Random fashion thoughts - Part II (A New Hope)

[conqueror]

RFT: Wong Kar Wai is the GOAT and this scene of Tony Leung getting dressed is the best of the "man getting dressed scene" genre. Better than that famous American Gigolo scene with Richard Gere

great scene. i was in HK last month so had to be a cornball WKW fan and go to chungking mansions and the mid-level escalators (CKE is my favourite film). unfortunately goldfinch closed in 2014ish.

 

[the shah]

Another update from PayPal:

“5.4 PayPal and your customers.

In representations or in public communications to your customers, you shall not mischaracterise or disparage PayPal as a payment method.

If you enable your customers to pay you with PayPal, you shall treat PayPal’s payment mark at least at par with other payment methods offered.

PayPal is trash, and worse than all other payment methods ! There, I said it !

 

[badeggcat]

great scene. i was in HK last month so had to be a cornball WKW fan and go to chungking mansions and the mid-level escalators (CKE is my favourite film). unfortunately goldfinch closed in 2014ish.

What?!? Didn’t know Goldfinch is gone.

Do make a trip to Castle Road if you’re a fan of Days Of Being Wild.

 

[Fuuma]

Styleforum's Streetwear and Denim side, much more so than the Classic menswear side, is negatively influenced by Instagram. For a variety of reasons, Classic menswear, especially as exhibited on Styleforum, just lends itself better to long form conversation than SWD, which has a demographic that is simply highly image driven, and which (well, at least this is what Comscore tells us) is less affluent and less educated and articulate.

I think that for some parts of SWD, the more "artisanal" stuff, the long form conversation is also a better medium for a specific type of enthusiast. However, you are right, in many ways. Styleforum has remained the top discussion forum on even SWD simply because it is, in many ways, the last man standing.

That said, ALL of forum space in fashion has just become much more product oriented. I know that some of the old timers decry this, and I can understand why, but ultimately, products drives the conversation, and is really the only thing that is truly sustainable, as there is always interesting new product, (or terrible product,) coming to market. However, in the absence of a concrete product around which to base a discussion, the number of people both capable and interested in that discussion drops off sharply.

Dumb question but how can you know someone's education level through "comcast", I avoid being tracked as much as I can but I mean wtf? Goes double for "articulate"...

 

[LA Guy]

Dumb question but how can you know someone's education level through "comcast", I avoid being tracked as much as I can but I mean wtf? Goes double for "articulate"...

So, I don't know the algorithms they use, but it's pretty easy to track your your IPs, and I think that through your cookies as well as device information, an algorithm can make a pretty decent guess at not just who you are likely to be, your shopping habits, where you live, where you are likely to be working, how often you move around, etc., etc.

A pretty good rule is that if you are on the internet, you are far, far, from invisible. If I know that you were browsing X online bookstore, and that you spent 2.5 looking at reviews book A, and then after looking at book B, one of which is at reading level Y, then I can discern your interests, the level of interest, the level of at which you are likely to be able to read, write, etc...

Yes, you can "shield" yourself to some degree, but if this page, or any app or website at all, is being rendered properly on your device, you can bet your bottom dollar that there is some information about you that is being collected.

 

[LA Guy]

Another update from PayPal:

PayPal is trash, and worse than all other payment methods ! There, I said it !

lol. These are the standard terms for every credit card company as well. Surcharges for use of any card, pretty much, are strictly prohibited, as are minimum purchase for the use of a card. If you want to **** with a small retailer, this is probably a good way to do it.

 

[dieworkwear]

So, I don't know the algorithms they use, but it's pretty easy to track your your IPs, and I think that through your cookies as well as device information, an algorithm can make a pretty decent guess at not just who you are likely to be, your shopping habits, where you live, where you are likely to be working, how often you move around, etc., etc.

A pretty good rule is that if you are on the internet, you are far, far, from invisible. If I know that you were browsing X online bookstore, and that you spent 2.5 looking at reviews book A, and then after looking at book B, one of which is at reading level Y, then I can discern your interests, the level of interest, the level of at which you are likely to be able to read, write, etc...

Yes, you can "shield" yourself to some degree, but if this page, or any app or website at all, is being rendered properly on your device, you can bet your bottom dollar that there is some information about you that is being collected.

I think it's illegal to track that info though (or at least personalize it). And only some companies, like Doubleclick or something, would be able to do it (maybe Google Ads). Unless things have changed, anyway. in the '90s, I started a company that involved some of these issues, and one of the key pieces to the technology we were trying to build was tracking info on users. Yes, you can track via IP, but it's not as simple as following a car with a license plate or something.

The idea that articulation can be meaningfully scored seems stupid, tbh. You can know someone's education level through info they provide, which is then traded across sites. But articulation seems like a dumb concept (let alone something that can be translated into a numerical score).

 

[LA Guy]

Mr P.: https://www.mrporter.com/en-us/mens/designers/Mr_P

Is "blandly stylish" an oxymoron?

It's my general style goal. See, for example: https://www.styleforum.net/threads/...ar-casual-style.253842/page-1620#post-9064911

I don't dislike any individual piece in the Mr P collection, nor do I dislike your style.

What I object to in the Mr. P collection is that it seems designed to take all the thought out of assembling an outfit. It is curation taken to its logical limit, and I don't like it.

Incidentally, people think that brands like APC are like this, but early APC, based a lot on militaria, and with a lot more enzymed wash garments, and just a much less "polished" look, appealed to be a lot more. I liked their baggy "Anglaise" cut jeans, for example, which had something of the hooligan in them. Those were phased out in about 2002, when the brand expanded to wholesale.

 

[bry2000]

I question the comment that the SW&D side has been more adversely impacted by Instagram than the CM side. I came to SF many years ago through CM and that was even before SW&D split off into its own entity.

To me, the main reason CM is so dead and uninteresting is that the current crop of contributors has migrated largely to Instagram. I can't prove it naturally but that is the way it seems.

 

[colabear]

One day you get mistaken for John Travolta by a group of Japanese tourists the next day for a ma'am. The latter though I was wearing a Chanel inspired outfit and carrying a Chanel bag which was supposed to be my Wes Anderson challenge submission that I didn't get a chance to take a photo of

 

[LA Guy]

I think it's illegal to track that info though (or at least personalize it). And only some companies, like Doubleclick or something, would be able to do it (maybe Google Ads). Unless things have changed, anyway. in the '90s, I started a company that involved some of these issues, and one of the key pieces to the technology we were trying to build was tracking info on users. Yes, you can track via IP, but it's not as simple as following a car with a license plate or something.

The idea that articulation can be meaningfully scored seems stupid, tbh. You can know someone's education level through info they provide, which is then traded across sites. But articulation seems like a dumb concept (let alone something that can be translated into a numerical score).

Comscore gives a lot of qualitative data. I'm sure that they have some number behind it, but a lot of the stuff is like "users of this site are compatible with users of these other sites." And things like reading and writing level are not that dumb to track or report, imo.

And no, none of these are simple things to track, but it's 20+ years since you tried that, and things are a lot more sophisticated at this point. If nothing else, there is just a much greater mass of people working on these problems, with with better and better financial incentives to do so. Apparently, tech is the new banking...

I mean, I also remember when I started going regularly to San Francisco, in about 1999, and SOMA was mostly a wasteland of empty lots with razor wire,and things like busted old garages. Now it's prime real estate with tons of tech companies, and fancy coffee places and restaurants and slightly douchy bars to serve the workers there.

 

[dieworkwear]

Comscore gives a lot of qualitative data. I'm sure that they have some number behind it, but a lot of the stuff is like "users of this site are compatible with users of these other sites." And things like reading and writing level are not that dumb to track or report, imo.

And no, none of these are simple things to track, but it's 20+ years since you tried that, and things are a lot more sophisticated at this point. If nothing else, there is just a much greater mass of people working on these problems, with with better and better financial incentives to do so. Apparently, tech is the new banking...

I mean, I also remember when I started going regularly to San Francisco, in about 1999, and SOMA was mostly a wasteland of empty lots with razor wire,and things like busted old garages. Now it's prime real estate with tons of tech companies, and fancy coffee places and restaurants and slightly douchy bars to serve the workers there.

It's definitely been a while since I've followed technology on that close of a level. Just saying the intricacies aren't as simple as just "tracking someone through their IP." People are very sensitive about how their information is tracked and used on the internet, and unless you're the FBI with a warrant, it's not like you can just get a bunch of info on someone's behavior.

It's hard to track from site to site because, fundamentally, the only "car" bringing you from place to place is your ISP. And once you arrive at some place, that place doesn't necessarily know what other "spots" you've been to. It's like trying to know what someone did throughout the day when they arrived at your house -- they can tell you (ie submit the info), and you may be able to get some info from the cab driver who dropped that person off, but you can't know a lot of nitty gritty details (e.g. what books they browsed at the bookshop/ Amazon). I mean, just think of what that would mean. StyleForum the knows what Appreciation you're looking at at Pornhub? Pornhub knows what clothes you bought at Mr. Porter? That's the sort of nitty gritty detail you're talking about if you're suggesting people can track what books you're browsing on Amazon.

The only people really doing that kind of stuff is Doubleclick and Google Ads, because they have actual networks around different sites. But I don't think they're linking that info to actual specific users/ IPs that they can then sell to other companies. That would be really surprising to me, as it breeches an important barrier for privacy.

 

[double00]

skeptical of data science at all these days. i mean the A's totally suck.

 

[LA Guy]

It's definitely been a while since I've followed technology on that close of a level. Just saying the intricacies as well as the laws aren't as simple as just "tracking someone through their IP." People are very sensitive about how their information is tracked and used on the internet, and unless you're the FBI with a warrant, it's not like you can just get a bunch of info on someone's behavior on the internet.

It's hard to track from site to site because, fundamentally, the only "car" bringing you from place to place is your ISP. And once you arrive at some place, that place doesn't necessarily know what other "spots" you've been to. It's like trying to know what someone did throughout the day when they arrived at your house -- they can tell you (ie submit the info), and you may be able to get some info from the cab driver who dropped that person off, but you can't know a lot of nitty gritty details (e.g. what books they browsed at the bookshop/ Amazon). I mean, just think of what that would mean. StyleForum the knows what Appreciation you're looking at at Pornhub? Pornhub knows what clothes you bought at Mr. Porter? That's the sort of nitty gritty detail you're talking about if you're suggesting people can track what books you're browsing on Amazon.

The only people really doing that kind of stuff is Doubleclick and Google Ads, because they have actual networks around different sites. But I don't think they're linking that info to actual specific users/ IPs that they can then sell to other companies. That would be really surprising to me, as it breeches an important barrier for privacy.

The data is there, and it's being mined. And companies are selling us aggregated data, not data about specific individuals. That doesn't mean that they don't have it.

And while I can't tell if YOU were looking at Youporn right before coming here, I am given information on how many people were, and what videos they were appreciating at the time.

 

[LA Guy]

Just because some organization gives data for something doesn't mean the data is good. It just means there's a market for that data.

I'd agree with this 100%. I really don't think that the issue is data collection, though. I think that its the aggregate information that could be a little suspect.