Food for Thought: Seasons
Today my RSS feed told me that Journal Standard, a random Japanese lines/shop I’ve been following lately, has released some new goods. None of it was particularly interesting or appealing except for maybe this pullover 3/4 collared shirt which is pretty crazy. That’s not the reason for this post though. In seeing this new stuff, I had a Seinfeld-esque epiphany. What’s the deal with seasons? …
Journal Standard, and a load of other Japanese brands I would bet, are constantly releasing new product. It happens every two weeks. There is no Spring/Summer, no Fall/Winter, just a constant flow of new clothes, shoes and accessories. At a time when pretty much every item from S/S 08 is on sale around the world people are already waiting for Fall, doesn’t this make more sense? The idea of a themed collection has its appeal but what people really want is something new. We get distracted. I mean, got excited for the Nom De Guerre F/W collection when the lookbook was released in April. But by the time it finally comes out in the next couple of months I’m probably going to want the APC S/S 2012 instead because I saw those looks online.
Designers and manufacturers are at least a year ahead of us peon consumers anyways. So why not ditch the huge collections that get released three or four times a year in favor of a smaller run of items released every month and a half? I think this is why footwear, and to some extent stores like American Apparel do so well. I’ll admit I don’t really know too much about the process of clothing production though so perhaps I’m just being extremely naive. What I do know is that with more and more people (younger especially) becoming what I like to call stylistically conscience, brands are underestimating the power of novelty.
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I really enjoy your point of view, OP. And often agree.