"Weekend Reading" is a weekly rundown of our favorite stories from around the web.
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If You Hype It, Will They Come?
"If you were a young male in the mid-2000s with a vague interest in Japanese denim or limited-colorway Nike Dunks or whatever it was that Pharrell was wearing that month, you may have found your way to Hypebeast, a fashion blog that was among the first to enthusiastically document trends in sneakers and streetwear."

via: The New York Times

Virgil Abloh: "I Am Not a Designer"
"Virgil Abloh is not a designer, and he’s OK with that. 'I would sort of agree I’m not a designer; that term seems like it’s for traditionalists,' he says. 'TBD the new title.' His official job title is men’s artistic director of Louis Vuitton. But it’s clear from the first few minutes of our conversation that the polymathic Ghanaian-American who founded haute streetwear sensation Off-White after training as a civil engineer and architect, and working as Kanye West’s creative director, is out to fundamentally redefine what that means."

via: Business of Fashion

At a Celeb-Filled 50th Anniversary Show, Ralph Lauren Was Back on Top, Doubters Be Damned
"Oprah Winfrey was discussing her bath towels. We—the 700 or so guests seated around Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain for a dinner following Ralph Lauren’s 50th anniversary runway show—were listening to Oprah toast the 78-year-old Mr. Lauren, as only she could. When she first tasted success in Chicago, she told us, a set of Ralph Lauren bath sheets represented the height of luxury to her. In fact, she went on, when Barbara Walters came to interview her at her home, all Ms. Winfrey wanted to do was show off those plush homewares."

via: The Wall Street Journal

The Untold Stories of Paul McCartney
"He’s as famous and accomplished as a man can be. He could just stay home, relax, and count his money. But Paul McCartney is as driven as ever. Which is why he’s still making music and why he has loads of great stories you’ve never heard—about the sex life of the Beatles, how he talked John Lennon out of drilling holes in his head (really), and what actually happened when he worked with Kanye."

via: GQ

Antonio Ciongoli’s New Brand 18 East Just Might Be the Future of Menswear
"When former Eidos designer Antonio Ciongoli had the opportunity to start a new menswear brand essentially from scratch, he knew he needed to re-think the entire concept from the ground up. The product of 12 months of development is 18 East, which launches tomorrow."

via: GQ Style

Under the Radar, but Cranked to 11: Kozaburo
"It was dark and loud on Monday night in Ideal Glass, a performance space on East Second Street, the site of the first solo presentation by a little-known, prodigiously talented men’s wear designer named Kozaburo Akasaka. Nine p.m., the last show slot of the day, is not generally a sought-after one during New York Fashion Week, but you got the feeling that Mr. Akasaka would have been just as happy to have gone even later."

via: T Magazine

Finding Authenticity in a T-shirt
"Earlier this summer, on the lot of Citi Field, in Queens, a familiar scene was unfolding. Shifty-eyed men were plying their trade ('doses and rolls, doses and rolls'), halter-topped women were selling edibles out of wicker baskets, Hare Krishnas were proffering vegetarian burritos, and grizzled men were tailgating with their wives and young children. It was an hour before a concert by Dead & Company, and this was 'Shakedown Street,' the unauthorized open-air market that has become as much a part of the Grateful Dead experience as the trading of bootleg concert tapes. The Grateful Dead was always known for its eclectic fan base, and its crowd has, if anything, diversified since 2015, when most of the band’s remaining members formed a spin-off group with the musician John Mayer. In the last three years, a new breed of Dead follower has emerged, who, perhaps inspired by Mayer’s own style, is most easily identified by his combining of tie-dye with stylish streetwear. For this fan, Dead & Company, and the scene that has sprouted around it, has come to represent rebellion and its material accoutrements."

via: The New Yorker

The Antwerp Six’s Most Elusive Member on Her New Collection
"Walter Van Beirendonck, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene, Dirk Bikkembergs and Marina Yee were a bande of young fashion designers who graduated from Antwerp’s Royal Academy in the early 1980s. Despite the fact that each possessed a very different aesthetic, their collective avant-garde manifesto and radical approach to fashion – or, indeed, their rejection of established industry norms – garnered them the name The Antwerp Six. (With Martin Margiela considered to be an honorary member of the group, it is often referred to as The Antwerp Six+1.)"

via: AnOther

Mark Parker Talks Digital Media's Impact on Sneaker Culture
"Mark Parker is the longtime chairman, president, and CEO of Nike. He joined the company as one of its first footwear designers in 1979. Under Nike’s 'HTM' imprint, he still designs some of today’s most 10 innovative and best-looking sneakers alongside his HTM cohorts—Hiroshi Fujiwara and Tinker Hatfield."

via: Highsnobiety

We Got Dressed with Jeff Goldblum
"Jeff Goldblum has entered sacred territory. That’s what he calls this building: 205 West 39th Street—also known as Calvin Klein headquarters. Goldblum, his stylist Andrew T. Vottero, and a select crew from the company’s communications team are here to find the actor and musician an outfit to wear to tomorrow’s C.K. runway show, where Simons will debut his Spring/Summer 2019 collection for the Calvin Klein 205W39NYC label."

via: GQ

Tags: weekend-reading