Misfits.

No not those useless super powered vagabonds on E4.
these horror punk kings forming in 1977 are one of the bands that I have enjoyed since a young age, sat in my bedroom giving myself a crash course in all things punk at the age of 11. So obviously the announcement of the Supreme Misfits drop hit me and put me in two minds.

Looking at the PCL (power, corruption, lies) release, there was a huge hype around the floral hoody which features the album artwork from New Orders 1983 album: Power, corruption and Lies. The problem was no one who bought the release really got the reference, bar a select few. Then came the re-sales all those skinny little white kids wondering why it "didn't suit" them. Perhaps they should have thought about it before buying what they saw as just another supreme floral.
I did commend Supreme in an earlier post for being an extremely diverse, yet thorough representation of counter culture but does this excuse it? I'm not sure that New Order really constitutes or embodies counter culture in the same way Futura 2000, Bad Brains or Public Enemy do. Even if the glove did fit it is abit like placing A Bathing Ape G-Shock on my Great Nans wrist. Perharps a more modern and fitting brand would have been a better call. But we'll never know, and with how nice the chukkas were its also not worth worrying about.

The misfits.
The questionablity of age is also present with The Misfits, being older than PCL. Comparatively speaking Supreme do seem like a more fitting collaborator given the history of the brand.
It goes without saying this release was far from groundbreaking. In fact given the amount of Misfits Merch floating around and the likeness to SSUR's Misfits inspired cap. This was also an extremely safe option given the impact of street goth slowly falling from high end fashion and slowly seeping dowards to more accessible items.

This posts back and forth approach means you probably don't need this conclusion. However both releases I am completely unsure about but leading strongly towards the Misfits release, for personal reasons alone. But with roughly £75 resale on the tee shirts its unlikely I'll be jumping at the chance to buy what is essentially high quality band merch.

Lifestyle Brands

What on earth is a lifestyle brand?

"A lifestyle brand is a brand that attempts to embody the values and aspirations of a group or culture for purposes of marketing"

Thank you Wikipedia. 

My first case study in answering this question is Diamond supply co.

All you need to do is to go onto the Diamond website to see that Diamond do offer items and designs that embody the skate culture which they have always firmly anchored themselves in, offering skateboarding hardware and even selling bolts in a Cannabis grinder. Delving rather deeply into skateboarding's culture and offering solutions that are helpful, whilst still letting skaters buy into Diamond in all aspects of their life.

let me reiterate: ALL ASPECTS OF THEIR LIFE.

Where does this stop being lifestyle marketing and begin being a case of selling just about anything and bumping the prices up because it has a name on it.prime example Diamond's rugs and cushions, just in case you forgot that you skateboarded in the few hours you reside in your home. One clear example of this is the "simplicity is the key to brilliance" rug costing roughly £229 (after conversion) lets have a look...

Pretty ironic given the design is far from simple.but what really hits me, is that this is a nice rug and I would happily have it in my living room however if Simplicity 
really is the key to brilliance surely a plain, simple rug would suffice.Like this extremely soft high pile rug from Ikea. The same dimensions but for next to a quarter of the price.

Carhartt

Also another brand that I feel falls into the category of lifestyle brand is Carhartt. Carhartt, especially Carhartt WIP (Work In Progress), has a maturity about it unlike many other under the vast umbrella of skate/streetwear. whilst offering a lot of simplistic designs that include various types of fabric they also use loud and deep camo prints in there design.

So lets delve deeper than the standard tee shirt or ever-increasingly common thick cuffed beanies. Carhartt offer many solutions to everyday problems. Carhartt actually offers solutions to every problem you may face to, from and in: College, school or work...

That annoyingly loud pre-adolescent on the bus? Headphones.
Need to take notes? Notepads and Pens.
Not quite finished that project? USB that'll fit on a lanyard or phone
Dreading taking your mom's floral Cath Kidson stool while you camp out for the next big drop? Camping Chair.
Fallen asleep on your ever so comfortable $350 Diamond supply co. rug when you have somewhere to be? Alarm clock.

See... any problem, its also worth noting that many of these essentials that Carhartt offer are at an affordable price. My wallet was the cheapest I could find after my favourite Obey Posse wallet fell apart after 6 years and I must admit it's already looking like it'll last much longer.

I suppose they really are the "Rugged Urbanwear" like they occasionally claim.

Pictured: (left) Carhartt Jetlack Alarm Clock, (right) My £18 Carhartt Wallet.
 

Stussy...

STUSSY

It is time for Generic to expand, with the mass of my coursework projects out of the way I now have more time for the blog. One of the things I want to achieve in the next few months is to have something preferably an article discussing most brands work for both reference and accessibility. So I decided to start big with, arguably, the godfather of OG streetwear Stussy. So I went and asked the person I know knows much more than most and certainly more than me. so here is brief overview of stussy courtesy or James "Jam Jam" Watkins:

"So I've been asked to write an article on Stussy for Josh’s blog and of course I was pretty honoured, as I don’t really consider myself as being particularly up to date with current streetwear trends etc.  But the reason he gave for me doing it was that I knew more of the back-story and history. And I suppose over the last few years of having been into streetwear, Stussy have been the brand that I will consciously have checked upon. The very mention of the name Stussy, the original brand that kick-started the streetwear trends and culture that are booming today will be, as of March 2013 into their 33^rd year, an amazing achievement for a company that have had to adapt to a very difficult market. In March of 1980 a young surfer by the name of Shawn Stussy decided that surfing was his true passion and he decided to brand his signature all over the boards he was making and to get the company and his namesake out there he would print graphic tee’s with said brand name. Summers spent surfing and winters spent skiing is how he met company co-founder and public accountant Frank Sinatra Jr. (Not in any way related to the singer!) Frank could see that this was a brand that would have authenticity, raw artistic talent and totally original character and in 1984 they set-up Stussy Inc.  He viewed the people within his company as a ‘tribe’ a family as such; he also had some people working for him that would go on to create their own streetwear brands such as:

 James Jebbia - Founder of Union; Founder of Supreme

Eddie Cruz - Manager at Union; Founder of Undefeated

Keith Hufnagel - Stüssy Skateboarding Team Rider; Founder of HUF

These people have now forged their own particular style and judging by the companies they started and founded, have made their own splash in the streetwear world. In 1991 they opened their first boutique shop in New York’s trendy Soho area, no one involved in the company quite realized what this had started and what it would later turn out to be.

So from ’91 onwards the company were doing very well, sales were on the up, the designs were still as fresh and inspiring as ever. Many stores have opened since the boutique in ’91, there are now altogether 15 stores (otherwise known as chapters), not all based in the U.S. either, he went international with stores in Milan, Madrid, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Seoul  and Kuala Lumpur. He took over the world and it all really stems back to him scribbling his signature on his first surfboard. In this part of the article I want to really go into a bit more depth as to why I think Stussy is the best in this business and why it will still be the best. For starters the list of companies that they have collaborated with over the years; Nike (this is in itself an depth list that I shall touch on later), Converse, Vans, BAPE, UNDFTD, Adidas, Supreme, Parra & Carhartt. It’s also not just the other streetwear brands that the collabs have been limited to, they have worked with companies involved in the comic book industry (Marvel & Real Deal) Musicians (Bob Marley & J Dilla) and even in the world of cartoons and animation (Beavis And Butthead & John K). This is another reason what enhances and pushes them forward, sets them apart form other brands. I feel that other brands can sometimes rely on big flashy designs and bright colours that often distract from any decent design direction, all Stussy need is the signature on a tee and its near perfect and I’m not saying that Stussy haven’t used the above mentioned ideas on their tee’s and clothing in the past, but they can go back to a simple design and they are still miles ahead of the competition. The other thing that I really love about them is that they have instantly recognisable branding, the two versions of Shawn’s original signature, the double ‘s’, very reminiscent of the chanel logo, the bent crown logo, the Rastafarian Lion and the skull with the crossed surfboard and skateboard. It also goes to show that once Shawn had left in ’96 that the company was still successful and that he was happy to give more time to his family and eventually set up S/Double.

Another aspect of Stussy that I like are the adverts, below are a few of my favourite examples:

Yet again, simple designs, Shawn has taken old adverts and used his unique handwriting to make it his own. The adverts did their job, they sold t-shirts and other items of clothing and I believe it was due to the simple yet clever designs of the early ad’s. Even the more up to date advertisements for current drops are still doing their job, as is displayed in the link below:

http://www.stussy.com/nike

Simple, basic printer colours, explaining the products and giving a small history between Stussy and Nike’s past collaboration’s also educate you as to why these successful companies do so well together when they collaborate. And I think this maybe another reason why I love Stussy as much as I do, they have a great relationship with Nike, which is my favourite trainer brand. The collaborations that they have had in the past are the best collabs done by any two companies in the streetwear market, here are my favourite examples of Stussy x Nike:

Stussy X Nike Sky Force 88, amazing shoe, made even more amazing by the Stussy throw on it, particularly like the two camo variants.

Stussy X Nike Dunk World Tour, a stable classic here for Nike, which is given a few touched which yet again separates it from anything anyone else was doing, the green/red and purple/black/silver are the best colourways.

Stussy X NikeNike Court Force XXV, Wow, that’s all I can say on these, wow. Absolute classic, such a good choice for Stussy to collab on, these are stone cold classics and the colours are excellent, black/white and the purple/black/white are the cherry on the top.Stussy x Nike Dunk High, very, very rare, to have such a high profile drop this early on (2001) and to have it on a premium dunk with ostrich skin on the brown variant and snake skin on the black variant, these are true marvels for any sneakerhead and street wear fanatic to own.Stussy x Nike Blaze, my favourite, in my mind it really doesn’t get better than these, amazing, unusual and a unique choice of colourways (either the midnight navy with turbo pink swoosh or cool grey with emerald green swoosh) Stone cold classic. They’re literally second to the Tiff dunks and anybody who knows me, knows that they are my holy grail!

 That’s all I can really express about Stussy, there are only so many ways that I can really put it, but you’ll find the same with any fan, or fanatic, or connoisseur for Stussy if you ask them the question:

Why do you like Stussy?

And they’ll simply reply, Just cus!"

So there we have it james' insightful and in depth look into stussy. Stay on it for more.

Winter Blues

Winter Blues

Now, if I was really inventive I'd have saved that title for me talking about a look that heavily features blue. But no. Unless I was going to release a long post decomposing every single NB colourway that adds nothing to the already over-saturated market of runners or take a look at every single brands S/S 13 collection there hasn't been alot of news that has interested me, . There is a post  coming up later about the multitude of Year Of The Snake releases. but the more I write the more are released, which is a pain considering they are all trainers(which I already post about... ALOT)

Yes, it is true that none of us have any money right now with Christmas clearing us all out and many of us paying bills and suffering the reduced hours that we were given last month that went  to Christmas temps that never left. And personally with a holiday to pay for, my usual onslaught of online shopping has significantly been reduced to save my heartache.

BUT!

Despite me slating them merely 2.5 paragraphs ago some of the Spring Summer releases for the high end fashion brands have given me hope towards the success of the "Street Goth" look this year. Especially with the strong support from Givenchy, as seen on the runways of Paris. Of course men in skirts isn't going to catch on yo the the layman in the high-street but I'm sure some good alternatives will pop up (WATCH THIS SPACE). It has disappointed me that the rumours behind a Givenchy x H&M collaboration have been confirmed as fictitious, as I thought this would bring a good fast fashion response to  the emerging look

Also, on a note I slightly picked up on during my "Infra-Bred" posts but never fully made was the return of more "risqué" and "out there" designs, which I used the Jordan 4 Thunder/Lightning pack as an examples as despite being relatively moderate in design. I think they are lighting the path back to the Golden Age of streetwear/street fashion and general counter culture, by using concepts to reinforce styles, thus moving away from the "homogeneous"and the "Generic" and closer towards the originality and art based style that existed before the economic downturn enter the "2nd Golden Era of Streetwear"

"The Article"

"The Article" 

What "streetwear" actually means is something i will delve into another time.  But at this moment in time i'll use the wikipedia definition of "Street wear is a distinctive style of fashion not to be confused with hip hop fashion. Its roots are in skateboarding and the "skatewear" of the 1980s. It was later adopted as an urban fashion in Japan before growing to an international business. An important element to the style is vintage or vintage-style sneakers.".
    Close enough.
    Whilst doing some research by reading the book "streetwear" by Steven Vogel (i reccomend reading as i will reference it alot) I noticed Matt Irving (Delphi) talking about the 'Weaknesses' of streetwear and stating "As popularity grows more and more people want to get involved and everybody copies each other until it becomes a homogenous cesspool." To be frank i could not put it better myself and if you had not already realised that is the inspiration for the name and background of this blog. "generic" is that really what people should should be buying into because if it is aren't we all just paying money for slightly better quality H&M tees?
     Another one of my main topics of discussion will be the ever tested fine line between streetwear, sportswear and skatewear. And how current companies and brands are exploiting this paper thin barrier.

-Josh.