Random fashion thoughts

[Find Finn]



Seems like they've invented 6 different ways to say "fat boy fit" since 1889.

The only people I see in Carhartt are skinny hipsters, so they come in small sizes as well.



On a related note: Cargo short and skinny legs with no muscle definition, is not a good look.

 

[Master Milano]

So i've read that the fashion business is currently best for (as in most profit) in luxury clothes and very cheap clothes, basically the polar opposites. I haven't been interested in fashion for very long, but has it always been this way?

 

[Find Finn]



So i've read that the fashion business is currently best for (as in most profit) in luxury clothes and very cheap clothes, basically the polar opposites. I haven't been interested in fashion for very long, but has it always been this way?

Yup.

There's a reason why the owners of H&M are some of the richest people in the world.

 

[Biggen]

I've been after some good carry-on luggage for a while and those Briggs & Riley looks interesting but of course they're more expensive in Europe. So might as well pick up a Rimowa instead since they look better and aren't that much more expensive.

 

[Biggen]

double

 

[Find Finn]



I've been after some good carry-on luggage for a while and those Briggs & Riley looks interesting but of course they're more expensive in Europe. So might as well pick up a Rimowa instead since they look better and aren't that much more expensive.

All ways go lightweight and soft for carry on, only way to be sure it will fit into the overhead compartment or they wont make you throw it down into cargo.

I have Porter Boston which works perfectly.

 

[Biggen]

^
You have a point there. Have been interested in Unit Portables but would prefer it to be a bit closer to maximum allowance in order to maximize the volume.

 

[Find Finn]

I have the Monocle version, which is designed to fit the limits of the european carries size regulations.

The only issue I have with it, is carrying it for elongated periods/running through airports, so I have been thinking about becoming 12 year old and getting a backpack.

 

[shoreman1782]



^ I'm afraid the fast-fashion mindset has become ingrained in our (Western) consumer culture. Not only in fashion, but electronics, home furnishings, and a lot of other categories. I hope we turn a corner toward more thoughtful, longer-lasting purchases. But, the cheap pricing / instant gratification combo is a hard habit to shake.

Speaking of NPR, I went to hear David Sedaris tell stories last night. He name dropped UnionMade as his favorite men's shop -- mentioning that they even carried Kapital... "clothes that seem to be thrown into the ocean for six years only to be washed up on the beach." He also mentioned that he follows The Sartorialist. haha. He himself looked a bit like a cross between Woody Allen and Thom Browne... wearing ocbd / knit tie / flat front dress pants / boots.

That's awesome.

I got a book signed by Sedaris a few years ago and he asked if I smoked, because he was trying to recruit new smokers.

 

[Master Milano]



^ I'm afraid the fast-fashion mindset has become ingrained in our (Western) consumer culture. Not only in fashion, but electronics, home furnishings, and a lot of other categories. I hope we turn a corner toward more thoughtful, longer-lasting purchases. But, the cheap pricing / instant gratification combo is a hard habit to shake.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Speaking of NPR, I went to hear David Sedaris tell stories last night. He name dropped UnionMade as his favorite men's shop -- mentioning that they even carried Kapital... "clothes that seem to be thrown into the ocean for six years only to be washed up on the beach." He also mentioned that he follows The Sartorialist. haha. He himself looked a bit like a cross between Woody Allen and Thom Browne... wearing ocbd / knit tie / flat front dress pants / boots.

i shop therefore i am

 

[pronxs]

oh this is nice.

http://www.selectism.com/files/2013/05/from-britten-PL-fw13-12.jpg

 

[Biggskip]



From NPR Fresh Air:
link to full podcast:

http://www.npr.org/2013/05/02/180557959/ethical-fashion-is-the-tragedy-in-bangladesh-a-final-straw



More text:

Spoiler

On changing trends

"The definition of fashion and the definition of what is a trend has changed so much in the last decade. In the last two decades, you know, we would have entire silhouettes kind of sticking around for decades at a time and now we're seeing things like red will be in style one season or fringe or leather or floral patterns, and it's this constant, ceaseless rotation through looks and styles and I think that some consumers find that fun and others — like me — got to a point where I found it, quite frankly, exhausting. It felt arbitrary, like the rules of the game were constantly changing."

On the leading companies in fashionable inexpensive clothing

"I would say Zara and H&M. Zara, which is a Spanish fast-fashion company, I think their profits increased by 22 percent last year and they're on schedule to open over 400 stores in 2013. H&M is certainly a very profitable company with thousands of locations around the world, and they're the ones that are really the true masters of hooking consumers on this 24/7 cycle of buying clothes and buying new trends and coming back to the store to see what's new. I think that they're really the ones that really changed our relationship to clothes and made us think of it as a sort of single-serving disposable item."

On the kinds of clothes made in Bangladesh

"Bangladesh's edge has always been in sort of basic clothing because they don't have a lot of the more advanced machinery that a country like China does. They don't have huge rooms of embroidery machines, which is something I saw in China. So [with] Bangladesh, you'll see, like, basic polo shirts, T-shirts, cargo pants, cheap basic stuff coming out of that country."

On advice to someone who wants to shop ethically on a budget

"If people can't afford better, shop where you're going to shop. Sometimes it's about how you shop and not where you shop. So if you buy something cheap that doesn't mean that you have to have a disposable attitude to it ... or a disposable relationship to it. You know, I've kept some of my garments that I had from when I first started writing the book. I wore an H&M dress that I've had for eight years to a wedding this past summer and it's not the greatest quality but I still like it, and I'm going to keep it in my closet and keep it going for as long as I can."

Parker pretty much summed it up, but the American consumer will never change unless some sort of major shock were to come along and affect the economy and culture of America. I could talk at length about this issue, but I probably can't write too well about it, because I'm a ****** writer.

^ I'm afraid the fast-fashion mindset has become ingrained in our (Western) consumer culture. Not only in fashion, but electronics, home furnishings, and a lot of other categories. I hope we turn a corner toward more thoughtful, longer-lasting purchases. But, the cheap pricing / instant gratification combo is a hard habit to shake.

Speaking of NPR, I went to hear David Sedaris tell stories last night. He name dropped UnionMade as his favorite men's shop -- mentioning that they even carried Kapital... "clothes that seem to be thrown into the ocean for six years only to be washed up on the beach." He also mentioned that he follows The Sartorialist. haha. He himself looked a bit like a cross between Woody Allen and Thom Browne... wearing ocbd / knit tie / flat front dress pants / boots.

I find DS very entertaining to listen to. Plus his sister is funny too and cute.

The only people I see in Carhartt are skinny hipsters, so they come in small sizes as well.



On a related note: Cargo short and skinny legs with no muscle definition, is not a good look.

Most of the dudes I see in Carhartt are blue collar dudes who wear it for work. They wear it every day and beat the **** out of it for years until it falls apart. I still have a pair of their heavy duty pants that I purchased during an ill-advised hipster phase in the early part of the last decade. I wear them now when I need to wade into thick brush when doing yard work. Those things are build like a tank. I always thought it was really weird when they did that collab with Adam Kimmel.

So i've read that the fashion business is currently best for (as in most profit) in luxury clothes and very cheap clothes, basically the polar opposites. I haven't been interested in fashion for very long, but has it always been this way?

The latter hasn't actually existed for that long, maybe 25 years. Not to go all Tom Friedman on you, but it's pretty amazing how fast the proliferation of outsourcing the construction of most hard goods that most all American consumers use.

I've been after some good carry-on luggage for a while and those Briggs & Riley looks interesting but of course they're more expensive in Europe. So might as well pick up a Rimowa instead since they look better and aren't that much more expensive.

B&R is awesome. My wife loves to cheap out on ****. Last year she asked me to purchase a roll behind bag and a back pack for a laptop for her B-Day. I found a local shop that carried B&R (a shoe repair store of all places), found exactly what she was looking for, lied to hear about how much I paid, and still reap the benefits to this day.

That's awesome.

I got a book signed by Sedaris a few years ago and he asked if I smoked, because he was trying to recruit new smokers.

LOL!

 

[pickpackpockpuck]



^ I'm afraid the fast-fashion mindset has become ingrained in our (Western) consumer culture.

I have a friend who lived in Japan for a little while, and he told me the consumerism there is just as bad as it is in the West. It functions differently, but there's still this obsession with buying and with accumulating possessions. And he said it was more pronounced there than it is in the U.S., at least in his eyes. Now that China has a booming middle class and upper class, consumerism is similarly booming. I don't think it's a Western thing, I guess is what I'm saying. Or at least not anymore. Though I haven't been to China or Japan myself so for me this is all second-hand. Though maybe you could make the argument that they're emulating Western culture, in which case it is a Western thing. I dunno. In any case, consumer culture is global at this point.

Also, I remember bringing up the subject of sweatshops some weeks ago and a few people saying they really aren't that bad. Perhaps the majority in places like China aren't that bad, but there are still a huge number that are, and this factory collapse in Bangladesh makes that clear. Again, though, you run into the quandary of whether it's better for someone in a poor part of Bangladesh to work in a sweatshop or to have make a living doing something like scouring trash heaps or selling their bodies. It's a really sad situation with no easy solution.

 

[Find Finn]



Most of the dudes I see in Carhartt are blue collar dudes who wear it for work. They wear it every day and beat the **** out of it for years until it falls apart. I still have a pair of their heavy duty pants that I purchased during an ill-advised hipster phase in the early part of the last decade. I wear them now when I need to wade into thick brush when doing yard work. Those things are build like a tank. I always thought it was really weird when they did that collab with Adam Kimmel.

I live in Europe, blue collar workers don't wear carhartt here, they wear Kansas.

Carhartt even has a "flagship shop" in downtown Copenhagen right across from Vibskov.

 

[Biggskip]



Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

I have a friend who lived in Japan for a little while, and he told me the consumerism there is just as bad as it is in the West. It functions differently, but there's still this obsession with buying and with accumulating possessions. And he said it was more pronounced there than it is in the U.S., at least in his eyes. Now that China has a booming middle class and upper class, consumerism is similarly booming. I don't think it's a Western thing, I guess is what I'm saying. Or at least not anymore. Though I haven't been to China or Japan myself so for me this is all second-hand. Though maybe you could make the argument that they're emulating Western culture, in which case it is a Western thing. I dunno. In any case, consumer culture is global at this point.

Also, I remember bringing up the subject of sweatshops some weeks ago and a few people saying they really aren't that bad. Perhaps the majority in places like China aren't that bad, but there are still a huge number that are, and this factory collapse in Bangladesh makes that clear. Again, though, you run into the quandary of whether it's better for someone in a poor part of Bangladesh to work in a sweatshop or to have make a living doing something like scouring trash heaps or selling their bodies.

It's a really sad situation with no easy solution.

I'll probably be setting myself up for a bit smackdown for saying such things, but I think the solution is actually quite easy, it's just one nobody wants to see. Massive tax increases that fund economic development in economically impoverished areas throughout the world. Some people have way too much wealth and squander it away in any number of ways (something I am certainly guilty of) while many other areas have far too little wealth.