Notes From The Week #6

Welcome back. We’re pretty fashion heavy this week. Big drip. Over the years I’ve become more and more interested in ideas, concepts and trends in fashion. For me fashion provides a unique look into society. It spans politics, economics and history and business—curating a picture of who we see ourselves to be today whilst cultivating an imagination and creativity of who we wish to be tomorrow.

Ralph Lauren and Hip-Hop: (re)defining the American Dream

I was speaking with a friend two weeks ago but thought to crystallise some of the points made this week. We were walking through London and he has an avid interest in fashion so I asked: who’s his favourite designer. He said Ralph Lauren. His reason was that Ralph Lauren was able to create an entirely new world through his fashion and in doing so was able to even give himself a preferred identity. I thought this was interesting but decided to do some research further: I actually found out that the designer Ralph Lauren’s original name was Ralph Reuben Lifshitz. He changed his name to “Lauren” in his late teens, after reportedly enduring years of teasing due to his surname. It was visiting his first polo match which helped to shape his perspective. Warren Helstein, the friend that took him to the polo match says: “We were exposed to fabulous things. The silver, the leather, the horses […] and the high society that we really weren’t knowledgeable of.” As a result of this experience, Ralph’s first collection was called “Polo”.

In our conversation my friend mentioned Kanye’s affinity with Ralph Lauren—one that is well-documented. When Kanye arrived on the scene as a fully-fledged rapper, after years of cutting his trade as a producer, he was greeted with question marks by some for his break from the gangsta rap style and fashion that had come to characterise much of mainstream Hip-Hop in the early 2000s. On his second studio album, Kanye makes mention of this fact when he opens his first verse on Touch The Sky with the line: “Back when they thought pink polos would hurt the Roc”

However, Ye wasn’t alone in his appreciation of Polo Ralph Lauren. In fact, in the nexus in which Hip Hop was birthed—inner-city New York—there was already a cluster of young black and Latino kids sporting the clothes of the quintessential American Dream brand.

In the 1980s, a group of Brooklyn teenagers developed an affinity for Polo Ralph Lauren and made it the chosen uniform for their crew. This crew was called the Lo-Lifes. The Lo-Lifes formed in 1988 from the union of two shoplifting crews from Brooklyn: Ralphie’s Kids from Crown Heights and Polo U.S.A. from Brownsville.

The Lo-Lifes embraced everything about Ralph Lauren. They also respected the designer because of his humble beginnings. The vibrant colours and bold designs favoured by the all-American designer during the 80s allowed these young men to clearly and visibly stand out from their peers. The Lo-life basked in the irony of taking over Polo culture and adapting it to their own. By taking something exclusive, that wasn’t made for them and wasn’t easily accessible to them, they empowered themselves.

Perhaps in some ways the reason Ralph Lauren resonated with the Lo-Lifes is the exact same reason the designer resonated with my friend. Ralph Lauren through his brand has been able to imagine a new world for himself and others. A Gatsbian take on the American Dream in which one is able to define their identity and course whatever path they desire. Ralph Lauren and Hip-Hop have that in common: they tell their own story, how they want it be told, unapologetically. Maybe we should too.

Social Media —> Interest Media

It’s an obvious thought but still an interesting one: while it seems that the early iterations of social media was centred around connecting with first-degree and second-degree relationships—as platforms have grown social media companies have seen the lucrative opportunity to connect people with other people who share the same interests, hobbies and work as them. Allowing the opportunity to create a strong influencer marketing economy.

I saw this tweet this week and it confirmed a lot of the changes I had been seeing take place on social media over the last few years. As the influencer marketing global spend continues to grow it will provide an incentive for creators—introducing more and more creators into the creator economy.

Itutu: A Tradition of Cool

This week I checked out the Africa Fashion exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The exhibition guides us through the developments of fashion across the continent weaving in the political themes that characterised the fashion of the day. The politics and poetics of cloth is known globally—fashion does not operate in a vacuum but rather takes cues from the social, political and economic context of the day. African fashion is the exact same—perhaps even a bit more. The continent is home to a long and varied history of cloth, from bògòlanfini dating back at least 800 years in Mali to kuba, which originated over 300 years ago in the Kuba kingdom, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As sculptor El Anatsui once said: ‘Cloth is to the African what monuments are to Westerners’. If you’re in London, I would strongly encourage you to check it out. On at the V&A until April 2023.

My favourite part of the exhibition was a section called Cool Pose. In which photographers, Rachidi Bissiriou and Seydou Keïta took a series of photographs of people in Bissiriou’s studio in Benin. He photographed locals wearing their day-to-day clothes encouraging his sitters to display a composure of cool—in which he was inspired by the Yoruba philosophy of itutu. Itutu combines with asé (command) and ìwà (character), creating a philosophy of gracefulness foundational to contemporary cool.

I asked my friend who I visited the exhibition with, who the concept of itutu reminded her of and she said Wizkid. The exact artist I had in mind. It’s clear to see that Wizkid, a Yoruba native, has embedded the concept of itutu into his personal philosophy. His sound provides a calm swagger and assurance of someone who is very intentional but doesn’t insist on overextending himself. In a GQ interview with Wizkid last year, the concept of itutu was discussed—and provided an interesting thought for consideration:

Keep it cool. Until next week. Peace.