Get in line loser

A buddy of mine just sent me a instagram story of the Kith Store in Tokyo. Massive lines. The release of a new multi-brand collab shoe. Seeing this seemingly normal story on Instagram made me stop and think.

Let’s get into it: we are all plugged in. Tik-Tok bombardes me with advertisements, people telling me that I have to try the new “viral” such and such. Instagram is not much different. A random influencer who has an affiliate link or code for you to buy the things they wear. 

I think that with the way we are connected it’s hard for me to tell if I am into something because I am actually into it, or because the algorithm has pinned me to my most consumable. Hype culture, basically our new cultural way of saying and identifying “trends,” is a way of life now. 

I think in a lot of ways we’ve been indoctrinated into the cult of capitalism.It’s so ingrained in our daily lives that we don’t even realize it anymore. That when we look to be critical of our tendencies, we immediately get defensive. We all like new things and we like to spend money, so why even bother to look at it deeper? Sometimes it feels like we’ve been convinced that it is morally good to spend money on things that we are told are “must have” things.. 

I am not here to complain about it. But I think that I want to critically look at the tendencies to be a part of “hype culture” and maybe find some questions we can ask ourselves. Or maybe lay out a different way of pursuing life. 

Even in creating these days I feel like I’ve come far away from creating and end up making commodities, or worse objects for the spectacle. (If you are unfamiliar with the “spectacle” look into “The Society of the Spectacle” by Guy Debord. 

What is so powerful about a piece of clothing that we all decide we absolutely need it? I think if we can come to define what is important for ourselves and how we feel in our clothes then we can move away from “trends”. The more we learn about the history of garments, the history of our culture, and the things that make us feel comfortable and confident, then we can move more freely. Start with your favorite garment in your wardrobe. Is it a plaid shirt? Maybe you can link your heritage to a plaid and find more identity in it. Is it a tailored garment? Maybe it’s all the hand stitches that connect you to the person who made it. Find the deeper reasons to wear your clothes and then maybe you’ll have more reason to dress than what the algorithm told you.