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

ALYX's Matthew Williams on the Pitfalls of Being a Fashion Designer in America
"Everyone has their own version of the world, unique to them. What other people see of that world, however, is a culmination of factors that include what you do and how you showcase your life. Within the fashion industry, one of the most difficult tasks is creating the world that surrounds a brand, the way Hedi Slimane, Jun Takahashi, Martin Margiela have done, creating a universe around their labels that transcends the clothing – Slimane with his rock ‘n’ roll sensibilities, Takahashi with his archaic punk attitude, and Margiela with his ever-present aura of mystery. It’s not just sewing together fabrics to create products that make up a brand’s identity, but also the concept of what the brand encompasses allows people to connect with it."

via: Hypebeast

ELI RUSSELL LINNETZ
"And if it is not so terribly regimented within the house of KimYe, with proper titles and rigid roles, Linnetz is not the one to go out of his way to clear up the mist and mystique around their process. When fielding questions about his life or work, the now-25-year-old native of Venice Beach, who studied screenwriting at USC and assisted David Mamet during the run of his play Race, Linnetz will answer, as often as not, with a vibey non sequitur wrapped in an enigma and powdered with irony. But lest you take that as typical millennial posturing—all apathy and winking shrugs—Linnetz is very clear that he cares about what he does, who it affects, and what it's all for. As he tells his friend and fellow Kanye Corp. staffer, the artist Elon Rutberg, he's only after real talk and really good work."

via: Interview

Vetements Is Searching for New Creative Energy in Zurich—Here, Two Local Designers Tell Us Why the Swiss City Is on the Rise
"Vetements is by definition a label that does a lot of unusual things, from moving their ready-to-wear shows to Couture Week to designing haute weed grinders to throwing a party in an L.A. parking lot. Their latest? Relocating from Paris to a smaller city about 400 miles southeast: Zurich, Switzerland."

via: Vogue

Justin O'Shea Launches Own Brand
"Justin O'Shea is launching a new self-funded menswear brand named SSS World Corp. The launch marks O’Shea’s return to menswear following his departure from Brioni in October 2016. The brand will debut with its Spring/Summer 2018 collection on the runway in June during the menswear shows in Paris."

via: The Business of Fashion

Stores Take Flight From Fifth Avenue in Manhattan
"Bergdorf Goodman. Tiffany & Company. Louis Vuitton. Fifth Avenue in Manhattan is to shopping what Broadway is to theater, defined by the marquee names that for decades have occupied some of New York City’s most prized real estate. But lately, the avenue’s glittery window displays have been changing more quickly, as retailers have streamed in and out. Tourism has slowed while online shopping has sped up, making it harder for companies to justify the cavernous spaces and sky-high rents along the shopping strip."

via: The New York Times

Small American Businesses Are Struggling Against A Flood Of Chinese Fakes
"Last spring, as Tannia Ospina settled into bed after a long day running her children’s clothing business, an Instagram message popped up that made her burst into tears. It was a photo of her 2-year-old daughter modeling a mermaid romper she had sewn in her home, and it was being used to advertise a rip-off of her design, now being sold for a fraction of the price on AliExpress, a site run by one of the world’s biggest technology companies."

via: Buzzfeed

The retail apocalypse is killing fashion as we know it as a new dress code takes hold in America
"Last spring, as Tannia Ospina settled into bed after a long day running her children’s clothing business, an Instagram message popped up that made her burst into tears. It was a photo of her 2-year-old daughter modeling a mermaid romper she had sewn in her home, and it was being used to advertise a rip-off of her design, now being sold for a fraction of the price on AliExpress, a site run by one of the world’s biggest technology companies."

via: Business Insider

Brands see the future of fashion in customized 3D-knitted garments produced while you wait
"One of the futuristic promises of 3D printing in fashion was that one day the technology would allow you to walk into a store, give the staff your measurements, and walk out with a garment made on the spot, just for you."

via: Quartz

Ambush’s Yoon Ahn on the Women Changing Fashion in Tokyo
"A sharp, concrete box in Shibuya is home to Ambush, once an underground hip-hop jewelry label now making some of Tokyo’s most coveted clothes. It is here, in a no-frills office perched above the new flagship store, that Yoon Ahn has carved a rare niche for herself as an entirely self-taught designer. On the day we met, she had just learned that she’d been named an LVMH Prize finalist. 'It’s crazy—we just made pants for the first time!' she says, laughing. 'For us to be even be nominated is like, what?'"

via: Vogue

Fashion's meme war rages on with new Vetememes raincoat
"It’s undeniable – we live in a world where memes rule supreme. Endlessly filling up our social media feeds with somehow ever more relatable captioned photos or gifs, the idea originally coined by Richard Dawkins way back in the pre-internet days of 1976 has gained a whole new life of its own, reaching into every aspect of our lives – including fashion. Though most obvious in the recent Gucci meme ads for their new line of watches, this new knock-off Vetements raincoat from Vetememes is a reminder that, if anyone is the outfitter of the generation meme aesthetic, it’s Vetements – and, fittingly, the countless copycat brands that have appeared since."

via: Dazed Digital

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