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How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

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Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#31

Post by StrictDabbler »

acconrad wrote: post #6

My wife and I went to Paris for our anniversary and we didn't realize until we were there that it was Fashion Week. I am genuinely not surprised at all that this guy made it to the top. Streetwear has become so ironic because the lines have blurred between haute culture/high fashion and bargain basement designs that you genuinely can't tell what is $800 (Balenciaga Triple S https://www.balenciaga.com/us/triple-s-shoe…

That Balenciaga is an absurd shoe. It's the running shoe equivalent of a Gaudi hotel facade. It looks like it belongs on the cover of Yellow Submarine. The lines are crazy. The curves of the sole section near the front of the shoe are in a complicated dialogue with the curves near the back.

Check those tangents, man. If you've ever used something like illustrator, imagine where the spline controls would be. Then try the same with the Nike. They're different.

I wouldn't pay $800 for those shoes because for me, $800 is a lot of money. If I were megarich and I needed sneakers maybe I'd pick the Balenciaga out of an appreciation for how they're pushing the edges of sneaker space. I'd be more likely to buy nice leather shoes because they'd suit me better.

The reason you can't tell the difference between that and a generic sneaker for middle-aged men is that you're used to the higher fashion brands using a separate set of cultural symbols as their baseline instead of looking at the design itself. We've gone past that. Rich people aren't wearing wingtips to show how rich they are anymore.

In fact, "formal" clothing and couture has long been a way to show you're on the way up, not that you're there. Old money doesn't try to keep up with fashion.

Rich people want to wear sneakers, t-shirts, jeans, hoodies, and all the other normal sportswear that everybody else now wears but they want it to be interesting instead of generic. That's a valid role for a fashion designer. Not addressing that market would be idiotic.

The reason it's easy to fake your way to the top of fashion week is actually that 90% of everything is shit, in every field and at every level, so there's no way to look at a given person's stuff and say definitively "nope, I can clearly tell you aren't successful by the way your clothing designs look". You might kick Michael Kors out by accident.

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#33

Post by sovnade »

bhandziuk wrote: post #30
sbov wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've bought plenty of $300 pairs of shoes that fell apart in a year. Price has little relationship with quality nowadays. You just need to do your research.

What kinds of shoes are you buying for 2-300 $? High quality running shoes seem to max out at ~150 and the prices are centered around 100.

Nike has plenty over $200.

There doesn't seem to be a noticeable difference between their $80 and $240 shoes though.

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#34

Post by verbatim »

gricardo99 wrote: post #27
ionforce wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe I'm an outlier there but I'm pretty quick in determining if someone is being sincere or just sweet-talking me to get what he/she wants. Personally, I feel the same way. But it's illogical. What data do you have that you're good at ferreting the genuine from the not?

Mostly likely that he has not been completely duped yet. That has the effect of quickly realigning your trust meter.

That may realign it, but it doesn't mean you're good at it. Maybe Joe-Z fails in the other direction, writes off tons of people as untrustworthy (incorrectly) for no reason, and hasn't realized it.

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#35

Post by crtasm »

Palomides wrote: post #4

article/non-video version of the same(?) content: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59d8v5/i-bullshitted-my-w...

Fun piece, it's not just the initial blag but the escalation to being invited (without asking) to a private view and getting to swan about in a designer dress.

The he tracks down the closest thing to the real Georgio Peviani.

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#36

Post by coldtea »

chaostheory wrote: post #26
aesto wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trust-by-default is pretty much the definition of social capital, which is thought to be incredibly important for a functioning society. Basically, it's more efficient to trust people and be exploited once in a while, than to never trust anyone, which would lead to high transaction costs for any social interaction. Short intro by Robert Putnam, the big cheese in the field: http://robertdputnam.com/bowling-alone/socia…

> Trust-by-default is pretty much the definition of social capital, which is thought to be incredibly important for a functioning society. Not all societies are the same. Trust by default is a luxury in many parts of the world. Typically the rule of law is just non-existent in these places.

Which why the parent qualified "for a functioning society".

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#37

Post by klodolph »

sbov wrote: post #28
klodolph wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d say that’s not quite what’s going on here. You can’t tell when someone else is wearing an $800 or $55 pair of shoes, but in my experience the $55 shoes tend to bite my heels and fall apart within the year. If you don’t care about the brand and have a middle-class income, I might spend $55 on shoes for a growing kid but $200 on shoes for myself that I know will last for years. Not saying you can’t get good shoes f…

I've bought plenty of $300 pairs of shoes that fell apart in a year. Price has little relationship with quality nowadays. You just need to do your research.

I guess my argument wasn’t clear, if that’s your response. Nobody’s saying that “if a shoe costs more, it must be higher quality”. Give me a little credit, I’m not quite that stupid.

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#38

Post by frereubu »

ryandrake wrote: post #7

Ive always truly believed that gullibility was one of humanity’s biggest, most exploitable weaknesses, if not the biggest. You can fake your way into almost anything with confidence and basic acting. I’m reminded of the folk wisdom about simply holding a clipboard and acting like you belong can get you into private areas of 90% of companies. All the fraud people fall for, all the scams, obvious phishing, you’d think…

Slightly OT, but House Of Games by David Mamet is a fantastic film that revolves around people playing confidence tricks on each other, and the film manages to play some pretty good confidence tricks on the viewer too. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093223/

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#39

Post by coldtea »

bhandziuk wrote: post #30
sbov wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've bought plenty of $300 pairs of shoes that fell apart in a year. Price has little relationship with quality nowadays. You just need to do your research.

What kinds of shoes are you buying for 2-300 $? High quality running shoes seem to max out at ~150 and the prices are centered around 100.

>High quality running shoes seem to max out at ~150

Huh? That's not even remotely accurate. There are tons of Nikes and Adidas way beyond $200, and even more so for "collectible" sneakers, and way more so ($1000 easily) for quality leather shoes.

E.g:

https://www.adidas.com/us/originals-shoes?sort=price-high-to...

https://store.nike.com/us/en_us/pw/mens-shoes/7puZoi3?sortOr...

https://www.colehaan.com/mens-shoes?pmax=351.00&pmin=251.00

https://www.thefryecompany.com/mens/boots?product_list_order...

And I'm not including any high-fashion brands...

Re: How I Faked My Way to the Top of Paris Fashion Week [video]

#40

Post by klodolph »

bhandziuk wrote: post #30
sbov wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've bought plenty of $300 pairs of shoes that fell apart in a year. Price has little relationship with quality nowadays. You just need to do your research.

What kinds of shoes are you buying for 2-300 $? High quality running shoes seem to max out at ~150 and the prices are centered around 100.

Dress shoes and hiking boots are often in that range. A good $200 pair of dress shoes or hiking boots should last many years, even with constant use, as long as you take care of them. You definitely don’t have to spend $300 but if you’re willing to spend $150 you have a lot of options available.

For sneakers I’m not convinced that spending $200 is worth it. For hiking boots I’m pretty skeptical of anything I see that’s under $200, or maybe $150 on sale.

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