When, last week, the first photos leaked of Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner as a couple embracing at Beyoncé’s concert, the network, as expected, went crazy. What wasn’t so surprising was that many users, in surprise, mentioned Jenner’s dress: a 2008 horse-print Martin Margiela dress, one of the Belgian designer’s most memorable collections, from a year before her retirement. Catwalk certainty. Kylie, a no-sew expert, announced shortly after that ‘leak’ that she was the new campaign image for Swedish firm Acne Studios. For the Millennial generation, both Margiela and Acne are niche brands, i.e., cult brands for a fashion-loving minority, whose purchases are sometimes motivated by the fact that they are recognized (and recognizable) only by fashion connoisseurs. . This has nothing to do with muted luxury, which presents its very expensive products as normal and basic clothing. Quite the contrary, these are ‘hard’ pieces to wear with ugly components and/or unusual silhouettes.
But the fact is that a company like Acne Studios, famous for its work with artists, its deconstructed patterns, and its cult magazine acne paper, Choosing someone like Kylie Jenner as the face already announces where the shots are headed now. If there was any doubt, a few days before the announcement, the story of a girl telling on TikTok how her Tinder date had stolen Tabi, Margiela shoes with split toes taken from Japanese footwear went viral and that designer Made my own in the late eighties. Wearing Tabi is not easy. Not cheap either (it costs close to a thousand euros) but, apparently, they have become an item popularly known by thousands of people. What happened that what was traditionally a minority has now become widely popular?
Beware of Tabby Swiper pic.twitter.com/WKUDdD6NBa
– Garcon (@boymolish) 2 September 2023
The first reason should be found in the widespread trend that makes young people feel nostalgic for moments and cultural expressions that they have not experienced: “This has led them to relaunch many products from twenty years ago or more “67% of the baguette bags launched by Fendi and 57% of the archive models relaunched on the market by Marc Jacobs have been sold,” he explains in a report by Edit, a platform that examines sales data. To give advice. And he adds: “Dior and Rick Owens are some of the most beloved brands, because they generate the most visits on TikTok, they are the most appreciated on resale platforms.”
If today people in their thirties spend money on limited edition sneakers or Supreme clothing for clothing craze, the youngest choose brands that were until now exclusive. Shortly after her death, Vivienne Westwood’s pieces from the eighties and nineties were reevaluated: in the latest report poshmarkA luxury goods resale website claims searches for the punk inventor’s vintage bags have increased by 310%. TikTok is partly to blame. Its structure prioritizes infinite loop videos designed to capture the user’s attention Story The virality of some products, such as Tabi or Rick Owens shoes, comes, first of all, from their history, and then from the stream of viral desire among young people on social networks. Owens, who has always been a designer of almost extremes (many of his followers, if they can afford it, wear almost identical clothes with his clothes) uses his Instagram to publish his campaigns, but his He films his eccentric daily life on TikTok. This is the difference. Big brands have been operating for years as an entertainment company that crosses music, film or television with the catwalk (it is not in vain that Yves Saint Laurent is producing films and Kering, the holding company from which it Relatedly, she recently purchased the agency of the talented CAA artist), fashion itself has become a pop phenomenon. And seeking out and capturing, even collecting, vintage clothing from cult designers is another form of public entertainment. ,
“Everything has helped turn this subculture that was once secret into a big game with fans that rival real sports or pop music,” he analyzed. Identification Journalist Jose Criles-Unzueta regarding Tabi’s viral case. “As a result, once niche and subversive designers (like Glenn Martens, Ann Demeulemeester and Raf Simons) have begun to gain hardcore fans.” But not everything is luxury: in the last year, Birkenstock’s Boston clogs or Uniqlo’s fanny packs for less than 20 euros have also become cult items. So much so, that the data platform List included them in its list of the most desired products in the first half of the year, along with Prada bags, Baleniaga shoes or Bottega Veneta jewelry. «From our list we can see the chaotic moment that fashion is going through. The most famous brands have given us shows Incredible and memorable presence, but data shows that people now want something more complex,” he commented in his report.
‘Weird’ shoes from specific brands, difficult-to-wear clothes, excessive jewelry and cheap accessories that don’t usually enter the trend circuit. TikTok and nostalgia have encouraged it, but, of course, it has also been encouraged by style-setting celebrities who, some years ago, find themselves wearing the clothes of Yamamoto, Jean Paul Gaultier, Mugler or Margiela from twenty or thirty years ago. Permission is granted to take photographs while wearing it. .Year. Garments with history and a powerful creative concept behind them, which, until recently, were worn by gallery owners, artists and all those who could afford to wear a luxury known only to a few ‘connoisseurs’. Stylists like Law Roach (Zendaya, Gigi Hadid) or Dani Mitchell (Kylie Jenner, Hailey Bieber) distinguish their very famous clients from the rest of the prescribers by drawing clothes that are difficult to find and even difficult to recognize today.
Bella Hadid in Vivienne Westwood Corset from 1990
The marketing theory of luxury consumption proposed in 2010 by the University of Southern California, which was successful among analysts of the phenomenon, divided the consumer into four classes. the aristocrats (buy by the logo), the nouveau riche or parvenues (buy luxuries that are noticed), the patricios (special brands but unknown to the majority) and the proletariat (without access to luxury). A principle which, fortunately, is no longer applied. The luxury barrier is now exclusively economic, no longer separate from knowledge or access. And, if the minority is the majority and the past is the present, then in fashion, what is the point of talking about seasonal trends?