What's the vibe? #83

such good photos by Alex Huanfa Cheng

Hi hi hi, back again with more stuff.

News:

Elon Musk Tesla restaurant? Maybe big problem?

"The restaurant’s head chef will be Eric Greenspan, Merritt reports. Greenspan is an LA-based chef who’s appeared on Iron Chef Americaand multiple shows from chef/TV host Guy Fieri, whose comments in relation to President Donald Trump are not as supportively full-throated as Musk’s, but are definitely not resistant to his agenda. Perhaps that’s why the Instagram account Merritt claims is for the business has “Diner, drive-in movie and big chargers” as its profile description, arguably a take on Fieri’s series Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives." - sounds....tasteless.

New Spike Jonze Apple ad, ok.

Cross cultural collaboration:

These three countries are working together to

"The three countries called for their negotiations for a comprehensive trilateral free-trade agreement to be speeded up, and agreed to create "a predictable trade and investment environment", a statement said."

"The three countries account for 20 percent of the world's population, 24 percent of the global economy, and 19 percent of global merchandise trade, he said." - Chinese official Wang Liping 

In soft power news...

Man Repelling in gen:

(Early Noughties/Nineties) Earnestness

So a few weeks ago Haim released the track "relationships". All lower case btw. Their music video was directed by Camille Summers Valli and featured Drew Starkey.

The single art was a parody of Nicole Kidman's walking divorce photo. You know the one she did post-Tom? The other promo photos feel hyper real almost like...

Prada's work with photographer Norbert Schoerner (1998?)

Why do I mention all of these details today? Because I feel like this hyper real style of early noughts/90s style is coming back. Fashion wise but also in the most kind of "let's be honest" kind of way.

Next example being Wet Leg who just released their new track 'catch these fists' - all lower case, you catch my drift?

And these promo photos, by Iris Luz wearing Ashley Williams socks and giving of sly slouch vibes.

And I don't know... maybe John Malkovich for The Face? Also reminds me of the seminal text: Being John Malkovich by Spike Jonze...in which they wear Prada lol

I think I would even drag this hypothesis to outside of this to art with the artist Martine Sims whose exhibition at Lafayettes Anticipations in Paris finished months ago. It has this chaotic real vibe to it. It's life.

I would even extend it into this upward trend of longform videos coming back. People say YouTube isn't coming back but maybe people are watching longer videos on the platform countering the super short TikTok experience. But also this yearning to learn, to connect, to peer into other people's journeys and lives.

According to Digiday, "The number of 20-plus minute-long videos creators around the world are uploading to YouTube each month has increased from 1.3 million in July 2022 to 8.5 million in June 2024, according to data from Tubular Labs."

I mean... in China 60 second dramas are popular...

How unique are you?

What it means to have weird little hobbies during a chaotic time?

How to find weird little hobbies? (This is sold out but it's a series of events by Trippin')

What's the vibe #82

Hi hello, quickest catch up because I'm elsewhere atm.

Demna to Gucci, JW out at Loewe. New collections from Haider and Sarah at Tom Ford and Givenchy.

Printemps is has opened a NYC store - their first out of Europe. Super interesting but there was obviously this opportunity in NYC to have a great luxury experience and give Bergdorf some competition. (Not saying that Bergdorf doesn't have great buying curation but Sak's isn't great, and you need this new retail energy!)

My favourite collections from Fashion Week:

Tolu Coker

Acne Studios WW AW25

The remix of Human Behaviour goes off at the women's show.

Kiko Kostandinov MW + WW

The Asics tabis...

At the bigger houses, goodbye to JW Anderson for Loewe. End of an era. Still the best when bringing about whimsy to accessories. From FW22:

and FW25:

Talent I think are cool:

Frances C Planes (photographer, Paris)

Alizé Demange (stylist, London)

Things I really liked this week:

Ayo on Demna's last collection, would recommend to just watch his why Kering would move him to Gucci.

The director of Opus on style and working with John Malkovich .

Rick talking about freaks and protecting freak(-ishness). I too like Rick have been thinking about the nature of freakiness and how it's not really allowed too much. I thought about how people really craved this McQueen figure but we're held back by lack of time, lack of resources and just commercial nature. Is there any places in the next 5-10 years that are safe for off centre art?

Scans from 032c Magazine, Issue 46, Winter 24/25

Scans from 032c Magazine, Issue 46, Winter 24/25

Scans from 032c Magazine, Issue 46, Winter 24/25

What's the vibe? #82

News:

Kering profits are down 12%... Sabato out at Gucci, Casey out at Mugler.....

Kendrick Lamar (and SZA) played the Super Bowl half time show in New Orleans on Sunday. Kendrick's fashion was the most talked about aspects of the show. He was wearing custom Martine Rose leather jacket, Celine bootleg jeans (from Hedi Slimane's era) and Nike trainers.

Why does the Slimane connection matter so much? First of all, he posted about it on his personal page.

Second of all, if you're a fan of Fashion Roadman, he's been talking about potential successors to Sebato Sarno at Gucci and basically explained his reasons for Hedi possibly being the next Creative Director. One of them being that the house of Gucci needs someone experienced in making million/billion dollar expansions and someone who has a fanbase in terms of design. This is a good opportunity for Hedi to show his chops to maybe this new side of the audience - would Slimane have dressed him anyway if he had a CD position anywhere else? Probably.

Which leads onto my next theory of the moment...is that with this musical chairs going on, the next 2 years in fashion are going to be interesting. Does anyone even have a favourite brand at the moment? Do we know what they stand for without a creative head? Everyone is vying for domination but what my prediction is that any brand that doesn't have a fragrance or strong accessories part to its sales is going to gain one. Think Jacquemus.

I think definitely Eckhaus Latta with these ads are trying to gain new stability. But also this focus on the fan and idol is a really interesting way to look at marketing product

Daring to be wide (leg) w/ Pharrell and Kendrick

Childlike things!

New York Fashion week bar a few designers is, I feel stuck, in these doll like costumes. These poppy colours, almost slip on shapes that a doll would wear. This season AW25, we have this Sandy Liang "Polly Pocket" analogy and the boots from Eckhaus Latta...

Sandy Liang

Eckhaus Latta

Gabe Gordon - really eerie make up.

Marc Jacobs - so cuteeee.

FKA twigs on social media...

Oklou on an ice rink wearing Izzy Du

Pat McGrath inviting influencers to try Skin Fetish Glass Mask, her new product and wear it out...

Coach was cute.

What does that say about the temperature in NYC? Do people feel trapped in the images that they've made? Are we playing dress up?

"It’s an extension of the girly look we’ve been seeing for a little while now, says professor Carolyn Mair, author of The Psychology of Fashion and founder of consultancy Psychology Fashion. Now, beyond sweet bows and ballet flats, designers are taking the theme further into the realm of the surreal. The doll aesthetic blurs the lines between reality and fiction, while posing as a response to the tragic news we’re bombarded with on the daily. “It’s one thing after another: the climate and the politics and the wars and everything else that’s going on in the world,” Mair says. “We all have an inner child, psychologically. We want to return to that in times of stress.”

So Americans are feeling the stress of war, hard economic times, Trump, disorganisation...what better way to deal with it then playing in the dollhouse.

What can we look forward to during London Fashion Week? Perhaps, something from goth subculture, more fantasy, maybe kitchen kitch, unique core wardrobe dressing (I'm thinking woolen scarves), sensuality... Everyone is going to try and go back to the core of their brands. There's this redefining personal style.

Instagram of the week:

Lohause, a glasses brand from Lisbon, Portugal who have created something interesting with their instagram. It's all about the story and the drama of these people's lives that you're concerned with. The fact that they live good lives, are relaxed and are thinking about the hypotheticals.

Scents during MFW:

What's the vibe? #81

News:

Welcome back Gaga!

What is the USA doing this week worth mentioning:

Trump has basically started a Trump Tariff War with Mexico (then dialled it back for a month), with Canada (then dialled it back for a month), with China (10% additional, 15% retaliatory by China), then possibly the EU soon. What could that mean? Maybe isolationism for the USA, but maybe more people will wear American fashion? Go second hand?

New "Animal Spirits":

So Rachel Reeves wants to grow the UK economy. Her plans include a Cambridge-Oxford improvement in public and private transport infrastructure and a creation of a UK Silicon Valley. She supports the expansion and creation of Heathrow's third runway, wants to look at expansion plans at Gatwick and Luton, and "will work with Doncaster Council and the Mayor of South Yorkshire to support their efforts to reopen Doncaster Sheffield Airport as a thriving regional airport". Lots of airport business - but what about more regional journeys? What about train? HS2 incomplete, how do Labour prove their legacy?

Also how do we promote localism if we encourage people to use cars all the time? How do local businesses grow or visitors visit freely at their own whim?

Fashion Week Moments worth mentioning:

YSL Mens inspired by Robert Mappelthorpe:

Valentino set design at Palais Brongniart (who installed the lights?) :

Henrik Vibskov @ CFW:

Something a bit accessible about these looks.

Interesting round up by Wallpaper Magazine:

Lisa Rinna going spherical and paper doll :

JPG X LSS:

Beauty by Guido Palau and Karin Westerlund

Wellness culture and social coming together:

Tours of Interest this year:

Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter Residency

Nine Inch Nails

FKA Twigs

Lady Gaga - TBA (but it's coming, prob late 2025, mid 2026)

And are you looking for new artists?? Great list.

Scans from Damn, Issue 89, Winter 24/25.

Scans from Frame Magazine, Issue 159, Winter 24/25.

Scans from Popeye Magazine, Issue 933, Girlfriend Issue, January 2025.

Scans from Frame Magazine, Issue 159, Winter 24/25.

Scans from Damn, Issue 89, Winter 24/25.

Scans from Popeye Magazine, Issue 933, Girlfriend Issue, January 2025.

What's the vibe? #80

News:

Ideas of a changing society?

In Spain, single parents are now entitled to the same amount of paid parental leave that couples get. A court in Mercia who were ruling on a part time worker's leave said: "16 weeks for her, and 16 additional weeks that would have been available to her partner were she to have had one." So basically 32 weeks for one person. The future of parenting may be that it becomes more easier in certain countries to have children or people lobby their governments based on decisions made like this.

An idea:

Deepseek V1? What's that? You may have heard over the weekend and on Monday, about a new AI model sweeping the internet which is fully open source and cost way less than OpenAI to make. Deepseek, an artificial intelligence company, released their R1 model last week.

"The release of DeepSeek’s R1 model last week and its rise to the top of Apple’s App Store has triggered a tech stock sell-off. Asian tech shares fell on Tuesday in the wake of a Wall Street rout overnight. The Nasdaq fell 3 per cent and US chipmaker Nvidia, which produces the chips used to train large AI models, slumped 17 per cent, losing $600bn in market capitalisation. On Monday evening, Altman wrote on X that DeepSeek’s model was “impressive, particularly around what they’re able to deliver for the price”. He added: “We will obviously deliver much better models and also it’s legit invigorating to have a new competitor!”- from the Financial Times.

Altman is obviously freaking out, the market is freaking out, Trump told Silicon Valley to pull up its boots. Technology is moving faster than ever before. But I also think that this increases China's already growing soft and hard power in the world. If Trump is causing chaos in the West, China is essentially promising prosperity, cutting edge tech and pushing us forward into the future of living with technology, they offer an image of stability.

On the culture slant, what you need to know is that the Silcon Valley thought that they would be world leaders on AI, that it was expensive that that no one should know what their back door looked like. It's not about how much money you spend, it's the question of efficiency.

"Its researchers wrote in a paper last month that DeepSeek-V3 model, launched on Jan. 10, used Nvidia's lower-capability H800 chips for training, spending less than $6 million.

DeepSeek-R1, released last week, is 20 to 50 times cheaper to use than OpenAI's o1 model, depending on the task, according to a post on DeepSeek's official WeChat account."

Sorry Dazed, I really think you're wrong about sex...

I think there's this muddling between perversion and people searching for euphoria.

Mens Fashion Week! Best shows ONLY. (in my honest opinion.)

Harris Dickinson in Babygirl core at Acne Studios

Aliens will be so big this year, mark my words... Walter Van Beirendonck

Willy Chavarria, man of the moment. Love it all, very sexy.

Lemaire, so classy and in the city.

Kiko Kostadinov... we're going to Hyrule for this collection.

Rick Owens, obsessed with this hoodie.

Video of the weekkkk:

DRIVING ROUND LOOKING FOR UNKNOWN by Cero Ismael. Directed by Folkert Verdoorn & Simon Becks

What's the vibe? #79

News:

David Lynch died last week Wednesday (15th) and may we all remember his strangely influential films, his optimism and his full head of hair.

America is inspiring many trends. If America became less politically relevant, it would still be culturally relevant as the largest English-speaking country. I say this as Donald Trump orders the US to leave the World Health Organisation, meaning less health protection in the event of another pandemic, less research on existing diseases etc.

TikTok was banned for basically 5 hours. Two things I realised: these younger generations have such a bad addiction to social media that even the mention of something ending is a panic. Like the algorithms are shaping our brains as we speak. How do we get out of this? See the transfer to Xiaohongshu or Instagram changing its feed shape to rectangle in preparation for more people to make reels. The second thing is that there's an extremely dark aura to having Trump as the president for the second time. Regressive social policies are on the way and tech bosses (Meta, Airbnb!!!) are admitting openly their support for a nationalist president.

The other non-American based apps know about this and are capitalising. Xiaohongshu is hiring more English translators and Douyin (Chinese TikTok) is opening up its product to people with a non-Chinese number for the first time ever. The youth don't have that Sinophobic paranoia like before and want to know about how others live. The curiosity could mean an increase in Chinese anglosphere exchange of information (also xhs has a censorship issue whereas TikTok doesn't have as bad as an issue...bar the fact that people can't say certain words).

Georgia Graham writes about this splintering of the internet in her newsletter:

“What’s happening with TikTok is also another example of an overall splintering of social media, whereby users are becoming more like nomadic tribes (see also: the rise of Bluesky, and niche social platforms like Perfectly Imperfect’s PI.FYI and Dazed’s Dazed Club app). We’re no longer wedded to a single platform, instead becoming habituated to a new culture of constant relocation in smaller groups.”

She’s talking a bit more to brands and less normal humans but you get the gist. Everyone is going into their little corners of the internet that are owned by someone. Maybe we'll teach each other how to make our own websites soon? The kids also yearn for Tumblr....

You want to do anything interesting? IRL. You want to say something about a president who also has an internet addiction? IRL. You want to be an artist who is known not on platforms owned by people who play games with your visability? IRL, and making community connections.

Something to read?

"Sales grew ten-fold from less than €10 million in 2019 to over €100 ($103 million) in 2024, as best-sellers like twisted seam pants, bathrobe coats and matte silk blouses continued to fly off the racks, rejoined by a burgeoning leather goods business featuring supple anatomic footwear and quirky bags shaped like seashells and croissants."

"The brand is dipping its toe into advertising and celebrity marketing, running targeted campaigns for store openings and cultural events like sponsored art exhibitions and concerts."

We're back at MFW FW25. I feel old. FW25 - gimme a break. But the shows are excellent, the music is thumping, the designers have a lot to say and it feels very rich.

Firstly, MM6 with their Pitti Uomo debut - biker chic, indie sleaze.

Prada FW25 is cowboy sailor country industrial. Nonsensical mismash. Working through this cinematic theme. Almost like the city boy (check jacket/shirt) moves home or somewhere alien. It's like the scene in the film where they come in to a local bar and they're trying to assimilate into American country living (the fur coats and the way it's cut almost like this animal on the shoulder).

JordanLuca got married!

Magliano - Da Giocare - "To Play"

Saul Nash - skin tight athleisure, suiting

Our Legacy - the juxtaposition between

Rian Phin says it's the year of sincerity:

Menswear Trends according to Vogue Business:

Visual Suggestions:

Ecologist chic - water, algae coming to the front again, cleansing

Knowledge is cool > Jurassic Park > Offline behaviour > reading clubs > JW's last Loewe collection (SS25) on art and museums

Trend:

We're in this moment of sort of perversion - Nostferatu, Babygirl, Peggy by Ceechyna, Ethel Cain's album Perverts, does it mean it'll be seen now? Maybe in the women's collections, this subversion, this gothic-ness.

(Yes, I'm still thinking about Ceechnya, cause it goes up in the club.)

Talent:

Florence Tetier + Alina P. Aleksandrovna

Christelle Oyiri is bringing her Venom Voyage exhibition to London this Friday at Glasshouse in Soho, London. 5 Warwick Street, London, W1B 5LU.

Food Discoveries:

Czech beer aka Mlíko is all the rage and all the head in NYC.

Solar Bakery and Solar Cafe - Hong Kong style popular in Manchester

The Dreamery in East London combining ice cream and wines:

Coffee Shop DJ Sets in LA Alaia has their own cafe in their Bond Street store run by Violet Cakes.

On nostalgia by Cillian:

Chet Lo furniture collaboration with Rankin Editions, 2024. Photos by Nicole Chen