"Weekend Reading" is a weekly rundown of our favorite stories from around the web.

Japan’s wild, creative Harajuku street style is dead. Long live Uniqlo
"To hear photographer Shoichi Aoki describe it, what killed Tokyo’s famous Harajuku style was basically what happens when a glut of factories set up shop at the head of a river that feeds vital waterways."

via: Quartz

Grow your own clothes: three concepts for the fashion for the future
"In an age of staggering advances and incredible scientific discoveries, fashion has made astoundingly very little progress over the last 100 years. While artificial organs are being printed and commercial rockets to space are successfully tested, even a basic T-shirt has to be grown, harvested, combed, made into yarn, then into fabric, and finally into clothes. Later, it must be packaged, dispatched, unpacked, and sold."

via: DW

Renaissance man: Olivier Theyskens on the relaunch of his label
"In an age of staggering advances and incredible scientific discoveries, fashion has made astoundingly very little progress over the last 100 years. While artificial organs are being printed and commercial rockets to space are successfully tested, even a basic T-shirt has to be grown, harvested, combed, made into yarn, then into fabric, and finally into clothes. Later, it must be packaged, dispatched, unpacked, and sold."

via: The Telegraph

Inside the New Saint Laurent
"Word comes that Anthony Vaccarello, the new creative director of Saint Laurent, would like to meet at the house. His own house, I wonder? No. The house of Saint Laurent, as in the headquarters of the label? Yes. But which? There are three houses of Saint Laurent, scattered across Paris. Each is different, in usage and in mood: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. This is 'Saint' Laurent we’re talking about, bestower of the contemporary wardrobe, the man who put women into pantsuits, a tortured artist in couture and the inventor of 20th-century style. No designer has ever been closer to godliness, in the eyes of the fashion industry, and specifically the French, than he."

via: T Magazine

Marni’s Francesco Risso Talks Exclusively to Vogue About Taking On One of Italy’s Most Beloved Labels
"As you will discover during the chat that follows, Marni’s new creative director Francesco Risso, who joined from Prada, replacing founder Consuelo Castiglioni, is a movie buff. So, staying with that, and since you very likely don’t know anything about him, or even have the vaguest idea of what he looks like, let’s work though some comparisons to Italy’s cinematic greats."

via: Vogue

Vogue’s Race Problem Is Bigger Than Karlie Kloss
"Karlie Kloss is having a rough month. First, in a 'Hidden Fences' type gaffe, the American supermodel claimed last week in Love magazine that her favorite Beyoncé hit was 'Waterfalls,' a song made famous more than two decades ago by R&B group TLC. Then in Vogue’s March issue, which supposedly champions diversity and the 'modern American woman,' Kloss, a white model, appears in a six-page spread in full geisha regalia. Entitled 'Spirited Away,' photos depict Kloss bowing to fetch water at a bamboo pump, or leaning demurely beside a grimacing sumo wrestler."

via: Buzzfeed

#Shotsfired: What Philipp Plein’s copyright scandal means for his brand
"Karlie Kloss is having a rough month. First, in a 'Hidden Fences' type gaffe, the American supermodel claimed last week in Love magazine that her favorite Beyoncé hit was 'Waterfalls,' a song made famous more than two decades ago by R&B group TLC. Then in Vogue’s March issue, which supposedly champions diversity and the 'modern American woman,' Kloss, a white model, appears in a six-page spread in full geisha regalia. Entitled 'Spirited Away,' photos depict Kloss bowing to fetch water at a bamboo pump, or leaning demurely beside a grimacing sumo wrestler."

via: Glossy

Feiyue: how authentic Chinese trainers became fakes, thanks to France
"When it comes to fakes, China can be considered a pioneer. From the enduringly popular fake handbags, replica Rolls Royces, and even counterfeit KFC, there is nothing China won’t duplicate. But now the tables have turned, and the imitation nation is getting a taste of its own medicine as other countries start to copy Chinese products. Feiyues are a brand of trainer that began life in Shanghai in the 1950s as a humble shoe favoured by monks and martial arts students. Known for their durable properties, they gained a cult following, and in 2008, at the Beijing Olympics, all 2008 martial arts performers wore Feiyues. Today, they are the shoe of choice for secondary school students in their PE lessons."

via: Young Post

How Paul Smith Changed The Way British Men Dress
"Smithyland—that is, the global headquarters of the Paul Smith fashion brand — is housed in a handsome, red brick warehouse on the edge of the long-gone fruit and veg market in Covent Garden. From the exterior and the smart but unshowy waiting room there is little indication of the building's eccentric owner: not his distinctive cursive signature; nor the thin, bright stripe pattern he created that became so popular he had to kill it off. Not even a rabbit, an animal that, in various forms, has been a lucky charm for much of his career and which must be doing a job because the 70-year-old Smith has clung on at the top, or near it, of a notoriously greasy pole for the best part of five decades."

via: Esquire

Donald Trump and the Plight of L.L. Bean
"On the second Monday of January, Stephen Smith, the 46-year-old head of L.L. Bean, arrived in Salt Lake City for a retail trade show. An avid telemark skier, he was tempted to blow off meetings and head to the nearby slopes of Park City, which were buried under 2 feet of fresh powder, but the 6-foot-6 executive was still recovering from a torn Achilles tendon and chose to hunker down at his hotel. There certainly was plenty of work to be done."

via: Boston Magazine

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