Go offline before going online
The importance of collecting physical media, a brand that's flying under everyone's radar, how Stussy's marketing is bigger than the clothes they make, and more!
The holiday gift acquisition period is officially underway, so I’m just going to remind everyone of the current gift guide available because I’m getting a lot more gift oriented questions in the mail—if you have them, send them! Our Substack chat is active, engaged and most importantly, helpful.
In today’s letter:
The importance of collecting physical media
A New York brand making great clothes that more people should be talking about
How Stussy’s marketing is bigger than the clothing they make
A paid-subscriber exclusive; a gift you can give this holiday season to practically anyone.
and more as usual
I’ve recently began reorganizing my physical archive before the start of the new year. I always enjoy covering new releases and topics on the blog, but I want to shift some of that focus into developing content that highlights the past—most of the good stuff was already made, so it feels silly to constantly just talk about the new stuff.
One way I’m trying to achieve that is by creating an archive of books, magazines, and any other physical media really. Right now I would say that my internet vs physical media consumption is somewhere between 70/30. The goal is to flip that ratio to about 30% of the research for the blog coming from the internet while the rest is all physical.
Right now online media is potentially the worst it’s ever been. Our feeds are overrun by low quality content, AI is making things even worse, and fashion is caught in the middle of it.
Don’t get me wrong, we still have fashion creators who are doing a good job by keeping authenticity at the core of the content that they create. But even then, you can see cracks sometimes beginning to form when the algorithm stops favoriting them and starts forcing them to conform to online trends that are outright awful.
Last week I got got by a photo on twitter of Kim Kardashian standing in some explore page streetwear brand fit in front of a Mercedes 190e that was peeking behind a garage door. It felt very Stussy lookbook and it didn’t make any sense. It was AI.
Anyway, the worst part of it all was not even the content itself but the fact that I didn’t realize it was fake right away, which is not a good sign for the future of fashion content online. Posts like these are about to start popping up more and more, and I wouldn’t even put it past some of these moodboards to begin creating their own ai-generated images like this to get engagement—I feel like I’ve already seen it happen but I refuse to link it and give it more attention. It sucks.
At some point or another, if not already, trying to figure out and learn about fashion using the internet is going to become very difficult. Sure, you can argue that we have more resources than ever but how much of it is actually helpful? I like to believe that blogs like mine and other great fashion writers will be extremely important moving forward—as long as they continue to create real content of course.
With our feeds becoming actual AI/Ads/Low quality slop, having some sort of physical resource that you can tap into when it comes to consuming fashion is the next move. This also applies to art, movies, and music. When did streaming become the new cable? Why do I need 20 services just to watch the things I want to watch?
The point I’m trying to make is that the content we see on the internet right now is changing rapidly and I think it’s really worth investing into your own physical media archive. Start collecting cds, magazines, books, and even download old media to your computer and keep a record of it. Anything that can’t be taken away or altered.
Before you know it you’ll have your own physical library that you can use as inspiration in many different ways. You’ll also be much more effective in terms of content consumption because you’re not getting distracted by random content and ads in between.
As I finalize my archive I’m thinking of how to present the physical information that I do have. I don’t want to give it all away because gatekeeping will always be fun, and at the end of the day, SNL is growing which means that there are a lot of eyes on what I put people on.
Let’s just say those who’ve been influenced by the blog are not going unnoticed.
The Fleece Report™
Fleeces under $200, what options I'll be adding to my closet this season, is it worth spending a lot of money on one, and what brands you should be looking at for vintage fleeces.
A BRAND THAT DESERVES MORE ATTENTION
