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.

"Street Goth"

Street Goth

Street Goth is a look that is getting a lot of attention at the moment which I think has itself good chances of hitting the mainstream. I myself am a fan of the look which has started with big rap artists like Kanye West and A$AP Rocky donning a darker look, Courtesy of Givenchy, Raf Owens, Alexander Wang and Rick Owens.

Now Generic is not quite in the realms of high end, more uses it as a tangent it likes to refer to. So for a full insight into the history of the look, who’s doing it and how to do it I suggest looking towards Highsnobiety and its articles on the subject. Like THISONE.

WHERE IS IT GOING?

As I mentioned before there is a high chance of this look going to the high street, and this week I noticed a "street goth-esque" section in Fast Fashion retailer H&M(another reason behind my disappointed with the denial of a Givenchy Collaboration). The look obviously had to come from somewhere and must exist somewhere already, otherwise no one would be wearing it in the first place and upon further inspection there are a lot of brands that aren't too expensive existing already pushing “the look” with their own twists these do tend to be the “darker” streetwear brands but I have seen a few dropping good pieces to contribute to the look. Here’s a list of who has made some contributions:

10 deep
Actual Pain
Blvck Scvle
Flying Coffin
Fuct
Mishka
Mighty Healthy
Rook
Rebel 8
SSUR

MY FIRST LOOK

Here’s one of those little fashion mock ups all the Tumblr kids and those cheap women’s Gossip magazines make. I made this to show the look in full but without anything too bank breaking. 

Infra...

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."


I've just listened back to a recording of myself from boxing day after I was a pint bottle of Bulmer's, quite a few JD and cokes and copious amounts of wine down, hence the Hunter. S.Thompson quote. It takes two minutes of listening to drunken drivel to actually reach the focus of my "in depth" discussion with my phone... my boxing day purchases especially when all goes silent and I state "Today I have bought some beautiful shoes"

After this the question I ask is one of terminology. What should I call shoes when I talk about them? Because I think the term trainers doesn't seem specific and seems to be the word used by those who don't really under stand, as I'm sure you've all heard "£100 on a pair of trainers?!" and I feel it doesn't reinforce the knowledge or culture behind streetwear. While Sneakers seems quite an american and cringey term that seems a little too risqué for a little unimportant blog like this one. Ill settle for sneakers and if "sneakerism" were a religion and shoe with an infrared colourway would make it a holy artifact. Which in respect to Nike make any of the Air Max 90 Infrareds the holy grail of sneaks.

But yes £100 is what I spent on my Nike Air Max 90 OG Vintage Infrared which I think is a good deal considering all places selling them for less had them in a January release and by the time I had money in my bank many pre-sales had ran out. So to get my shoes at least 5 days early I queued up in JD Sports on boxing day amongst the cretinous customers all pushing to spend their Christmas and dole money on some new 95s, PTs or Air Pegasus 89s... god I hate Air Pegasus, but I digress.

Following the hellish excursion for food supplies for the day and that sweet, sweet IR we faced the second ordeal of the British public transport system, all in search of some accessories and clothes to set off my new sneaks. My first port of call was the Candy Store where I bought one of this seasons staples: a thick cuffed beanie (Carhartt) and I finally gave in to the camo trend that assaulted fashion this year like the military that it was designed for, with a grey camo tee (Benny Gold).

But on one final, none vain, note you have the patience, creative drive and money you could customise yourself (through Nike ID) some spiz'ikes with some of that critically acclaimed Infrared, whic has also been underplayed by nike, but lets face it they dont need the "spare change"

New Balance, New direction?

First of all I apologise for how long this post has been, presumably because nothing too interesting has been happening recently, but through my news updates on my phone I discovered 2 rather interesting New Balance updates. First of all I’d like to discuss how socio-economic factors affect the fashion industry and in particular its niche markets like streetwear and high fashion. During time of depression people “feel the squeeze” a little more (just to note I hate using such cliché phrases but it’s early and I’m a writer, not an economist).  As a result brands, especially streetwear, tend to tone down their designs as they want to be more appealing and cannot physically afford to take risks in term of “out there” designs. 

   This is what I assume to be the reason for the increase in high street popularity of New Balance they fitted this definition perfectly: not too out there, not too expensive and being a floor-drobe “staple” shoe of sneaker heads, fiends and pimps alike certainly didn’t hinder NB’s position during the hype over streetwear of the last 2 years, along with having a “made in England” appeal during Britain’s most patriotic year. No one could be blamed for thinking they are possible the luckiest brand of the decade. 

     If you’ve read my previous articles you’ll be no stranger to collaborations, and presumably know they excite people. I am guilty of this especially with shoes I would pay a lot more money than I’d like to admit on a pair of ‘Size? X Dave White x Nike air stabs’... Wait size? ...A trainer or tee being exclusive to a retailer makes it that little bit more exciting more desirable this is no different for my reaction to the Size? X Staple X New Balance “black pigeon” but I couldn’t help but take it with a pinch of salt. This announcement came in the same week as the New Balance Infra red announcement, that magical Colourway that gets sneaker reds and collectors sweating from the brow and their fingers ready for some serious F5 mashing on day of release.
      So I hear you ask “what’s the issue?” Well these two announcements make me thing that new balance are using the funding from their new fan base, whether its people discovering them through streetwear or people buying them because their local FootAsylum have them stocked next to their favourite chinos and generic as fuck tee shirts with SWAG written over photos of models the company don’t even own the rights to, they can afford to take the risks, at first I thought this was a prediction that would not come true but another announcement came the “New Balance Spring 2013 M890v3 Rainbow Colourway” Just Google that one...
  
It also worries me that both the infrared CW and Staple design collaboration are two of my favourite Air Max 90 designs, I fear this trend may continue and i really don’t want sneakers to fall into the “homogenous cesspool” Matt Irving talks about (as referenced in “the Article”).


(Size? x Staple Design x New Balance Black Pidgeon 577, New Balnce 574 Infrared, Nike x Staple Design Air Max 90 navigation 2004, Nike Air Max 90 Infrared)