When we tell the story of the development of digital technology through the turn of the last century, we often talk about the cultural and political philosophies that influenced the dreamers and schemers who took the great leaps and climbed out on all limbs. They were the ultimate gamblers; they broke things, built things and placed bets on the future, all with the idea that the new systems, products and platforms would guide us down the path to a society that the Bay Area counterculture movements only dreamed of. They played the ultimate game …
The Creatives’ Revolt
I recently bumped into someone I hadn’t seen in many years, a great artist in his own right, who like me, had receded from the front row of the fashion business in the last decade or so. It was like seeing a ghost from another lifetime, a voice from the distant past. After the usual niceties, "how have you been?" and "what are you up to now?" we both kind of looked at each other with a bit of a shrug and a sigh. I could see on his face we were thinking the same thing without saying a word. "Boy has the industry changed. Yep, not what it once …
Art Twain: Staying Loose and Coloring Outside the Lines
A Personal Retrospective I don’t know where to begin with this story. It’s about retail, forgotten brand origin stories, advertising, and the golden age of radio. You might say it’s a trip down memory lane, but my instincts tell me it’s really a story that touches upon so many things that are so right now. Every time I hear someone talk about how retail taps into culture, or asks why we are suddenly devouring podcasts, listening to the radio, and enamored with the ’70s, I think of Art Twain. Right around the time in the ’70s when …
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Beyond Criticism
What's the role of the fashion journalist today? As a veteran of the industry, that's something people ask me all the time. They're always trying to bait me to say the obvious. I might be old school, but I certainly don’t think that school is as relevant as it once was. The role of criticism is changing as we speak, and the sooner the better, as this state of flux does not serve this industry well. We need voices that reflect both the new role of the critics and the new role of the brands themselves. So what actually has changed? There has …