Orange Cone: Comment on The tightening spiral of cool

Comments: The tightening spiral of cool

Reminds me of an Onion article from the late 90s:

U.S. Dept. Of Retro Warns: 'We May Be Running Out Of Past'

http://www.langston.com/Fun_People/1997/1997BHI.html

Great quote: "We are talking about a potentially devastating crisis situation in which our society will express nostalgia for events which have yet to occur."

But I think the tightening fashion cycle has as much to do with corporate co-opting of "street trends" as it does with consumer acceptance of technology. How long does it take to go from "kid wearing trucker hat in the mission" to "window full of trucker hats at urban outfitters in union square"? Like 20 minutes, right? We've gone from the New Fall Line to Just-In-Time inventory management at stores like this.

I'll stick with black.

Posted by Veen at November 4, 2004 9:29 AM

Heh, I remember that story. I think that the public's acceptance of retro trends and corporate co-opting are related. As you said, just in time manufacturing allows companies to respond quickly. Zara, the Spanish discount fashion chain that's all over Europe, has--what--a SIX week cycle for their styles? What's important, I think, is that's just fine with the buying public. Being fashionable means having had some exposure to what's cool--whether that's seeing the punk lead singer with a trucker hat, the record clerk with the trucker hat or Ashton Kutcher with the trucker hat. There's some level, which we haven't reached yet but which I think exists, beneath which the majority of the mall-story fashion buying public won't have been exposed to the idea. At some point the just in time manufacturing will be able to make anything on a moment's notice, and a cool watcher in a Shanghai skatepark will snap a picture of a kid in some cool clothes and several hours later they'll be on the rack at the Wichita Wal-Mart, but will anyone there buy them?

Anyway, this is directly related to the spread of ideas and I'm getting dangerously close to the entire social networking space, so I'll stop, but my point is that the nature of fashion--art and politics--is a symptom of an underlying change in the expectations that people have for the world and the way they understand it. And mainstream recognition of the symptoms--even if not the causes--is itself interesting, since the system is built on feedback.

Posted by Mike at November 5, 2004 5:21 PM