Robie! I used to love his posts here in SF and on Instagram, but pulling up his Instagram profile now, it doesn't seem like he's posted there in about 2 years.

I was a huge fan too, and he's been a customer and a friend for a really long time.

It was awesome to do this shoot on a bunch of levels. If you guys recall, J.Robie helped us out in the Spring of 2020 with that Natural Sashiko project, the one where we gave extra funds to our factory workers for every unit sold. He stopped posting around the time it became clear that COVID wasn't temporary. It was here for the long term.

And that took the fun out of dressing up and taking photos. I saw this happen to a lot of our influencers, and IG contacts, and many of the guys on this thread. Life became a slog, there was lots of anxiety and depression, and the passion just went away. I get it. I felt the same way.

But I've been feeling a lot better about things lately. It's not that the world isn't still f---ked up (it absolutely is), but I got tired of letting time slip by. I wanted to make exciting things again and work more with friends. So you're seeing our new designs this season, collabs like the Alpaca Project and RedBar... we resumed making pants with Hertling, and we're doing our first Trunk Show of the year in Philly next weekend. It's kind of a fight to sell these things compared with how much easier it was before the pandemic... but it's really exciting to be doing it and building towards something. And to be making a lot of new and beautiful items.

So with this positive attitude, I called J.Robie and asked if him and his wife would like to come by for a casual photoshoot in the Alpaca items. We'd show a new angle on the products, we'd have some laughs, and maybe he'd get inspired to start dressing up and posting again. It was an awesome time, and I think it proved just how strong this community (Styleforum & Epaulet) can be.
 

RuleOfRescue

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Agree with inspiration from SF. Never did insta or FB myself so SF definitely fulfills a need.
@Epaulet -- emailed to see if possible to change the size of the factory finds H-F pents (Walt 34 to Walt 35) from August--haven't gotten a reply yet. Can you let me know if possible? Thanks!!
 

Michigan Planner

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Agreed with both of you guys on Instagram. Honestly, social media in general is a tough place for me, these days.

As you wrote, IG is filled with ads and bots. And the explore function is so distracting with all of its video content. So instead of browsing the people that I choose to follow, I end up being shown a bunch of nonsense... which more often than not is either Boston terriers or weight lifting stuff. And if I click on one of those, then the algorithm just sends me more of that.

Facebook... I can't even. I do enjoy how easy it is for posting family pics and such, but just going on the app will quickly drown you in a cesspool of arguments or moronic comments or posts designed to only get clicks and responses.

I'm into browsing Reddit for sure, but it doesn't have the community feeling. It's hard to get to know people on there, and comments are quickly lost in the fray.

In many ways, chat forums like Styleforum are absolute dinosaurs in tech. But I've been putting more work into keeping this going - like the podcasts and this collab - because it's kind of the only option to really post and discuss these things. And even if you wander over to more current events / politics / COVID-19 stuff... it's still far more intelligent and respectful than anywhere else. That's valuable.

It's certainly the only place where I feel like I actually know people and have friends. Things can be clunky here, and it does seem hard to get younger customers onto to platform, but it's still the best we have... at least IMO.

I've been on Facebook since '05 and still enjoy it but I only have about 60 "friends" on there. They are all people I've known for decades (since either elementary or high school, or people I served with in the Marines or went to grad school with). I have no family on there other than my wife and no co-workers on there other than a guy I've known since long before he worked with me. Everybody on there is somebody I'd happily go sit down with to have a beer, and odds are I've done that multiple times with them. I guess you could say that my feed is rather curated but I think that's helped things out quite a bit.

I'm slowly getting into Reddit but some of the subreddits just seem to move so fast that it's hard to keep up and it makes me feel old. And you are right that there is no real community feeling on there (I think the layout/UI is a big reason for that lack of community). Also... my god is there a lot of pr0n on there! :eek:
 

Blastwice

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Agreed with both of you guys on Instagram. Honestly, social media in general is a tough place for me, these days.

As you wrote, IG is filled with ads and bots. And the explore function is so distracting with all of its video content. So instead of browsing the people that I choose to follow, I end up being shown a bunch of nonsense... which more often than not is either Boston terriers or weight lifting stuff. And if I click on one of those, then the algorithm just sends me more of that.

Facebook... I can't even. I do enjoy how easy it is for posting family pics and such, but just going on the app will quickly drown you in a cesspool of arguments or moronic comments or posts designed to only get clicks and responses.

I'm into browsing Reddit for sure, but it doesn't have the community feeling. It's hard to get to know people on there, and comments are quickly lost in the fray.

In many ways, chat forums like Styleforum are absolute dinosaurs in tech. But I've been putting more work into keeping this going - like the podcasts and this collab - because it's kind of the only option to really post and discuss these things. And even if you wander over to more current events / politics / COVID-19 stuff... it's still far more intelligent and respectful than anywhere else. That's valuable.

It's certainly the only place where I feel like I actually know people and have friends. Things can be clunky here, and it does seem hard to get younger customers onto to platform, but it's still the best we have... at least IMO.

Agree with all of this. I had an insta account to follow my friends and slowly, over time, my friends content completely disappeared from my feed and was replaced by random videos of random stuff along with a million ads. And then Insta took away my ability to log in and well, let's just say it was an easy choice to delete the app.

Styleforum works because it's real people making real decisions on who to follow, how to post, how much they want to post, etc.

Reddit is similar, but I don't like it for clothing because everything on Reddit is very binary-- either it's upvoted or downvoted into oblivion and just becomes a popularity contest for certain users. Content literally stops mattering and taste-makers become king-makers. You can't really have a discussion there, IMO. There's also the problem of fashion subreddits being infiltrated by people posting ads.

Also agree that the past couple of years have been absolute bummers. Hard to show off your wardrobe and feel like you are having fun when you're reading about war crimes overseas in the news everyday. Exacerbated when you have friends in that part of the world, too.
 

Epaulet

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Agree with all of this. I had an insta account to follow my friends and slowly, over time, my friends content completely disappeared from my feed and was replaced by random videos of random stuff along with a million ads. And then Insta took away my ability to log in and well, let's just say it was an easy choice to delete the app.

Styleforum works because it's real people making real decisions on who to follow, how to post, how much they want to post, etc.

Reddit is similar, but I don't like it for clothing because everything on Reddit is very binary-- either it's upvoted or downvoted into oblivion and just becomes a popularity contest for certain users. Content literally stops mattering and taste-makers become king-makers. You can't really have a discussion there, IMO. There's also the problem of fashion subreddits being infiltrated by people posting ads.

Also agree that the past couple of years have been absolute bummers. Hard to show off your wardrobe and feel like you are having fun when you're reading about war crimes overseas in the news everyday. Exacerbated when you have friends in that part of the world, too.

Yeah, I enjoy Reddit for news... especially the local LA, SF, and NY subreddits, but I can't say that I'm a real contributor there. I post stuff in r/malefashionadvice when I've got something relevant, but that's about it.

And I totally get what you're saying in the last paragraph. It's why - I honestly think - we need to stress this place more. What I loved about J.Robie and Burzanblog and your IG account was that you were really focused on the items, and how much you enjoy them.

There's definitely an epidemic of terrible fit posts out there. Either totally sponsored ones that are just ads for direct sales garbage. Or Uber-Douche ones of guys showing their bespoke shirt and surgeon's cuffs and AP Royal Oak as they grip the steering wheel of a AMG and move their Yeezy-clad foot off the brake pedal. These things were never us.

Your posts had a lot of beautifully crafted shell cordovan boots at small workshops. J.Robie purchased all of his own stuff... largely from me and No Man, and shot pics every day to show how he styles it. He wasn't bragging about the things he owned and he wasn't shilling for someone else. Just enjoying some quality items - which were mostly made in small factories by independent brands and artisans.

It's motivating for me to see that stuff, and it's a nice alternative to the other toxic **** out there.

Ming always had a good perspective on this. Like a lot of people, I kind of made it my job to be super informed on COVID all the time, and constantly be arguing with people, trying to convince them, dropping knowledge bombs (or so I thought), making memes... all this stuff. And one day at the end of 2021, he plainly told me "I don't know what you're getting out of this."

And he was right. I was getting zero out of it. I'm not a politician or a public health official. My opinion on the pandemic literally means nothing to anyone outside of me and my immediate family. No one was listening to me or heeding my advice or getting vaccinated or refusing vaccination or anything. It was just hours and hours of wasted time and needlessly raised BP numbers.

So I gave it up, and I have to say... I'm way happier now. It doesn't mean that I don't care, and I'll certainly vote and participate where I can. I just gave up the false sense of obligation to be constantly engaged with it, because it did nothing for me.. and only served to juice the traffic and engagement states of sites where I posted.

I just try to focus on work, family, hobbies, and local politics. I slip sometimes, but overall it feels so much healthier. For me at least.

And to that point... I speak for all of us when I say.. your pics are more than welcome here! Hit us off with some rare shell and that insane LP Boucle sportcoat!
 

suuteebird

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4FF18888-DB64-4D02-85CF-6CBF06371E5A.jpeg
 

smmrfld

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I've got a million pics to go through, but here's a quick preview. Today I had the privilege of hanging with the Notorious @macjedi ... a.k.a. J.Robie ... and we shot a bunch of this favorite pieces from the Alpaca project.

I'm a huge fan of his Instagram posts, so it was rad to bring the team back. I'll have a full gallery of pics to show soon!

View attachment 1840453 View attachment 1840454
Glad the smokes are gone from these pics…much more focus on the clothes now.
 

Epaulet

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We received some beautiful goods from RTC today!

First up is this stunning pure cashmere from Piacenza. It's called "Antique Grey Check," and you can order it as a Sportcoat or as a Doyle. Use the code tweed15 to save 15%!

Nuovo Piacenza Plaid.jpg


Next is the Drago Charcoal Birdseye. This was a factory finds option, but we still have enough for another 4 or 5 suits. Its an even $1000 for a two-piece in this. Drop me an email at [email protected] if you want one. It's a freaking amazing fabric at a great price...

Nuovo Drago Pique.jpg


Last was a one-off promo fabric... Loro Piana Eggplant Windowpane flannel. The hand is absolutely bonkers on this!

Nuovo Loro Piana Windowpane.jpg
 

Epaulet

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The Cal Overcoat by Epaulet & Hickey Freeman

Quick preview for you guys! This Tuesday we're going to start taking orders on a new single-breasted overcoat design.

Hickey Freeman has made a shape like this forever, but I found their original coat to be too boxy and structured. We tweaked the fit to move in line with our Nuovo jacket, and I think that it works wonderfully. Our first customer for this coat is named Cal (His IG is fashion.the.furious) and we named the new model in his honor. We'll be able to deliver this beauty by Thanksgiving, and we'll be doing orders on both this shape and our Carter mac coat.

IMG_6910.jpg
 

tmw

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Love this and can't wait to see it on your site.
 

Epaulet

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Love this and can't wait to see it on your site.

Thank you! Gonna launch this tomorrow so that we can take orders and get delivery by Thanksgiving. By popular request, I'm adding that ass-kicking Magee 16oz Salt & Pepper Tweed into the lineup.
 

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