It used to be the department stores who were in charge; now the customer is in charge... They have high expectations with customer service. They have high expectations with product. They have high expectations with cost and they can go on an app and compare pricing, globally, instantaneously. | | | | Men of Pitti. Fortezza Da Basso, Florence, Jan. 9, 2018.
(Christian Vierig/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “It used to be the department stores who were in charge; now the customer is in charge... They have high expectations with customer service. They have high expectations with product. They have high expectations with cost and they can go on an app and compare pricing, globally, instantaneously.”
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| | rantnrave:// Other than the perennial bootleg, what’s the fake news of fashion? The specter of fake news is circulating in things worn on the body, in graphic slogans on this pair of TOPSHOP jeans and fraudulent sellers freebooting cult brands to sell counterfeits. ALEXIS C. MADRIGAL outlines another form of shopping for THE ATLANTIC: a recursion of social media ads and SHOPIFY storefronts that sell one (often low-quality) product under several branded identities. The merch Madrigal wrote about isn’t fake, per se. After all, he ordered a coat and at the end of several weeks received one—stiff and ungainly as he discovered it was upon delivery. Instead, Madrigal found that the coat was one of many similar coats, from one of many similar brand names popping up like daisies in a series of Shopify storefronts. Through portal upon online portal, a single design can be sold under a scattershot of branded identities. Madrigal relays (through an IRISH teenager's YOUTUBE tutorial) how to set up an entire supply and dropship operation using apps: ALIEXPRESS, SHOPIFY, targeted FACEBOOK ads, and a digital worker platform called UPWORK. String them together and you're in business. You've got to give credit to the entrepreneurial spirit here. But the erosion of trust over a single purchase is enough to turn someone off to an entire platform, or at least feel an ambient sense of dread knowing it's rife with robo-brands and spam. We trust social media companies reasonably enough to algo-feed us a cousin’s graduation pics, a high school friend’s wedding, or (relentlessly) the same type of anything we’ve liked a few times in succession. What happens when we no longer trust social companies’ core business model—advertising—to keep people arm’s length from fraud? Or fraud-ish brands, if you will?… CRAIG GREEN makes the kind of workwear fit for off-world exploration, yet it fits comfortably into people's wardrobes in the here and now. Green has said his work is about uniform and community, that he aims to make the workman's jacket the 21st-century equivalent of the trench coat. While his designs begin and end with workwear, his ability to meld functional design elements with otherworldly, tribal visions make him one of the most fascinating—and future-leaning—designers working today. FashionSET: CLOSE-UP: Craig Green, Where Utility Meets Utopia... Briefs: STEPHEN GAN is leaving HARPER'S BAZAAR to join ELLE... Only a matter of time: the DIOR saddle bag is recirculating in the vintage market... DAP shines from a billboard in HARLEM. | | | - HK Mindy Meissen, curator |
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 | The Atlantic |
| A new breed of online retailer doesn’t make or even touch products, but they’ve got a few other tricks for turning nothing into money. | | |
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 | Wired |
| Outlier started out making streetwear durable enough to bike in. But its attention to detail and sci-fi styles turned the brand into a fashion obsession for the tech set. | | |
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 | The Business of Fashion |
| The American entrepreneur speaks about rapidly shifting consumer behaviour and preferences, with the backdrop of technological, political and economic upheaval. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| The young Scot is leading a generation of creatives who are playing with ideas of how men and women should look. Will they spark a social revolution? | | |
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 | Fashionista |
| Let's be honest: For most people, the world of comics and cartoons are the last place anyone would go to find outfit inspiration outside of a theme day at work or school or Halloween. | | |
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 | Dazed Digital |
| Following her AW18 presentation, we catch up with the emerging designer. | | |
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 | Hong Kong Tatler |
| To mark the opening of Hermès’ new flagship store in Hong Kong this month, we talk fashion with Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski, the French fashion house's artistic director of women’s ready-to-wear. | | |
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 | Krebs on Security |
| Overstock.com just fixed a serious glitch in the Coinbase bitcoin payment section of its site that allowed customers to buy any item at a tiny fraction of the listed price. Potentially more punishing, the flaw let anyone paying with bitcoin reap many times the authorized bitcoin refund amount on any canceled orders. | | |
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 | Forbes |
| For the first time in a long time, Neiman Marcus will be led by an outsider. He joins at a time when the company is challenged both by an unsustainable debt level as well as internal and external factors that must be addressed to move the storied brand forward. | | |
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 | Highsnobiety |
| Practicality has no place in fashion nowadays. We're the generation obsessed with oversized fits, super-long sleeves and sneakers so bulky they weigh our feet down. Once reserved for pensioners with back pain and middle-aged men on mountain hikes, these fashionable styles are now a staple part of every streetwear obsessives' wardrobe. | | |
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| The Business of Fashion |
| In this month’s China Edit, the battle between China's e-commerce giants is heating up as adversaries wage war offline. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| At the new store, just north of Grand Central Station, the Critical Shopper tries out prep accessorizing. | | |
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| Fashionista |
| The mass beauty establishment is undergoing an aesthetic reawakening. | | |
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| Highsnobiety |
| Yesterday, during Florence's bi-annual Pitti Uomo menswear tradeshow, designer Christopher Bevans was awarded with The Woolmark Company 's inaugural Innovation Award for his submission, an '80s-inspired technical snowboarding wardrobe, done under his brand DYNE. "It's an honor," says Bevans in a statement issued to the press. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| Events Tuesday (Jan 9) included a video installation showcasing Michelangelo’s masterpiece in a new way and the luxury brand showing off its museum-cum-bazaar. | | |
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 | ELLE |
| How about an oversize sweater for evening? Or why not pajamas? | | |
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 | Heroine |
| Claire McCardell, Bonnie Cashin and the Invention of American Sportswear If haute couture is resolutely French, then sportswear is unwaveringly American. From functional outerwear to blue jeans to day dresses, sportswear is made to move, and at its best, exhibits a vigorous American attitude. | | |
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 | Document Journal |
| Following their Fall/Winter 2018 show at London Men's Fashion Week, Matthew Dainty and Ben Cottrell, the desinging duo behind Cottweiler, found time to speak with Document's Alice Lefons on bringing craftmanship to sportswear, and why their shows always impress. | | |
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 | Racked |
| Unlike her usual ornate style, it was relatively simple -- but still scandalous. | | |
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 | The Fashion Law |
| Spanx, the wildly successful hosiery brand, made Sara Blakely the youngest self-made female billionaire in the U.S. at age 41. Now the Atlanta-based company is being sued for allegedly purchasing the products of another brand. | | |
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