Instagram Killed Fashion?
@kaylojayy on fashion pre-Instagram, education, hypebeasts
Fashion pre-Instagram.
Blog shops: unbranded, no quality, aesthetic clothes. Taobao. Bought real shit through: eBay, Carousell, second-hand markets. I wanted to know, learn about what I wore. Cool clothes deserve credit.
Don’t follow brands. Follow designers.
Attended music gigs. Discovered skinheads, punk. They birthed anti-establishment fashion. Forums, threads: Stylezeitgeist, Superfuture (Sufu). Why’re designer clothes expensive? Fast-fashion?
At 12, I thought it meant I had a more inquisitive mind. But it was hard convincing others it was a career worth pursuing.
Grailed improved shopping, shared educational fashion editorials weekly.
Tumblr was brand-anonymous, visually influenced style more through silhouette, a “look.”
(I wanted to follow-up on KJ’s observation that Tumblr was a turning point in fashion sharing. I forgot. It kickstarted the “visual overload as social currency” zeitgeist we continue to struggle with; imagine reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm as just a kid’s book.)
The fashion forum community wanted to be critiqued. The Instagram community is more exposed to what brands release.
But they tend to curate, want clout, emulate others; there’s less research, individuality.
Is Hypebeast style? Is style original?
The first person who wore anything mainstream now had style, so much to influence others.
People should spend money to look different, not same.
Style is rarely original. Even fashion references. Yohji Yamamoto famously said that everyone should copy until they find their niche. @Parag0n dresses loudly; statement pieces—archival and new—well put-together.
You.
I do sales and communications for Manifesto (Mandarin Gallery, second floor): contemporary basics that don’t make too much of a statement. Want to pursue a fashion career that taps into business and creativity.
