One year later

Introducing The Bigger Picture #1

It’s been almost, not quite, but almost an entire year since I started this newsletter. A year! I’ve written more than I’ve ever written in the last 360-something days — more than when I was writing my book, more than when I was at Highsnobiety. It’s been a challenge, but a very fulfilling one. 

I’ve been slowly unlearning a few things I thought were true from my years of toil inside the online content matrix. The first is that nobody could ever make money from writing. I’ve been very happy to realize that’s absolutely not the case — I am inching closer and closer to a point of being entirely financed by my own words. Thank you to everyone who’s paying for this. Your subscriptions add up to very real money for me. You are quite literally paying my rent.

The other thing I’ve been unlearning is the idea that pieces need to hit hard, smashing into the algorithm like a truck. Again, I’m very happy that this is not the case. The best thing I can say about Substack is that it rewards thoughtful, meaningful writing. That’s keeping me very excited about my work here. 

Fashion connects to so many parts of society that whenever I look at the chaos and turmoil in the industry, my mind races to a bunch of other huge issues that are impacting all corners of the world. The work I’m most proud of here has been about making sense of these issues — like neoliberalism, toxic positivity and the moral dilemma of work.

And finally…I’m starting a new series, and this is the first installment. The Bigger Picture will be a zoomed out look at what’s happening in the world, what’s on my mind, and updates on other non-newsletter things I’ve been up to. 

TLDR: this space is getting bigger and better. Thanks for sticking around.

Scroll on for more on my next book, an update on the Fashion Act, and some thoughts on the state of menswear and a bunch of other things I’ve had on my mind. 

Book #2

Big news. I’m working on my second book! 

Same deal as the first one. Same size, same format, same design, same vibe. But it won’t be about fashion. Working on a book and a newsletter at the same time is not exactly the best idea from a time management perspective, but it’s very energizing from a wtf am I doing with my life perspective. I am thinking big, nurturing a more ambitious vision of what my writing might be, who it might reach, and how it might touch them.

I’m learning to appreciate the psychic turmoil that comes from trying to bring an idea into the world, and accepting it as an essential part of the experience. Writing is hard, but that’s what makes it worth doing.

Stephen King’s On Writing has been an amazing motivator. Journalists like to say their work is very not at all creative, more like installing a washing machine than poetry, which is fair enough, but not what I've been put on this world for. The Stephen King vibe is that writing is an almost magical thing, a way of lighting up someone’s imagination across time and space. Love that.

The Fashion Act will not be stopped

Remember the Fashion Act, the groundbreaking legislation I mentioned maybe 10,000 times over the past year? Quick update: time ran out before the bill could be passed in the 2024 legislative session, but we’ll be back next year. We are not going anywhere, and anyone is welcome to join the fight for a truly sustainable fashion industry. As the bill’s founder Maxine Bedat put it on LinkedIn — “Our kids and conscience demand nothing less.” Let’s go!

Menswear’s paradoxical golden age

“Where are the subcultures in fashion today?” asked Noah Johnson in a recent column for GQ. “We have an abundance of very nice clothes without any kind of context”. This is very true. The industry’s golden era of creativity is very dead.

But maybe this is also a chance to, IDK, build ideas and movements around things that are more meaningful than spending money? The most powerful ideas are about questioning the world we live in, not disappearing into the majestic realm of Yohji or Rei or whatever. 

It’s a bit of an oxymoron given how systematically broken the fashion industry is, but the menswear market is in a pretty great place. There’s a thriving middle class of brands that make very good things and know exactly who they’re for. I’m thinking Stone Island and CP Company, Acne and Our Legacy, Stussy and Aries, Drakes and Noah.

We have thankfully moved on from the stiffness of the #menswear era, when brands made excellent clothes in restrictive silhouettes. We have also forgotten the silliness of the hype era, when brands pumped out nonsense collaborations splattered in embarrassing logos. Whatever you’re into, someone’s making a good version of it somewhere. Guys wear kilts and nail polish now. The future is here, and it’s good!