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The Imminent Death of Luxury — Transcript

by Bliss Foster · 5,453 words · 784 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00The luxury industry is in such deep
0:03right now. Like even before the tariff
0:06thing started, the last 12 months by the
0:09industry have been dubbed the great
0:11luxury slowdown. And then the tariffs
0:13did hit, everybody started to panic and
0:16those goofy Tik Toks went viral. All of
0:18it's made in China, bro. During the last
0:2115 years, the luxury fashion industry
0:23has gone mainstream. The increased
0:25amount of money, the presence of the
0:26internet, and just a larger number of
0:28eyeballs has changed the industry in a
0:30massive way. Runways are a lot more
0:33theatrical than they used to be.
0:35Designers are expected to be
0:37worldbuilders, much more so than in the
0:39past, and the number of ways that we can
0:41engage with a fashion brand has
0:43increased. Miumu will sell you books
0:46occasionally. Uh Christian Dior wants to
0:48sell you overpriced cappuccinos. Mesa
0:50Margela did a crypto thing at one point.
0:53and Balenciaga made a very strange video
0:55game. During luxury's rise to the
0:58mainstream, there have been two primary
1:00camps of commentary. One is asking what
1:03even is luxury? Like if we get really
1:06specific, what does or does not qualify
1:08as luxury? The other camp doesn't really
1:11care what the definition of luxury is.
1:13It just knows that at some point very
1:15soon, the luxury industry is going to
1:17collapse completely. Let's focus on the
1:19collapse first. Critics vary in how they
1:22think the luxury industry is going to
1:23collapse, but all things equal, the the
1:26predicted collapse is pretty easy to
1:27explain. The logic goes like this.
1:29Luxury companies are like pretty much
1:32every other company in that they are
1:34driven by profit and growth. Most of the
1:37household names of luxury are publicly
1:39traded even. So that push for profit and
1:41growth is even stronger than it would be
1:43at like a little mom and pop shop
1:45company, right? Okay. So, luxury
1:47companies, whether they're in fashion or
1:49booze or cruises or popsicles, all
1:52luxury companies essentially offer the
1:54same
1:56thing. Specialness. That That sounds
1:59horrible on camera, but I mean, you
2:02understand what I mean, right?
2:03Specialness. That's That's what they
2:04give you. You said you need a wallet.
2:07All right. This way, Miss We have such a
2:09special wallet for you. Do you need a
2:11jacket? Wait until you see this jacket.
2:14Do you need decorative bars of soap for
2:16your guest bathroom? Well, we have
2:17decorative bars of soap that are going
2:19to kick your dick off. Okay, so the
2:21luxury fashion industry creates special
2:23things, right? Okay, so the people that
2:25are predicting that luxury is going to
2:26have this massive collapse and downfall
2:28would say that specialness and profit
2:31and growth that these things can't
2:33coexist for forever. They predict that
2:36at some point, maybe even here in the
2:39present, the once special offerings of
2:42luxury brands will be quietly replaced
2:46with injection molded plastic [ __ ] If
2:49that was true, then like once the secret
2:51gets out, everybody's been tricked.
2:53Luxury is a myth. There can be no luxury
2:56industry after that. If you're new here,
2:58hi. My name is Bliss. That's my wife
3:00Daniela behind the camera. We are
3:02independent fashion critics. Every
3:04season we fly out to Paris for fashion
3:06week and cover it in just unbelievable
3:10detail. We have dedicated our careers to
3:12documenting, studying, and analyzing the
3:15work of contemporary fashion designers.
3:17We conduct interviews with them. We
3:19attend more runway shows than any other
3:21critics or journalists in the industry.
3:24And we spend every waking minute
3:27thinking about clothes. If you haven't
3:29seen Work by Us before, I strongly
3:31encourage you to subscribe. And I
3:32especially encourage you to subscribe if
3:34you're not really like a fashion person.
3:37I feel like the industry has done a
3:39terrible job of marketing itself to
3:42people who are not already obsessed with
3:43it. And while there is definitely some
3:45hilariously bad fashion design out
3:47there, there's also some really
3:49beautiful and kick-ass stuff that is
3:51absolutely worth seeing. I did feel like
3:53we needed to like offer some context as
3:55to our qualifications about this before
3:57we actually talk about it. And now I'm
3:58sure everybody is just like, "Wow, he's
4:00a fashion critic. That's crazy. Oh my
4:03gosh, so cool." Okay, so in order to
4:05understand where the luxury industry
4:07might be going, we need to go back
4:09before the mainstreamification of the
4:11luxury industry. Gear shift time. You
4:13know how like a lot of people are really
4:15mad at Elon Musk right now? Well, none
4:18of you are as mad at Elon Musk as this
4:20guy who used to be the richest man in
4:22the world and is now the fifth richest
4:24man in the world. WW. His name is
4:27Bernard Arno and he has changed the
4:29fashion industry more than any designer
4:32could even think about changing it.
4:34Bernard owns a multinational
4:36conglomerate called LVMH. A
4:39multinational conglomerate is basically
4:41just a company that owns a lot of other
4:43companies. LVMH stands for Louis Vuitton
4:46Moet Hennessy, but really they're being
4:49modest because LVMH owns or owns stake
4:51in a metric [ __ ] ton of companies. I am
4:55gonna way oversimplify things here, but
4:57when Bernard Arno was acquiring or
4:59acquiring majority stake in most of
5:01these companies, they were in a really
5:03bad place financially. The the luxury
5:06business was very different at that
5:07time. Selling ultra nice products to
5:09ultra wealthy people was a great
5:11business model around the year like
5:131900. But as you get up into the 1980s
5:16and the 1990s, it's not working so well.
5:19So, Bernard Arno introduced a new
5:21strategy. And there are two parts of
5:22this strategy that are relevant for this
5:24video. The first part is that they were
5:26going to focus on products that were
5:29very expensive, but that most people
5:32could technically afford. Like an
5:34example here in the present would be
5:36that most American adults could
5:38technically through cash or credit
5:40afford an $800 t-shirt or a $90 tube of
5:44lipstick. Train. Pause for train. Ladies
5:48and gentlemen, the train
5:54Now, it's probably not responsible for
5:56most people to do that, but it's not
5:58like a Ferrari or like a beach house in
6:00the Maldes where it's like, I don't even
6:02know how I would come up with that
6:04quantity of money. Like, most folks,
6:06even if it's irresponsible, can push
6:08together a couple hundred for some Gucci
6:09slides, right? How do three grown men
6:11not have $800 between them? When people
6:14use the term the great luxury slowdown,
6:16they are referring to fewer people
6:18participating in this business model.
6:20There are fewer people spending a few
6:22hundred on small luxury items. The
6:25second part of Bernard Arno's strategy
6:27is the hype machine. I really like this
6:29part. Bernard saw that the runway
6:32presentations at famous Parisian fashion
6:34houses like Christian Dior and Gioveni
6:37that they were losing a ton of money.
6:39And as a good businessman, of course, he
6:41would want to cut out the part of the
6:43business that makes no money but costs a
6:45lot of money, right? No. Importantly,
6:48Bernard did not care that the runway
6:50shows lost money. He considered that to
6:52be part of their advertising budget. In
6:55fact, he wanted those runway shows to
6:56get bigger, louder. He wanted to spend
6:58more money on them. He even hired young,
7:01controversial fashion designers to do
7:03the work at these historic houses. You
7:05may have heard of some of them,
7:06Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. To
7:09create hype and newness at these fashion
7:11houses, Arno made these brands places
7:14where the audience would come to see
7:16radical artistic statements. Runway
7:19shows were not for shopping anymore than
7:21walking through a museum is shopping.
7:23Are no positioned runway shows as a
7:25place where the audience could dream and
7:29feel. The audience who watches a
7:31recording of a runway show or or goes to
7:33attend one in person should walk away
7:35having had a moving emotional experience
7:39similar to a great movie or a great
7:41stage play. Shout out Dana Thomas, one
7:43of the greatest fashion writers of all
7:45time. If you want to hear more about
7:47that story generally, you should read
7:48Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. It's
7:51fantastic book and Dana is such a nice
7:53lady. I've talked to her a few times.
7:54She's really cool. But do not read that
7:56book yet because I really want to
7:57emphasize something.
7:59What what is the actual definition of
8:02luxury? I want you to hold it in your
8:04head. If you if you have a preconceived
8:06definition of what luxury is, write it
8:08down. Hold it in your head very
8:10purposefully because it's going to
8:12become important later. Second question,
8:14do you personally own a luxury item?
8:18Like, do you own something that someone
8:20else, a stranger, would look at and say
8:22objectively like, "Oh my goodness, how
8:23luxurious. Wow, that's very nice." If
8:25you don't own something that is like
8:27objectively luxurious, do you instead
8:29maybe own something that is luxurious,
8:31but that luxury is only known to you and
8:34maybe a few others? Like this would be
8:37something like um your father's battery
8:40powered watch that only is worth maybe
8:4245 bucks, but is important to you
8:44because it belonged to your father or
8:46maybe a quilt that your grandmother made
8:49or maybe just a photograph of a loved
8:51one that is no longer with you. I own
8:55something like that. This is a small
8:57chicken figurine that is made out of
8:59carved stone. The texture of the stone
9:01is incredible and the weight of the
9:03whole object is really pleasing in the
9:06hand. My dad got this for me when he was
9:08traveling for a job that he had around
9:10the time that I was born. My father quit
9:12that job because it required him to
9:14travel internationally so much and he
9:16wanted to devote more time to being
9:18present as a dad. My father loves
9:21traveling and he really loved doing the
9:23work that he was doing. Like for my dad
9:25to give up that job was a huge
9:27sacrifice, but my brothers and I have
9:29benefited enormously from having our dad
9:32home with us every night when we were
9:33growing up. Is that luxurious? Because
9:36monetarily it's worthless. Like if I
9:38gave it to someone else, even if I
9:40explained that story to them, it mostly
9:43I think would still be worthless. The
9:45definition of luxury is inherently very
9:49slippery. It means different things to
9:51different people. But maybe that
9:53slipperiness is just there because of
9:55sentimental value. Like obviously my
9:58relationship with my dad is something
10:00that cannot be commodified and sold to
10:02other people. So if we remove
10:04sentimental value from the equation, is
10:07the definition of luxury suddenly very
10:09clear? For those of you who do own an
10:12item that a stranger would objectively
10:14think is luxurious, I still want you to
10:17hold that item in your head. And I want
10:19everyone to still remember what your
10:21definition of luxury is. Keep that in
10:23your head. Write it down if you can. I'm
10:24really hoping this is going to [ __ ] you
10:26up. Hang with me. Rick Owens and
10:29Chanel. Are both of these companies
10:32luxury? Like obviously the audiences of
10:35these companies couldn't be any more
10:37different but are they both luxury
10:41companies? I would like to propose a
10:43radical new definition of luxury. The
10:46global household names of luxury would
10:49like us to believe that the definition
10:50of luxury is not slippery. They would
10:54like us to believe that luxury is just a
10:57vertical sliding scale of niceness that
11:00correlates to cost. The more you spend
11:02on something, the nicer the thing is and
11:05the more luxurious it is. That's it. At
11:08the bottom of the scale is Primark,
11:10Walmart, Sheen, H&M, and at the top is
11:12all the brand names that your grandma
11:14can list off. Gucci, Louis, Prada, etc.
11:16Those huge household names benefit
11:18greatly from you holding the belief that
11:21luxury brands can be ranked according to
11:24how nice they are. And that ranking is
11:26all you would need to know as a luxury
11:28customer. Because if luxury is just a
11:30sliding scale of niceness, then the
11:32brands with the biggest stores in the
11:34Dubai Mall can always win. Luxury must
11:36be a contest and the biggest brands must
11:39be the luxury allstars. Okay, well, [ __ ]
11:42that. This is my definition of luxury.
11:45All luxury companies are just businesses
11:48that have a lot of extra time and have a
11:51lot of extra money. The identity of that
11:54luxury brand is determined by how they
11:57choose to spend the time and the money.
12:00By contrast, a normal non-luxury company
12:03does not have an enormous amount of
12:05extra time and money. Like uh Bick, the
12:09lighter company that also makes like
12:11razors and pens and stuff. So that
12:13company pretty much all their time and
12:15money is put into making sure that their
12:17products can be as low cost as possible
12:19so that they can just be utilitarian for
12:21their customers. If there is any extra
12:23money, it just goes to the CEO or the
12:25board of directors or whatever. But a
12:27luxury company charges a huge premium so
12:30that they can have a great deal of extra
12:32time and money. How are those resources
12:36spent? I want to give a wide variety of
12:39examples of how luxury companies can
12:42spend their time and money so that you
12:45as a customer can start to make up your
12:48mind as to what you do expect from a
12:52luxury company. We will start with the
12:54row. The legendary American fashion
12:57brand by the Olsen twins hosts two
12:59runway shows per year that are done just
13:01during the standard Women's Paris
13:03Fashion Week. They only invite a few
13:05dozen people to the presentation and
13:07there is no video allowed at all
13:11including cell phones. Now a lot of
13:13people watching this probably are
13:15already aware of this and a lot of
13:17commentary online seems to be sort of
13:19rolling its eyes at this as if it's some
13:22kind of gimmick and Daniela and I have
13:25never thought of this as a gimmick. It
13:26is one of the strongest statements that
13:28a luxury fashion brand can make because
13:31committing to a runway show is
13:33unbelievably expensive and timeconuming.
13:37Most consultants and business people in
13:39the industry say that a runway show must
13:42be digital first in order for it to be
13:45anywhere close to worth it. And that
13:47means that they are practically begging
13:50all attendees to have their phones out
13:52the entire please go live if you can.
13:54Instagram, Facebook, bring multiple
13:55phones if you can. Go live everywhere if
13:57you if you're able to. Thank you so
13:58much. And that's fine. I mean, we run a
14:00media company. Danielle and I love
14:01documenting runway shows, but when you
14:04go to as many as we do, you do kind of
14:07start to yearn for just one where
14:11everyone sits quietly together in the
14:14room and they are present with the music
14:16and the clothes. This is not a gimmick.
14:20Now, how would that fit into the sliding
14:23scale of niceness? I mean, if you go
14:25into a household name luxury store, they
14:28got the runway show in the flat screen
14:30TV that is bigger than any flat screen
14:32TV that you've ever seen that is
14:33beautifully like embedded into the
14:35marble wall. And that [ __ ] plays on loop
14:37all day long. Okay, switching examples.
14:40If you watch this channel a lot, I'm
14:41sure you already know about the Margela
14:43replica line. Most people at least have
14:45heard of the GATS. Those stand for
14:47German Army Trainers. Those are part of
14:49a larger line that is referred to as
14:52replica. That project involved members
14:54of the design team finding vintage
14:56clothes and then taking them to their
14:58manufacturers and saying, "I want you to
15:00make this vintage piece new as close to
15:04the original as you can." Now, of
15:06course, all designers are inspired by
15:09vintage garments, but the Maison wanted
15:11to pay tribute to those beautiful gems
15:14of unknown origin such that they would
15:16recreate them. exactly the way they were
15:20but brand new. The manufacturing
15:22challenges with that are massive. You
15:24don't know exactly what the material
15:26composition is because it was a vintage
15:28item in the '90s and so there is no care
15:31label on it. How was the fabric dyed?
15:33What type of dye was it? Was it just a
15:35standard dye that was off the shelf at a
15:37dye shop or did they have to mix up a
15:38special dye just for that garment?
15:40Trying to triangulate those answers
15:42takes an enormous amount of time and
15:45money just because of trial and error.
15:47The replica line was a massive part of
15:50what set Mesa Martin Margella apart from
15:52its luxury competitors. Oh my gosh,
15:55speaking of luxury, these pants, oh my
15:57gosh, I am sweating so much. They're so
15:59cool. I love them so much. They're made
16:01of like rubberized crazy I haven't
16:04actually done all the textile research
16:05on it yet, but they're insane. I love
16:07them, but oh my gosh, if I sit in them,
16:09I sweat like an animal. Were you getting
16:12a little flustered thinking about me
16:14sweating like an animal? Are you
16:15disgusted by me? Do you know what
16:17horseair feels like? Most people have
16:20never felt horse hair used in a textile
16:23context. You can't really speed up its
16:25growth and there's only so many horses
16:27whose tails can be given a haircut. So,
16:30if you go into the dressing room at some
16:32Acuras stores, the entirety of the wall
16:35of the dressing room is just solid
16:38horsehair and it feels insane. I happen
16:42to have a wallet from Acuras that has a
16:45swatch of solid horsehair on it and it
16:48also feels insane. So that wallet is
16:50super cool. I love it. But importantly,
16:52the dressing room walls are something
16:55that anyone could experience. If you
16:58want a crazy tactile experience, you can
17:00go into an Acura store and go into the
17:03dressing room and just feel the walls.
17:06And while you're there, you can also
17:08check out some of the most considered
17:09clothes in the world. Danielle and I
17:11were recently among the first people to
17:13visit the actual Seline Metier in
17:16Florence. For many Americans, this would
17:18just be called a factory, but if you
17:20like close your eyes and imagine in your
17:22mind palace a factory, it is the
17:25opposite of what this place actually
17:27was. This massive room featured almost
17:30entirely glass walls that overlook the
17:32Italian countryside. Okay, so that is a
17:34perk that belongs only to the employees
17:37who work there. Again, Danielle and I
17:38were part of the first group of
17:40outsiders to ever visit that Metsier.
17:43But when you buy a luxury product, you
17:46do assume that this is what you would
17:49find in the manufacturing. At least
17:51that's what one would hope. Or is a
17:54small Japanese fashion brand that's
17:56relatively new to the Paris Fashion Week
17:58calendar. Their luxury identity is
18:00shaped by the fact that they develop all
18:02of their own fabrics. In a recent
18:04interview with the designer, I was told
18:06that they recently developed a cashmere
18:08moles skin. I didn't even realize that
18:10was possible. Developing custom fabrics
18:12is not necessarily a better choice in
18:15all situations, but it is if you want
18:17that level of freedom in your design
18:20decision-m. Way on the other side of
18:22Japanese sensibilities is a brand called
18:24Dubé. They're a brand that invests an
18:27enormous amount of time creating these
18:29bizarre crossword puzzle style wordplay
18:32jokes in their runway shows. Every
18:35review that we have done of a Dubé show,
18:37which is like five, four or five now,
18:40every review has just been me trying to
18:42explain each of these jokes as quickly
18:44as possible so we get all of them in.
18:46Car is a French brand that's currently
18:48creatively directed by Nicola D.
18:50Feliche. his shows are outstanding works
18:53of art on their own. And something that
18:55Daniellea and I have emphasized a
18:56million times is how excellently cut his
18:59clothes are. Nicola told us recently
19:02that he doesn't allow anyone to copy
19:04patterns from the archives. All
19:06patterns, even when they're based on
19:08previous patterns, must be recut by the
19:11internal team. He says he wants a modern
19:14sensibility to always be a part of the
19:17clothes. That extra cutting, you'd be
19:19surprised. It takes a lot of time and a
19:22lot of money. IRA is a brand based out
19:24of LA that reflects a great deal on
19:26life, death, and living purposefully.
19:29Their very first runway presentation was
19:32a performance art piece that involved no
19:34models and only had the designer, Drew,
19:37along with another guy hanging the
19:39garments up one by one in a room that
19:41simulated Mother Teresa's House of the
19:44Dying. Another performance piece saw
19:46Drew sitting silently for hours and
19:48hours with no breaks while everyone who
19:51came to the showroom tried on the
19:53collection on camera. Later on, Drew
19:55wanted to do a sneaker collaboration
19:57that involved taking a mass market
20:00sneaker model and wrapping it in what's
20:02called Cotti gauze from India. He then
20:05encouraged the buyer to set the shoes on
20:06fire so that the gauze could choose the
20:08path and intensity of the fire. Then
20:11when it burns out, you have a
20:13mass-roduced sneaker that is as unique
20:15as your own fingerprint. After that idea
20:17got rejected by every single shoe brand
20:19on Earth for legal reasons, obviously,
20:22he finally got AS6 to agree to do a
20:25very, very small run of those sneakers,
20:28and I actually own two of them. I
20:30haven't asked Drew purposefully about
20:32this, but I feel very confident he made
20:34no money from that collaboration
20:36whatsoever. I think that just fire and
20:40loss and sacrifice, these are just
20:42things that Drew thinks about a lot and
20:44he wanted to represent that in work that
20:46got to go out into the world and live
20:48its own life. We have multiple awesome
20:50interviews with Drew up on our Patreon
20:52and we even have a little documentary
20:54that talks about the performance art
20:55piece where he sat very silently in a
20:57room for a long time. If you want, you
20:58can go check those out. A luxury
21:00identity is defined by how you choose to
21:04spend your extra time and money. Chanel
21:08owns what is called the Metier Dart,
21:11which just means that they own a number
21:13of artisal French companies that make
21:16very specific things. They own a French
21:18shoe maker. They own a French glove
21:21maker. They own a French house that that
21:23just does beautiful traditional
21:25pleading. A few others. And of course,
21:27the most famous member of the Metier
21:29Dart is Mison Lass who makes some of the
21:33most beautiful tweed in the whole world.
21:36Personally, I have been in the K store,
21:39which is the Metier that makes all of
21:40their gloves, and I can assure you it is
21:44not making any money. This is a passion
21:46project to keep craft alive in France.
21:49I'm extremely grateful that the Metsier
21:51Dart exists. Shifting gears, awesome
21:53story here. I recently spoke to a woman
21:56who worked for Brunello Cuchinelli as a
21:58retail employee in the United States for
22:00a number of years. She talked to me for
22:02a solid hour about how fantastic it was
22:05to work for that company. The thing that
22:07I remember most from that conversation
22:08is her describing Mr. Cuchinelli's
22:11Christmas gifts to all employees all
22:13around the world. He will hand select
22:16hardcover books and send it to them,
22:18just books that he thinks should be in
22:20their library. and she told me that
22:22every year she would take those books
22:24and spend the first couple of months of
22:26the new year reading them to her
22:28daughters. Now again, much like the
22:30Seline story, that is something that is
22:32only bannounced to the employees, but I
22:34guarantee you that if you went and
22:36talked to someone who buys a lot of
22:38Coochinelli, if you ask them, why do you
22:40love this brand so much? They would at
22:42some point bring up an employee story. I
22:45guarantee it. This one applies to any
22:47and all brands, whether they're massive
22:49or very small. But having an archive of
22:52your own work is so much rarer than you
22:55would think it would be. Like most
22:57brands that you are a fan of do not have
22:59any kind of physical archive of their
23:01own work. The reason for that is because
23:03it is insanely expensive and it is so
23:05timeconuming. Like I I was told one time
23:08by a global conglomerated brand that you
23:12have definitely heard of that I was not
23:13allowed to go see their archive because
23:16it was just a bunch of cardboard boxes
23:18closed in a rented basement. All that
23:21said, the best in-house physical archive
23:23that I have ever seen in person is at
23:26the Jeffrey B. Small headquarters in
23:28Kartzer, Italy. And I can't show you
23:30footage of that right now because we
23:31have a very largecale project involving
23:34that company coming soon. Okay, you want
23:37to see what my Anon Ree deer runway
23:38invitations look like? This one was the
23:40invite to the car garage show, one of
23:43their best collections ever. This is a
23:44real wax seal and this is a distressed
23:48reprinting of Christian F the book in
23:51Hebrew. The OG copies of the Hebrew
23:54printing go for hundreds on eBay. So,
23:56erd did their own illegal reprint. They
24:00did a great deal of hand distressing on
24:02each copy, added a couple of small
24:04details for the heads, and then they
24:07distributed them for free in the form of
24:09runway invitations. We got that like the
24:12thing that could just be a piece of
24:14paper that says my name. You're invited
24:17to spring, summer, whatever at this
24:19location, at this time, on this date.
24:21Thank you. Like, that's what it could
24:23be. and instead they made this. The
24:26following runway show, the one with the
24:28cages, we got a very nice printing of
24:31Henry's collage work. Physical collage
24:34is apparently a daily part of Henry's
24:37artistic practice. And of course, the
24:39newest invitation, a child's composition
24:42book that has been heavily
24:44handdistressed and features more collage
24:46work that's meant to kind of illuminate
24:48the runway collection that featured the
24:51cardboard tanks. A lot of this stuff
24:53can't really be sold, I imagine, for
24:55copyright reasons, but this is kind of
24:57what Henry does. He has to collage. And
25:00having an outlet for that work is
25:02awesome. And speaking of runway
25:04invitations, do you want to see some
25:05other [ __ ] crazy runway invitations?
25:07Let me just open up my filing cabinet
25:10where I keep all of the extra little
25:12things from every brand that we interact
25:14with. AZ Factory RIP did a residency
25:17with fashion designer Lutz Hull where
25:20they curated old 45s and stamped the
25:23runway invitation details onto them.
25:25Raul Mishra has these invitations that
25:27feature different insects. I went around
25:30after the show to pick up a few extras
25:31off the floor so that I could have a
25:33full set. These are especially
25:35beautiful. I love them. EA Miyak always
25:37does the craziest invitations possible.
25:41special paper, experimental textile
25:43samples, crazy graphic design. We could
25:45do a whole segment just about these.
25:47Another incredible runway handout was
25:49the White Mountaineering book. During
25:51co, the designer at White Mountaineering
25:53named Yosuk Aawa built himself an
25:56isolated vacation home and learned a lot
25:59about adventuring and mountain climbing
26:01from his friend Naoki, who has climbed
26:03Everest before. When Naoki is going on
26:06adventures, he takes photos of the trip
26:09and White Mountaineering for one of
26:10their runway shows published decades old
26:13photos from a trip to ascend Manisloo
26:17Mountain. Love that he found such a
26:19succinct, beautiful way to pay tribute
26:21to that source of inspiration. Lee does
26:24a great deal of promotion of handcrafted
26:27things. They have their annual craft
26:29prize and the crafters that are close to
26:32Lee build a lot of the very beautiful
26:34objects that can then go into Lee's
26:36retail stores. But I think Jonathan
26:39Anderson just has this appreciation for
26:41these just big uselessly beautiful
26:43things. I mean, he himself has to be so
26:46focused on product that I've always just
26:48assumed that this was kind of an escape
26:50for him. Additionally, Lee's little
26:52animal bag charms are handcrafted. Um
26:56Daniela has one that is a little koala
26:59bear and we've seen other versions of
27:01the koala bear and they all look so
27:03different because it's felted wool and
27:06felting has to be done by hand and so
27:08all the koalas end up just being very
27:10different. They all have little
27:11different personalities. The other
27:13handmade animal charms are just
27:15stunningly beautiful. This is one of the
27:17coolest small offerings that a luxury
27:19brand has ever offered. I'm obsessed
27:21with these. I mean look at him. He's
27:23just a patient gentleman. K de Garson is
27:25a company that spends an enormous amount
27:28of resources to support a design process
27:30that is so complicated that I can't
27:33really properly summarize it here. We
27:35made a 45minute video a while back that
27:38delved very deeply into the design
27:40process that combin
27:44essentially spent all of her time and
27:46money creating a human version of chat
27:49GPT for her design process. And I mean,
27:51this can get as specific as you want it
27:53to. Um, the guy from Rude recently got
27:56in a lot of trouble because he was
27:58taking a bunch of private jets and
28:00showing off that he owned a bunch of
28:01$100,000 watches. And that is the luxury
28:05identity of RDE. If you want to go
28:07support this American bizarro dream of a
28:11guy that has made so much money that he
28:13can be like, "Fuck you." to
28:15everybody, that is a luxury identity.
28:18And if you like that, you should go
28:19support it. But for the rest of us, I
28:22would encourage you to figure out what
28:24exactly the luxury identity of your
28:27faves actually is. That's something that
28:29exists outside of their just visual
28:32aesthetic. And there is no easy way of
28:36finding that information about your
28:38favorite luxury company, by the way. And
28:40personally, I think that that's rather
28:42cool. It is a healthy reminder that this
28:44is not just supposed to be a flippant
28:46part of our lives. If you have made it
28:48this far into the video, I want to ask
28:50you something really
28:51specific. Do you get meaningful value
28:55out of what Daniela and I do here? Like
28:59if you use this to energize you during a
29:02sewing project, if you watch some of
29:04these videos twice because you got a lot
29:07out of them and you want to see if there
29:08was anything that you missed, or if
29:10we've just brought up something that has
29:13stayed with you for a long time. I have
29:15to remind you that this isn't permanent.
29:19We would like it to be. I mean, Danielle
29:20and I really are prepared to bring the
29:24highest quality fashion content to you
29:26all that we are able to bring you for
29:28the rest of our
29:29lives. But there is no guarantee that we
29:32can do that if we do not have literal
29:35financial support. We occasionally make
29:38little fun videos. I believe the video
29:40that came out before this one was just
29:42kind of a a silly like price guessing
29:44game type of thing. But the majority of
29:46the content that we push out is meant
29:49for 100 years from now. And that means
29:51that in
29:522125 fashion history students will be
29:56wondering I I can see the runway shows
29:59from back then but I don't really
30:01understand how those connected to
30:03culture. We are making content for those
30:06people. Sometimes that goal does not get
30:09enough clicks to sustain us as a
30:12business. I mean, you would be surprised
30:14how little YouTube pays. If you get
30:16value from this channel, all I ask is
30:20that you reflect that value onto the
30:23Patreon. Plus, you get a lot of extra
30:26stuff, so it's not like you'd be doing
30:27us a favor. We really appreciate you
30:29giving us your time today. We don't take
30:30that for granted. Talk to you soon.

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