readymade meets opensource
At this point, everyone is clued into Virgil Abloh’s role as “the” creative director. Coming to fashion via architecture, gives him a very interesting scaffold on which to hang his ideas. His meteoric climb, notable work-ethic, readymade philosophy, are not timely in the trend conversation, per se. But we plan to explore his role in the larger arc as is our goal with Salonnière: to look at things through a contextual lens, a seminal perspective and try to connect the dots in his post-structuralist contribution. Thom Bettridge notes,
“He describes Marcel Duchamp as his “lawyer,” the art-historical grounds onto which he can absorb pre-existing intellectual property into his reference system. Abloh rejects the who-did-it-first mentality of previous generations in favor of the copy-paste logic of the Internet and its inhabitants.”
This is a significant designation in the arc that includes Duchamp, streetwear and TikTok. Before Virgil (yes, we can refer to time as BV, AV) brands funneled trends to consumers. The goal with each collection was to “be the first”. With the open-source mindset that is rampant among GenZ, the goal posts for brands have really changed. “It’s about participating in a cultural flow that has shifted. It used to be top-down—with brands, which were holier than thou, debuting ideas that would go down into the stream. They would be accepted, then consumed, and then more would come. In the last five years, there’s been a sense of empowerment to reverse that flow and send things back up. It’s a consumer revolt. And at the center of this is the Internet and social media.” says Abloh.
The Guardian / David Bowie on the effect of the internet.
Much of this is rooted in streetwear culture. It’s a “call-and-response” structure that is rooted in interplay between viewer and creator. In what seems like a prediction about the internet and the 21st century David Bowie stated “Artists like Duchamp were so prescient here – the idea that the piece of work is not finished until the audience comes to it and adds their own interpretation, and what the piece of art is about is the grey space in the middle. That grey space in the middle is what the 21st century is going to be all about.”
This was an onramp for platforms like TikTok that left off where Instagram’s currency of a manicured POV is replaced with voyeuristic glimpses into IRL. Where you can really see the intersection of these points is in the rise of DIY and upcycle fashions via platforms like DePop and Poshmark (which IPO’d in December 2020. In Vogue Business, Lucy MaGuire points out, “The fashion industry is no longer the only voice directing the new season’s trends. People are tapping into TikTok to see what emerging styles are ‘in’ and what previously popular trends are coming back around.” TikTok trends manifest into purchases on Depop, where 90 percent of users are Gen Z.
In her book, The Business of Aspiration, Ana Andjelic addresses this exact position. “Instagram aesthetic shapes the design of fashion items, retail stores, hotel lobbies, and product packaging. TikTok’s “challenges” where people are prompted to recreate specific dances or routines, seeped into our culture, where brands react to each other’s popular styles, and then reactions to reactions create trends.” she says. “Mimicry is elevated to the level of a trend.”
This is an excerpt of an article from our past issue. Subscribe to read more on:
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