Fashion has always worked in cycles to keep itself alive. In fact, fashion is the one industry that has always been destined for immortality. However, the movement in fashion that promotes the ‘anti-fashion’ mentality dressing by parading it on a runway or displaying it on Instagram, distinctly proves that fashion has lost its core.
NOT VOGUE.com has been around since 2011 and is well known in the industry for being the most intellectual fashion critic. The founder, STEVE OKYLN, has been taking over both Instagram and Twitter with his F*** THEM ALL campaign including t-shirts reading F*** KARL LAGERFELD and F*** VETEMENTS. This to me, seems to be a bit more intriguing and rebellious than a DHL t-shirt.
STEVE OKLYN and his brand 99%YOUTH created this campaign to shine a light on the idea that everyone and everything in fashion is ‘presently ruled by the inherited’. I wanted to find out more about the concept of this ‘invisible revolution’ in fashion and interviewed OKLYN about his new campaign, and how he plans to send his message to teens thought the most important platform of youth culture: apparel.
Do you believe that every choice we make in choosing what to wear has effectively already been decided for us—or at least narrowed for us—by the fashion industry?
At this point in time, the degree and sophistication of the fashion industry’s [FASHIONWORLD] control of its messaging [propaganda] and its network of apologists [journalists] is omnipresent. My research into how, who, and by what means FASHIONWORLD has formed a consciousness to direct global youth and especially its consumer addictions compels me to answer that what the majority of young people are experiencing is an outer directed compulsion and not free- choice.
Would you say fashion images likely to be published are of what we consume visually so we can bow to someone’s superiority or make decisions on what to wear to become someone with power or influence over someone else? If so, why is this so ‘non-talked about’ so to speak?
FASHIONWORLD images are the primary weapon of thought control in a war on global youth’s emotional states, sense of self and consumer behavior. The brands are at war with each other over market share and market domination. The goal is to take the individual and convert them into an ideological [brand] representative. The advertising is referred to as campaigns and to take just one example, BALMAIN refers to its insiders as an ARMY. The brand wants the consumer to become a soldier in an ideological war against all of its competitors. Once you have been recruited you now have the brand ideology as a path to higher social status. This status implies your cultural and social superiority. Since SUPREME is ideologically positioned as more culturally relevant than the GAP, by wearing something with a SUPREME letterbox logo you are announcing your class and identity supremacy.
Do you think ‘fashion media’ simply means freedom of speech? Or is this a contribution in kind, to be regulated by the FEC? (Federal Election Commission)
My study of FASHIONWORLD, which includes the fashion press, leads me to conclude that what is in the majority of cases presented as criticism is in fact predetermined commentary authored and also managed by the fashion brand’s propaganda machinery. The fashion writer/critic is allowed to interject their voice but within the predetermined objectives of the brand leadership. NOT VOGUE sees this as the battle between authentic counterculture and the FASHIONWORLD construct of over-the-counterculture.
What are your thoughts on the fashion blogging ‘epidemic’?
Over the past seven years, I attempted to view as many fashion blogs as possible. My conclusion after that experience is that the bloggers when assembled together have the depth of a digital home shopping network. Just more propaganda and no actual commentary of any value.
What would you say the difference is between ‘Fashion PR’ and ‘Fashion Journalism’?
There is very little difference if any at all. The relationship between the fashion PR teams and the fashion journalism community is based on all involved knowing the rules and the vocabulary. It is a secret handshake society. There is an illusion of an alternative fashion press but my research leads me to state that even the so-called alt fashion press are in collusion with the brands.
Who most influenced or inspired you to start NOT VOGUE? Why?
Reading Truman Capote’s short story titled LA COTE BASQUE. The society version of his experiment of combining fiction and nonfiction in his novel IN COLD BLOOD. I view NOT VOGUE as an online police procedural with the narrative taking place in FASHIONWORLD. Contemporary fashion is a crime against the world’s emerging youth and STEVE OKLYN is a futuristic detective investigating the criminal act. Think of Rick Deckard tracking down FASHIONWORLD replicants.
How political do you think ‘the fashion industry’ truly is? Assuming today’s politics is considered ‘political’?
The merging of political ideology and FASHIONWORLD is a recent phenomenon. In the 1990’s so many members of the fashion industry had died of AIDS that it was natural to form an activist faction and activist action. In recent years, Anna Wintour has used her position and the CONDE NAST media platforms to support left-leaning causes, ideas, and politicians. During the recent American presidential campaign, I believe for the first time American VOGUE publicly endorsed a candidate. NOT VOGUE and 99% YOUTH both were created with the understanding that any messaging specially authored and targeted to young consumers is by its very nature political.
Would you say ‘fashion is dead’?
Not only is fashion dead but cool is also dead. Every fashion week, the reviews repeat the same referential mantras: ’70s or ’80s or ’90s with late or early as markers. Ian Curtis has been turned into an image on a mood board.
I personally think that a brand such as Vetements is the perfect example of how capitalistic and banal fashion has become – however, do you think that Gvasalia could be trying to send a similar message?
I think Demna and Guram Gvasalia are trying to become rich. They currently are doing a good job in accomplishing that. That includes both VETEMENTS and BALENCIAGA. A baseball hat + hoodie + t-shirt + sweat pants + sneakers = $4,000. What is cool about that? Nothing.
Why do you think Vetements even became popular?
VETEMENTS became popular because it became a profit driver for a handful of well-placed FASHIONWORLD operatives including Rei Kawakubo and her husband Adrian Joffe who own the DOVER STREET MARKET stores. There is an element of DADA about Rei. How fucked up and expensive can we sell this sh*t for is one of the fashion industry’s strategies. For VETEMENTS to happen, there needed to be a whole cast of agents to carry out the strategy. There is only one objective which I’m sure Guram Gvasalia would agree is at work: PROFIT. Again, the ideas are not compelling and many of the big concepts are second-hand thinking.
Supreme seemed to be one of the few brands that weren’t going to essentially ‘sell out’ – until it collaborated with Louis Vuitton. Or do you think that the image Supreme portrayed was always a ‘sell-out’?
SUPREME has always been over-the-counter-culture. The primary goal of the project is PROFIT. It is delusional to think of SUPREME as anything else. A Damian Hirst for SUPREME skateboard is not art. It can only be understood as a marketing strategy.
*NOT VOGUE and 99% YOUTH are not ideological movements, they are conceptual processes. The ideas expressed by STEVE OKLYN are his own, and Affinity does not necessarily support these thoughts*
