Fragments Nº28: A Saucerful Of Secrets
A perfect editorial from Perfect Magazine, Hedi Silmane cosplay on the streets of London, the revival of Rothy's through the cool girls of Paris and Pink Floyd play in Pompeii.
A Perfect Concept
This Substack is a known fan of Nadia Lee Cohen. Consistently the most interesting creators around right now. Her flair and aesthetic working for the most corporate of clients (the ON x Zendaya film) and, of course, in the wild west of editorial. It’s her easily cinematic eye that stands out in this perfect editorial from Perfect Magazine.
Sure, it’s got some late 90s energy to it in terms of the cast (Kate Moss and Ray Winstone), but it’s an editorial as a story. As such, it feels like it’s from another age. (the 90s). An age of transmogrification and high concept, where the image is part of a suite that tells a sequential story.
The film, somehow, gets weirder. The Mildmay Club (a classic Working Men's pub in North London) helps this energy, and it doesn’t fall into a cliché. Still, it’s the Jonathan Glazer touches, like backwards speaking and slurring Elvis’s, that heighten the strange, desolate, out-of-time mood. The best in the game right now. And demonstrates what excellent editorial can do to drive a must-have collectible. Full film below.
The Hedi-Boy UK Invasion
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Found this genuinely funny curio on the old disinformation platform TikTok. Not only is Emma Winder a pretty great host, but the return of Hedi boy to London is an amusing curiosity. It’s all very 2002-4, with a knowing wink to what was happening. Fascinating nonetheless to see the chokehold this style still holds over generations. The interviewee’s nod to Central Saint Martins rings comically true. (Yes, this style was it back then at CSM).
From stodgy to stylish. How to connect product and influence.
Amazing what a bit of Parisian chic can do to a brand. InStyle had a frothy, but timely breakdown of a brand I know well. Rothys. It’s a story of how influence and product innovation can merge perfectly. But also a case study in focus.
Rothy’s is close to my heart as I worked on the brand in 2021 and 2022.. The brand’s founders had (smartly) sold a controlling stake to Haviannas group, giving the circular platform a sound footing and avoiding the fate of AllBirds.
The In-Style article details how the brand turned skepticism into advocacy, and cool, without killing what made them great.
Much like Allbirds, Rothy’s had a compelling origin story, but in retrospect, it faced a product challenge. For all its brilliance as an innovation, the product, after an initial burst of interest, felt musty and conservative. Beloved, but had a ceiling.
A focus on comfort has always been baked into the Rothy’s recipe. When their first products hit the market in 2016, they were not uncool per se, but could be best described as durable, workday accessories that existed outside the trend cycle, rather than gotta-have-it engagement bait. The label’s initial offering centered around sleek and simple flats and totes you could imagine a 9-to-5er leaning on for their commutes.
The genius of the product (proved by the Evian campaign from 2022) was that Rothy’s was a material company that could quite literally make anything from recycled plastic bottles. It was simply a case of having the right product to drive desirability. Not just halo polishing.
The brand subsequently delivered a great purpose-led campaign, but without that style desirability, you’re preaching to the converted. The paradox of Rothy’s is that the more sales you drive, the more effective you are as a sustainable brand. The team recognised that a dynamic style had to lead.
“Everybody knew what Rothys offered, but there wasn't an effort made to stay relevant with trends and big macro changes that were happening in footwear.” Heather Archibald - Chief Product & Merchandise Officer
But new products, trend-relevant, built on the brand's tenets, but with a clearer sense of style, have shifted the emphasis from strong-arming the message to persuasion around lifestyle. CMO Jamie Gersch implied as much in the In-Style article.
”Facing skepticism from the fashion crowd, two years ago my team embraced a mantra: "let us change your mind." Reintroducing Rothy's via press, partnerships and events, we've steadily cracked open a whole new community.”
Of the many takeaways from the success of Rothy’s, one stands out more than most. The value of time.
Time to find a design language (and make some mistakes). Time to chip away at an audience. (And measure that accordingly - bringing the CEO and board along). And time to expand.
The Parisian expansion (Le Bon Marché) came at the perfect moment, with the ideal audience. Parisian women weren’t buying into a tech-led proposition from that style desert known as San Francisco. The groundwork had to be there. Time for the seeds to grow and thrive. Gersch and Archbald deserve a ton of credit for putting that business on a positive footing.
Space Cadets At Pompeii
I went to see another old band documentary (sorry) last night. This time, re-re-re-released Pink Floyd's ‘Live In Pompeii’. The concert film itself is well-known, with various iterations over its 53-year history. Having never seen it all the way through, and to see it in IMAX, I went along.
As a Guardian review of the film notes, Pink Floyd absolutely rips.
While this absolutely does rip in multiple ways, what comes through even more in the film is the underlying sense of unease that made their music so distinctive and timeless. The deliberate nature of Pink Floyd’s music is reflected beautifully in the movie. Especially its slow camera moves. The long tracking shots are very reminiscent of Godard’s 1+1 (The notorious Rolling Stones’ documentary from 1968), but director Adrian Maben takes the concept further. Tracking shots lurk over the control panels. Creep around corners. Adding to the underlying tension in the music. In a cinema, distraction-free, you can focus on how much Floyd influenced space rock, Krautrock, and so on. This is brooding, populsive stuff.
The MVP of the proceedings is drummer Nick Mason, who keeps a relentless metronome on the proceedings, which further creates a sense of going deeper and deeper into the void. (He also loses his sticks a couple of times, keeps time while replacing them - it’s a fantastic detail.)
The contrast between this and the Dark Side of the Moon sessions reveals the latter to be what it is: a masterpiece whose controls were set not to the heart of the sun, but to the bank balance. A stunner, but lacking the spaced-out quality that this documentary delivers.