Random fashion thoughts

[impolyt_one]

Originally Posted by delirium

interesting - i always thought of murakami to write about atmospheres that are rather universals. the details while maybe not experienced directly can be appreciated. i always imagined japan and korea to be like that too. i'll have to see for myself someday.

you think china is getting that type of atmosphere?

speaking of forever 21 - weren't they started by some koreans? i think someone i know's family was involved in their start. i think they might be trying to start another fast fashion company now too. hm.

I don't know about China, partly because I haven't been there (and it takes me years to figure this **** out in plain English, I'm just really beginning to understand Korea and Japan and I've been out here 8 years, like I said) but also there's the fact that mainland China is so ludicrously big and populated, and Western consumer culture is just frankly afraid of it. It's to the point that companies think or really do need to make their products more 'Chinese' to sell over there. Considering the size of China though, they might really have a point. Hermes has a special Chinese brand, for example.

The Japanese and Koreans, they've never really needed that

- The Japanese tend to like importing stuff in their original state from foreign countries like France and England, and reveling in the fact that 'Japan has everything' Nowadays, some Japanese people are into the idea of more 'Japanese' ****, but that is no more deep than anything else, just a consumer niche.
- Koreans have spent years operating factories for foreign industry, and now that this country has more advanced forms of savings and loans (10 years ago, it was a cash society) there are a lot of Korean businesspeople turning on their masters, the foreign chains and companies, using the IP they were taught, spawning a bunch of Korean knockoff brands that can be considered 'the Korean ____' - this goes for a lot of things, but in clothes terms, an example:
For years, Polo made clothes in Korea, and some of the factory overstock was sold off the backs of trucks under the guise of it being 'fake', and obviously a lot was sold at super high prices in dept stores the affluent with huge brand name equity as a 'luxury brand' despite it being made domestically; obviously there came a point many years ago where it was too expensive to do it in Korea and they had to move to Vietnam, China, etc, but that left Korea with a bunch of people who knew how to make Polo clothes and the available material and equipment resources to do so; so what do you do? If you are Samsung, or something, with way too much cash, you start a bunch of domestically-made clothing brands that mimic the English country/American NE prep style of Polo, steal their font and create a embroidered logo to sew on the clothes as a mark, and name the brand something that elicits associations with Polo, such as 'Bean Pole' and 'Polham' and take over your master's old sales booth. Something similar happens often times with food businesses - 10 years ago there were tons of cheap pizza chains that served something that tasted just like Pizza Hut deep pan pizza from the 1980's, because they were all obviously started by former employees of Pizza Hut (the first) and they stole PH's recipe. Likewise there were some Subway sandwich imitators, TONS of Starbuck's and the Coffee Bean upstarts every day, etc. Proprietary technology theft is the only way they know how to do business here.
A lot of Korean plebes even take pride in the idea of these 'Koreanized' businesses, but really don't realize what it's all about.
So there's that, and then there's a very upper crust society who is interested in imported luxury goods, but for the real quality stuff, there are hardly any real buyers here, nobody knows what is going on still because it's just never been sold here, so there exists no demand for it in the future unless someone finds out about it from Japan or other trips abroad. Everything is very limited and very expensive.

-China: somebody else should fill in the blank here


Forever21 is indeed a Korean business, I think some savvy Korean American people figured out they could make great money selling the cheap Korean street market clothes at mall prices. They made a killing off that, it was a great idea; my friend told me last week that when he was going to Cornell for grad school a few years ago, he met some Korean-American girl who seemed very plain, she was interested in clothes and he said 'her style looked kind of young' and that she was always hanging out, didn't have a car or anything. On Spring break they went to LA and she called them and said to hang out at her house; she lived in BH so they went over to BH, found her house, it was like the biggest house on the street - turned out her dad is the guy who started F21. haha.

 

[Eason]

China is so ******* huge and populated, there's such a difference between import and export products, such a gap between the rich and the poor, it would take pages to describe it and I don't have the energy to really try and give a good idea of the big picture.

But if I could make one generalization, where in Korea they take something propriety and then try to duplicate it exactly, ex. pizza hut deep dish that tastes exactly like it should, or starbucks copies, China takes something propriety, then tries to make something that vaguely resembles it on a superficial level to trick the consumer and move as much product as fast as possible before word gets around. They try to mass produce it as absolutely cheaply as possible with zero regard for quality/flavor etc. You can make this argument to some extent with Korean fast fashion, but it's much more apparent with Chinese foods and electronics. There seems to be absolutely no regard for quality, safety, or health. This is manifested most obviously in exploding batteries, reusing and reselling oil by scooping it out of sewers (where it floats on the top of the sewage), then chemically treating it to separate the "materials", and milk with poison in it that kills babies. If there is any way to cut cost, they will do it. If you don't want something that will fall apart, poison you, or not function as it should, well you need to buy the "yuan zhong" (original) version. All risks are assumed by the buyer if they don't. There was an article in the China Daily a while back (which is surprising, since the China Daily is the communist party's anus and rarely has anything truthful in it) where they allowed a story about how most of the flour in China is cut with some packing agent and dye. I can't remember the scientific name, but the flour was cut 33% with the filler.

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by Humperdink

Even though they weren't properly colonized, they're surprisingly adept at mimicking more advanced forms of cultural expression usually reserved for white people or Jews: film, for instance. They're even skilled at following the proper imbalance of mindless shlock to redeeming artistic production normally only observed in British popular culture.

But I guess that follows from five centuries of mimicking superior Chinese political institutions and cultural productions after the Mongols kicked their Buddhist asses. Thankfully, those arch mimetic white colonialists, the Japanese, came along and gave the stagnant Korean peoples a good kick in the pants and set them right in the ways of modern industrial capitalism on which their current economic nationalism is founded. Otherwise they'd just be Laos.

Oh, and white missionaries helped them find God proper, too. But Korea's clearly inferior at just about everything outside of sadaejuui, as the Middle Kingdom and the U.S. of A. well know.

here is a japanese film that I find pretty incredible "who is camus anyway?" cause it is set at a film school and references Godard, Visconti, etc but it's like the films should have come with a manual and didn't...I'm sure it means something to the characters and that it could be interesting but I have no idea what it could be considering they don't appear to have the literary, musical, filmic and cultural background to understand what is going on. They know how many cuts each movie has though...

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by impolyt_one

ps. I think I know who Fuuma was talking about with his Korean-German friends, etc, I know a few of them live over here and they're barely interlaced into my own social sphere. I don't know them but I know of them, and I see them walking down the street sometimes.

I think it is a small and closed scene (they're usually fashion people and creative in a society that doesn't exactly use the social codes they're used to).

 

[impolyt_one]

Originally Posted by Fuuma

I think it is a small and closed scene (they're usually fashion people and creative in a society that doesn't exactly use the social codes they're used to).

Gonna have to disagree here man, their scene is as 'bro-ed out' as any other in the world, it leaks into showbiz, fashion, everything where money is dealt via mere talking and faces. It's a good place to re-invent yourself and do self-PR, though, this place is a wasteland and you can become anything here, still. It won't be like that forever, but industrious types wanting to gain traction via big talk still have chances here and there. Art, for them, though - that is bullshit.

 

[bows1]

I wish someone made a insulated Duck boot in all black, including the sole, instead of the terrible brown colors. I just want a stylish waterproof warm winter boot, is that so hard?

 

[Fuuma]

Originally Posted by impolyt_one

Gonna have to disagree here man, their scene is as 'bro-ed out' as any other in the world, it leaks into showbiz, fashion, everything where money is dealt via mere talking and faces. It's a good place to re-invent yourself and do self-PR, though, this place is a wasteland and you can become anything here, still. It won't be like that forever, but industrious types wanting to gain traction via big talk still have chances here and there. Art, for them, though - that is bullshit.

Sounds like you're talking about the other bunch of Koreans I know, who aren't germans (some are not even koreans, just living there). They are very much of the ballin'/bottles/pr-showbizz etc scene. I don't know any regular Koreans, if there is such a thing.

 

[A Fellow Linguist]

^^ like this? http://www.sorel.com/mens-boots/men,...l?sz=1&start=1

 

[willy cheesesteak]

^

Originally Posted by bows1

I wish someone made a insulated Duck boot in all black, including the sole, instead of the terrible brown colors. I just want a stylish waterproof warm winter boot, is that so hard?

Originally Posted by willy cheesesteak

I wish LL Bean made all black duckboots.

Originally Posted by indesertum

that would be so dope

Originally Posted by Doin' Fine.

Sounds like something for the line coming out by the Rogues Gallery guy to do.

Originally Posted by Gravitas

^^^

Originally Posted by aqhong

+9000000. So dope. So dope.

Originally Posted by willy cheesesteak

Goddamn LL Bean, make some awl brack Bean boots already!

RE: Question

[email protected] to me show details 12:14 AM (0 minutes ago) Dear Mr. ______, Thank you for contacting L.L.Bean today. I was happy to forward your email to our product department. This is a great idea. I hope you someday see these available to order Thank you for your time, comments and interest. I can assure you all comments are read and valued. Take care and have a good evening. Sincerely, Stephene S. L.L.Bean Customer Service 800 441 5713 llbean.com

Originally Posted by willy cheesesteak

Originally Posted by robbie

email the rogues gallery dood thats doing the 'heritage' line or whatever.
I can't find his email

. Seriously though, it would be awesome and more wearable in a city if they made a version where the rubber parts were in a matte finish, black soles, black leather upper, black laces, and silver or gunmetal eyelets.
..

 

[jarude]

whats worse, someone re-posting about duck boots or all the effort and time you just wasted combing through the thread for quotes to one-up him

 

[macuser3of5]

uh, what do you think an insulated duck boot in black is gonna look like? my guess is something like the caribou.

 

[willy cheesesteak]

I'm not trying to "one-up" him, you jerk, I'm just showing what happened when I tried to inquire about them. And all I had to do was click search, type in my name and put "bean."

 

[connor]

some people dont know that the internet is easy

 

[jarude]

Originally Posted by willy cheesesteak

I'm not trying to "one-up" him, you jerk

 

[GraphicNovelty]

Originally Posted by connor

some people dont know that the internet is easy
This forum has too many search options IMO (n00bs use the google instead of the 'search this forum' feature and are inundated with MC/B&S threads). On a related "search is hard" note. Rugby/LS Polo (the types, not the brand) shirts, yay or nay? I need something for casual winter wear that I can layer over Henleys. (short+kinda built=most casual OTR BD's look kinda eh on me even with tailoring).