Aesthetics: An Alternative Perspective On Streetwear

Aesthetics SUPREME

An Alternative Perspective on Streetwear

Supreme

Supreme

Issue XVI: The Exchange Value In Fashion Michael Chang | Marx | Flamingo

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Table of Contents Table of Contents

The Exchange Value in Fashion -9

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Allusion in Streetwear

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The Exchange Value In Fashion: Page 4

Photos: Publish Lookbook

F

ashion is an outlet in which a person presents him or herself. This presentation could be in a way to fit into the comfortable stereotype that society views certain fashion choices; for example, people in a professional, public sphere of work often adhere to wearing the suit and tie combo in adherence to their job description.

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Essentials: Tan Gillies of Nike UK photo by: Hypebeast

The essentials articles showcase the commodities individuals involved in fashion like, increasing value. notes on each product brand included on the website.

Fashion can also be how a person presents their interests and personality. If a person does not put much thought in their wear, it is simply a show that they disregard the importance for such a matter. I do not state such differences and choices that people make in negative or positive lights, rather I simply point out and assert claims what I believe to be true.

Karl Marx

, the father of communism, wrote extensively on the commodity, the object in which capitalism so heavily depends on. Fashion, although can be labeled as a form of art or creative expression, is also a commodity, as it is bought and sold to the human, and becomes in a way almost a part of the person who now owns that piece of clothing.

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The importance of a person’s unique style, for those who care for what they wear, has reached a point in which the value has skyrocketed for certain pieces of clothing based exclusively on the amount of it in society, a kind of simple supply and demand.

This importance on a person presenting themselves in a unique way, an individual separate from all other individuals, also influences how fashion moves forward. In a saturated market of labels only differentiated by a name, the name of a brand can have as heavy of an statement on the unique qualities of a piece of clothing, not just the supposed cuts, cloth, design and color of the actual piece of clothing. Brands such as Supreme, Stussy, and other streetwear labels have depended greatly on the name of their brand and that persona the brand evokes in their success as much as the clothing it actually produces. In the context of Supreme, the box logo tee, with its red background and its small, unassuming print in the middle of

a plain white shirt, can sell up to hundreds of dollars on the internet as an exclusive item.

The elevating of certain brand statuses to the point of fetishism is another idea of Marx. The idea that a commodity, an object lacking human emotion, can have such a force in influencing the human mind into treating it in such a personal, emotion manner. This fetishism of the commodity is a result of the capitalist system, which immortalizes and worships the need for a sense of individuality, competition in the marketplace. A marketplace where the survivors are the ones who do not necessarily produce the most useful commodity with the most efficient, powerful function, but the commodity that has the most potential to be unique and different from all others, and once that name is established, it becomes immortalized as a being of its own, living on whenever that brand name is plastered onto it.

Karl Marx and Engels Photocredits: Jose Tellez, Flickr

How does fashion judge itself? The question of which brands become more valuable and expensive compared to a brand next to it. It is an important question, as consumers, because it provides perspective for a person that always feels a nagging itch or anxiousness at hearing the new collaboration, limited editions kicks, or exclusive V.I.P. sales for a brand that is worshipped. Supreme provides such an authentic example of such worship, as their seasons sell out almost immediately when released, as eager consumers stay up right up to the release, and spend countless dollars on the releases.

Stussy Chapter Shinjuku Photo credits: Tomoharu Arai, Flickr

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The Brand name has a powerful effect, it elevates the person wearing it in the eye of society.

Marx touches on such value as the exchange value. He explains that the exchange value is the value a commodity has based upon the social relationships of its producers and consumers. This value has no basis in the function of the commodity, as a hoodie from Target would have the same value as a limited edition hoodie from Supreme if that were true. In the context of fashion, the exchange value is solely the based on the relationships between brands, and the consumers who fetishize their products. If what Marx asserts has any merit, that would mean that a brand such as Supreme’s value is based solely on its relationship with other brands, that relationship being that it is the ‘king’ of streetwear compared to other brands in the eyes of society, which would be its relationship to the consumer. These social values can stem from many possible social relations. The literal representation would be Supreme’s

“In a saturated market of labels only differentiated by a name, the name of a brand can have as heavy of an statement on the unique qualities of a piece of clothing, not just the supposed cuts, cloth, design and color of the actual piece of clothing.”

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marketing campaign, using famous figures wearing their clothing, to elevate the status of their clothing using the social relations between the consumer and that celebrity.

Dissecting Supreme’s powerful brand image further, the social relations can also be on the basis of its advertising and image it sends. The use of guerrilla marketing campaigns and other subliminal forms of messaging that are not of “mainstream” media, gives Supreme an edgy, avant-garde, cool, and underground image that many of the youth want to associate themselves with. Supreme’s popularity and value would be predicated on that social image it creates with advertising, rather than some ‘aesthetic’ quality it has over other brands. Although the basis of “good” or “bad” aesthetics of a product, especially in fashion, is really just a blanket term for personal opinions of a the person dissecting a brand.

Example of Supreme’s Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns. Plastering posters using celebrities to promote brand. (Kate Moss) photo credits: Tokyo Fashion, Flickr

line for New Supreme Collaboration photocredits: Angel Gonzalez, Flickr

Now I do not mean to insult Supreme and its success. Advertising is by all means just as important and legitimate as the product itself. In such an age for fashion in a capitalist society, the image of a brand is just as important as the actual supposed “look” of the brand. A brand must convey the message it wants to send, and target the audience it wishes to target, and Supreme has done a beautiful job in not only drawing in a crowd to its products, but keeping life long customers even as it raises its prices to almost ridiculous levels. Other popular brands have also been successful at this, but Supreme has done an exceptional job of solidifying its image.

“The Brand name has a powerful effect, it elevates the person wearing it in the eye of society.”

You will find in this zine techniques in how brands elevate their social image and in turn elevate the value (price) of their products. It is neither a negative or positive analysis of their techniques, as I often fall face first into these “traps” willingly, but it is to provide an alternative perspective for the consumer on these brands. Marx’s argument of the exchange value of commodities was perhaps his way of trying to devalue capitalism, and undercut its functions, but I simply wish to provide his ideas in a context of expanding the consumer’s view and perhaps have him or her reconsider the fetishism for the next Nike x Supreme collaboration that hits the market.

-Michael Chang

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Exch ang Valu e e

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T

photo credit: Lazytuba, Flickr

he collaboration is a powerful idea that materializes the exchange value by combining two powerful brands in social context to create a more valuable product.

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Stussy x Nike 2012 Collaboration.

Image from Stussy.com

When two powerhouse brandds collaborate and release a product, the value for that product elevates exponentially in terms of the value that the two brands have added together. In an age of brand saturation, the power of the collaboration, no matter how little the collaboration actually does in innovating and changing the look of a product the two brand wish to create together, has such a powerful effect first because of the inherent ‘limited time’ quality that the collaboration has and the now unique branding that the collaboration has.

The limited edition quality of a collaboration stems from the idea that the collaboration will end as the

two brands are both self sustaining and existing organism that have come together to create a special gift to the consumers. This limited edition has the effect of quickly drawing in consumers to buy the product, because in the lifelong quest for unique pieces of fashion, the consumer will delight in the collaboration that only the few can own in its limited production.

Transitioning to the focus on the consumer, the collaboration immediately opens up the potential audience, as core fans of each brand will flock to the collaboration, while the casual fans for both will also be interested. This expansion of Nike x Supreme Foamposite 2014 photocredits: Josh Cooke, Flickr

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“This limited edition has the effect of quickly drawing in consumers to buy the product, because in the lifelong quest for unique pieces of fashion, the consumer will delight in the collaboration that only the few can own in its limited production.�

Nike x Supreme Flyknit collaboration Photo credits: Hypebeast

the target audience will increase the demand for the collaboration, allowing the collaborating brands to easily hike up the prices of the product without much resistance from the consumer, who buys into the unique, limited edition qualities of the collaborated product.

Unique branding for the collaboration comes from the increased hype and buzz that the collaboration will have upon its release. Unique branding also comes from the fact that the two brands that may have different goals, can come together and build a hybrid product, and using the increased audience, it can really be creative and advertise however it wishes, as the core fans will already be drawn in without much marketing needed.

A brand will always have its seasonal changes in its clothing, releasing a collection seasonally, with its relatively consistent hype which is expected. The collaboration on the other hand, usually can come at any time, hitting the consumer with the surprise and opportunity to snag a special piece of commodity. The collaboration is often marketed with mysterious hints of simple photos that zoom in on the product without revealing its full form, andd introduces the brands that collaborated on the product without describing the product further. This kind of marketing slowly builds hype around the product, as both fervent supporters and detractors for the product will discuss the possible collaboration’s aesthetics. Often, long lasting collaborative powers such as Nike x Supreme, or Nike with almost any powerhouse brand, has very powerful collaborative marketing that eventually leads to the camp outs and bonfires in front of stores in eager anticipation for its release.

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The collaboration is the exchange value that comes with two brands coming together to increase the value of its product and image, using social relations it has with its consumers and between each other. Brands working together can be compared to the industrial trusts that emerged as corporations came together and mutually benefitted with working together to sell its product, in turn draining more money from the consumer compared to if it competed with each other. Finally, the collaboration often culminates in the peak of commodity fetishism, and the consumer will spend countless more dollars on a product that is not as valuable as it is made to be seen as.

-Michael Chang

“The collaboration on the other hand, usually can come at any time, hitting the consumer with the surprise and opportunity to snag a special piece of commodity.�

Nike x Supreme Collaboration Image by Kacper Boroweic

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Commes De Garcon x Converse

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Collaboration

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The Allusion in Streetwear

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Keith Haring Fashion photocredits: Style On Pottinger

Streetwear is often asso-

ciated with a “low� form of art in the fashion community, clothing that the unsophisticated youth wears

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despite the ridiculous prices that it sets, the image and stereotype is still prevalent. So in order to heighten its sophistication, brands often allude to forms of high art that can often be associated with either sophisticated culture or nostalgia of the past.

These allusions are often used as popular prints on products, such as the printing of Rene Magritte (a famous surrealist painter) paintings onto Vans shoes, instantly blowing up the social value that the product has, and once again the price in correlation. If you need concrete numbers, a pair of 40-45 dollar Vans Authentics will now go for 135 dollars as a result of the use of “high� art in the design. These allusions can drive prices up so drastically because once again, the social relations the product has with the consumer. A consumer wearing such a pair of vans will not only be singled out for such unique qualities in his/her wear, but also for appearing to know such a supposedly sophisticated

Rene Magritte and Vans collection. photocredits: Hypebeast

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Andy Warhol and Supreme. photocredits: Art School Vets

reference to high art of the past. The appearance of sophistication is simply based on the social relations that the consumers have with high art and the value high art has (ridiculous value that art has, especially art of dead artists).

There are also different kinds of allusions with art that has already permeated so much within current culture that allusions happen so frequently that the consumer does not notice them as much. The prime example would be the use of any reference to Andy Warhol and his iconic pop art such as the Marilyn screen prints and the Campbell soup repetitions. So many brands have used the campbell soup cans as an attempt to imbue high art into streetwear that its significance is almost lost, but nevertheless, consumers will still flock to the use of immortalized pieces of pop culture in their pieces. Using bands such as the Beatles and artists -Michael Chang

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The

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Allusion

Streetwear

In

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Flamingo x Jukebox Publishers