High fashion doesn’t have time to do research anymore—what the designer bases things on is too far away and isn’t derived from real experience. Everything is fake. It’s one of the most cynical and interesting things about menswear for me. It’s really a contradiction. | | | | "The Belles." Trying out for an Indiana University musical club called the Belles. Bloomington, 1954.
(Nina Leen/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “High fashion doesn’t have time to do research anymore—what the designer bases things on is too far away and isn’t derived from real experience. Everything is fake. It’s one of the most cynical and interesting things about menswear for me. It’s really a contradiction.”
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| | rantnrave:// T-shirts are some of the most visible garments of our time. They form bonds; they mark our place in the world—concerts, vacations, political campaigns. They’re egalitarian and comfortable, the ultimate underwear as outerwear. There are luxe versions and eco versions and 3-pack staple versions, sometimes all three. They come a long way through a global system of commodity exchange and production, yet they feel as if plucked off of a vine: familiar, routine. Plain versions have come to be referred to simply as “blanks,” waiting for our logos or political slogans or favorite TV show. Endlessly versatile in their customization, they’ve become faceless, suited to whatever purpose a screen-printer, tie-dyer, or DIY-er can provoke in them. They can broadcast. As a blank canvas for identity and self-expression, their potential for any message—as long as it's you—means that there's no stable meaning for the t-shirt. Those are the blanks we fill in. This story by JASMINE SANDERS connects t-shirts to death, mourning, race, spectacle, and commerce in the form of airbrushed R.I.P. tees. Made to remember loved ones who died too soon, their ties to graffiti and hip-hop have garnered wider attention in pop culture—a mix of sincerity, irony, and nostalgia. It opens up questions about how style gets swept up into trends, social media spectacle, and profit motives. Wonderful story... Loved ROBIN GIVHAN's piece on how LIL' KIM's manicure made its way to MOMA. It was a money manicure, originally made with real bills—then fake ones—after a reminder came through from the US government. The woman who designed the nails, BERNADETTE THOMPSON, helped bring nail art to the mainstream. Beauty rituals are incredible markers of culture... Briefs: WARBY PARKER is using IPHONE X facial mapping to suggest which glasses might fit... SIMON SPURR returns as creative director of EIDOS... BARBIE gets a hijab... WALMART partners with LORD & TAYLOR. | | | - HK Mindy Meissen, curator |
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 | The New York Times |
| On the South Side of Chicago and around the U.S., memorial T-shirts are a way to remember, to celebrate -- and to indict. | | |
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 | Racked |
| And it makes doing my job as a beauty editor more complicated than you might think. | | |
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 | The Business of Fashion |
| BoF investigates how the tropical islands of Bali, Java and Sumatra have become manufacturing hotspots for global fashion brands like H&M, Calvin Klein and Uniqlo. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| Bernadette Thompson cut up a dollar bill and made acrylic-tip history. Then she pushed nail art into the mainstream. | | |
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 | AnOther |
| Haute couture shapes in neon-bright nylon and polyester blends: Raf Simons’ S/S11 collection for Jil Sander marked a seismic shift in the fashion industry, writes Alexander Fury. | | |
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 | The Telegraph |
| If behind every great man is a great woman, Karl Lagerfeld’s status as the most powerful man in fashion is secure. | | |
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 | Dazed Digital |
| To celebrate the release of ‘The Story of the Face’, we speak to some of the team members of the groundbreaking publication about their favourite archive images. | | |
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 | New Republic |
| Private equity firms overburdened businesses with debt, and now workers are paying the price. Will policymakers do anything about it? | | |
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 | Stratechery |
| There was an interesting line of commentary around the news that Stitch Fix, the personalized clothing e-commerce company, was going to IPO: these numbers are incredible! | | |
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 | Australian Broadcasting Corp. |
| Where did the high heel come from and why was it invented? | | |
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 | GQ |
| Fashion director Bruce Pask talks shopping, his closet staples, and why we should all be ready for big pants. | | |
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 | Highsnobiety |
| MR PORTER Buying Director Sam Lobban speaks with Noah's Brendon Babenzien about their new capsule collection, and how to wear a suit on your own terms. | | |
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 | The Fashion Law |
| What about the smaller instances of tax side-stepping that could be happening with some regularity in fashion in connection with the incessant practice of gifting? | | |
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 | GQ Style |
| Mordechai Rubenstein-AKA Mister Mort-found the most original Deadhead style in and around the Garden at Sunday’s show. | | |
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| Highsnobiety |
| From 'Yeezus' to Vetements, we break down the modern history of metal fashion and hip-hop intersecting, and how it all came to permeate pop culture. | | |
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 | British Vogue |
| Erdem Moralioglu tells Anders Christian Madsen about his ultimate foray into household-name fashion super fame, and the life and career that led to it. | | |
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 | Glossy |
| After a concentrated effort to buy back excess inventory in Asia, Richemont is seeing big growth pay off in the region, where brands like Cartier and Piaget are testing online and in-store concepts to appeal to a modern luxury consumer in markets like Hong Kong and China. | | |
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 | Flaunt Magazine |
| From Victoria's Secrets dreams to magazine cover hopes, Wilhelmina has helped many to winning careers. | | |
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 | Fast Company |
| NastyGal & Bonobos were once the stuff of founders’ dreams. But as we head into 2018, startups believe landing big funding & scaling fast are recipes for disaster. | | |
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 | Bloomberg |
| Rent the Runway started out catering to women wanting one night of high fashion. Now its doubling down on subscriptions for the whole work week. | | |
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 | YouTube |
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