We surely walk along the same lines with both personal and commercial platforms to tend to. I’d take a guess that like myself, if nobody read your blog it wouldn’t really affect you. But in regards to your work-related writing, I think you do have a little bit more room to work than I do with regarding Crooked Tongues thanks to a well-established editorial voice. In all honesty, nobody comes to Hypebeast for the literature, it’s all about the images… oh and the release date and location. But at least your ability to truly tell it how you feel makes me a bit jealous at times. We’ve all but figured that for us at Hypebeast, our strength lies is in objective views of relatively pointless products.
Or maybe I would just find it that difficult to write without being overly critical cause I’ve succumbed to the notion that what we do IS a business and the best interests of my viewers sometimes come into play as well. Oh Kanye did what… INSTA-POST!!! Do people ever tell you that they feel as though you’ve over-intellectualized some of the topics you speak about? Sometimes I feel that for people to get the point and maintain interest you may even have to dumb down your writing and references cause even I’m often left scratching my head haha. But at the same time, I can appreciate it that beyond the sneakers and the t-shirts lies an intelligent bunch of personalities that drive our passions.
Exactly on the PR front. Seriously – brands if you’re looking for someone to communicate your brand, holler! I want to go corporate soon. I’ve always been perplexed by the profitability of copying hype site posts word-for-word and being called ‘Urbanhype’ or some such shit. Maybe they know something we don’t know and are pushing Maybachs on the adword loot.
On the main topic, I believe Morrissey’s ‘We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful’ sums it up in one line, but the great British attitude has long been to build them up and smash them down on the perception they’ve become too big for their boots. London in particular definitely feels like it’s on the up in terms of creativity and positive spirit, but it’s full of desperate tribes. Obviously I’m not privy to what goes on behind the scenes, but NYC, Paris and Berlin tend to have a mix of high-end and street level, whereas London is so sprawling that there seems to be little crossover. Don’t get me wrong, there’s an excellent sense of community with my friends in the industry, and I’m sure the recession has created a few unlikely alliances, but we Brits have a tendency towards the scowl. I like that, because I’m pretty patriotic when it comes to perceptions of us – I love the idea that we’re ultra critical. I think we should excel in writing and critique – that’s one beautiful stereotype I wish we could maintain in our work, but honestly, I see a lot of bullshit getting feted over here. You know what? I wish we were MORE cynical!
I guess the UK’s offerings to the world of fashion courtesy of some subcultural booms are well documented, but most of the best are a “fuck you” at that cynicism – some weekend warrior hedonism mind states. I think timeless pieces like our knitwear, tweeds, countryfied leather shoes and waxed coats were made for a customer who wanted something classy but quiet and long-lasting with minimum fuss – basically the byproduct of our reserved ways, so that’s got to be a good thing… it generates a nice style legacy from these shores. Anger is our energy, but we’re not as vocal about it as some of our Euro-spending neighbors…
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