Fragments Nº5 - Chaos Is A Ladder
The battle between control, and letting go, as told through the lens of luxury lunacy
“Chaos is a ladder.”
I’d forgotten this came from Game From Thrones, but it has felt pretty apt the last few weeks.
Every time you look (apart from the obvious, which doesn’t need to be explained here), there are cracks in the walls, and old ideas and orders are creaking. Assumptions dashed, strategies extinguished. Lots of routes to take, but which one leads to success? Snakes and ladders.
This not-quite-cryptic note could be applied to Burberry. It would be easy to join the chorus of people with their takes, but I’d instead do it in-house and make the marketing change(s) without doing it from the sidelines. (Hint hint.)
But I will say this: after discussing with the brand savants that I trust implicitly, there’s a common theme that you arrive at when it comes to ‘Britishness.’ It’s not just the brand's beating heart but channeled correctly; it powers what it has done and could do.
But it has to come from this essential truth - Britishness inside and outside the country is a ‘dream.’ It always exists at its best as a fantasy. Burberry should be able to express that to the world - but it can’t do that through open interpretation. It has to be explicit, clear, and literal.
That doesn’t mean it is simply a choice between Hacienda-cosplay or household cavalry Austin Powers pastiche. It’s far more profound than that and has been the core sensibility underneath the current elevation project. It’s stories like the one stitched into Lewis Hamilton’s suit at the Met Gala. Past, present, and future stories weave together a tapestry of Britishness and tie this dream up and down a product pyramid (another story for another day).
I look forward to seeing what Joshua Schulman does with the brand. Now, onto the weekly roundup.
The deliberately happy accidents of MSCHF have become ever more outlandish and off the wall the more sticky they’ve become. I appreciated how this demonstrates that MSCHF pushed the Overton window of fashion and creativity. (Chaos is a ladder, after all…) It’s worth a watch.
I focused heavily on retail last week and forgot about one of the year’s most important (re)openings: LN-CC.
LN-CC has always been a profoundly fascinating brand. From physical retail to online, LN-CC always had a clear idea of its position and POV. It always felt like it operated happily at the margins where other wholesale brands feared to tread. This was reflected in where it was located. For those that weren’t there, the Dalston of 2008/9/10 was the flowering of that part of London as a ‘hipster haven.’ And LN-CC was reliably but quietly at the center of that sensibility. (Its location is close to immortal Shacklewell Arms. A Barbadian pub turned slo-mo disco/indie/new music haven.)
I love what they’ve done with the new update. The 2001 forced perspective-style images, as part of the article from British GQ, really convey how immersive the space feels. It’s also great to see friends (and fellow Dalstonites of the era) such as Too Hot Limited in this space—it talks to LN-CC’s gift and clarity of proposition. As Fashion and Luxury obsess more and more on the big, the small and upwardly mobile are interesting, with little space for them to breathe. LN-CC creates that space for those on the relative margins to thrive. And that’s where the creativity resides.
Regarding small brands that pack a big punch, Ghiaia Cashmere, another Society Of The Spectacle brand favorite™, has started integrating resale and vintage curation. While Ghiaia is not the first brand to do this, it hits differently in the hands of this brand and vividly demonstrates the value of high taste and curation. (Much like LN-CC, for an admittedly very different crowd…)
For those who don’t know, Ghiaia is the work of Davide Baroncini, a Brunello Cucinelli alum situated in Pasadena, California’s breezy, languid atmosphere. The brand leans into this healthy tension between that California sensibility and refined Italian tailoring and construction. Follow the brand, and you will know what I mean. This is crate-digging as fashion. What remains the not-so-secret ingredient of Ghiaia is pure belief and effort. This is a quiet luxury, with something burning passionately inside it. You can’t fake what Ghiaia has.
I’ve been a long-time follower of the brand and have watched it grow from a small store (that reminded me of Burlington Arcade) to a bigger store (still in the Pasadena area) to wholesale (It’s on Mr Porter.) The resell piece here is interesting, not only because it makes a ton of sense for the brand itself as a demonstration of taste and curation but also because of how it’s been merchandised within the e-commerce experience.
This does a couple of subtle things well. It ties Ghiaia neatly into a lineage of these storied brands (Tag, Filson, Barbour, Ralph, to name a few), but it also creates a vivid archetype of the wearer. Seeing these pieces together makes more sense as a cohesive idea of the Ghiaia man. Making the brand, therefore, more tangible and the price point (high) more palatable. I highly doubt, following Davide, that the wilful intentionality I outlined was all planned, but that’s Davide's sort of genius; it all flows so naturally, but nothing is left to chance. Effortless takes that real effort.
The brand remains one to watch and, if you get the chance, one to wear.
Another brand that started small and grew to increasingly powerful heights is Khaite.
This interview on Vogue Business with founder Cate Holstein and CEO Brigitte Kleine vividly demonstrates how intentionality is a superpower for the Khaite brand. Creating a discipline across all verticals and channels that delivers the end consumer experience. It’s no wonder the brand remains within a relative class in the New York fashion scene because it feels like it paid the closest attention to how the French and Italians do it.
Take, for example, the instantly iconic retail store. Anybody who ventured in immediately knew that NOTHING had been left to chance. It was cohesive, composed, and intimidating (I think great retail should have a bit of that barrier to entry. It makes the thrill of the experience more palpable.)
That tight control allows the brand to shape its other verticals and interactions. Wholesale becomes the store meeting the brand, not the other way around. Control means they’re again drawing back from some of those early partnerships to shape their narrative.
That control in aesthetics and brand translates to broader operational values. It’s go for growth, but on their terms, which creates the space to pursue growth with discipline. The growth across categories demonstrates this, especially in accessories, the holy grail of a luxury fashion brand. The new Lotus Tote is the epitome of control. It's simple, structured, but still distinctive. It’s competitively priced compared to many other brands right now, another win to drive growth. The article is well worth a read.
One way of descending that ladder of chaos to calmer waters is through the music of Windham Hill. I discovered this label and these albums quite recently. Picking up a Windham Hill ‘84 Sampler for a $, it turns out that this proto-ambient, post-classical, West Coast new-age music is just what you expect it to be. The sort of music you might have heard at a wine tasting in Sonoma County in 1987, and a soothing aural panacea with music produced by some of the best in the game. Luckily, today, that same music has been slowly reclaimed and weaved into a modern-day Balearic tapestry. Windham Hill has gone from the Esalen Institute to the beaches of Ibiza.
In Sheeps Clothing (who else) has an excellent primer on the label's background and the most essential albums from the catalog. (I would start with Michael Hedges' Aerial Boundaries and go from there.)
PSA 1: If you’re in LA this weekend and want to meet for a coffee or beverage, DM me.
I’m here as part of the 10th Anniversary for Be With Records, where LA living legend Ned Doheny will play a setup in the Hollywood Hills. Suppose you don’t know Ned’s music. In that case, you’re missing out, as he was a vital member of the late Canyon scene/proto-Eagles scene before carving out a wonderfully esoteric (especially big in Japan) career throughout the 80s and 90s. (His live shows from this period are excellent.)
PSA 2: Most people who know me know I’ve been DJ’ing more over the past few years, especially as Vinyl-style listening bars have become more prominent in NYC. My Mixcloud page has most of my mixes, including my most recent (slightly wonky; it was mixed on Vinyl live…) mix at Music For A While. If you’re in the NY area, here’s where I’m playing for July.
thekingmob - MusicForAWhile 07/13
Life Is Just A Ballgame - Womach & Womack
E-Versions #6 - Mark E
Share The Night - World Premiere
Sequencer - Al De Meola
Somebody Else’s Guy - Jocelyn Brown
Lover In You - Sugarhill Gang
Sade 2000 - Pearls
Get It On - Crazy Penis
Ce Bon Vieix Jesj Kassale - Vandefrakt
Detroit Get Down - Jon Dixon
Expansions (NYC Dub) - Conclave Perdón
Before We Leave - Midland
Where We At - Dixon, Ame Feat Derick Carter
Echoes & Vibes - Deep Experiments
Love Will Save The Day (MdCL Remix) - Whitney Houston
Outer Space - Kevin Yost
Electric Blue - Rt Fader (AKA Ron Trent)
Luv Dancin - The Underground Solution
Playin’ 4 The City - Karl The Voice
Vai Minha Tristeza (Dub In Weston) Tom & Joyce
Why - Carly Simon
Nothing Looks The Same In The Light - Wham
Honeycomb HiFi Lounge - 07/26
Lovely Day - 07/27
Bar Orai - 07/31
Until next week!
Excellent article. I can't help but think that Burberry's problem is twofold: short-sighted penny-pinching ownership and a lack of in-house talent development. Both, it turns out, stem from something broader, for which Burberry is merely the avatar. A profound lack of confidence in what Britishness means. Unlike Italian, French, and even Japanese houses, where the brand story sounds like a hymn. Cool Britannia has lost all of its swagger. I am not sure there is much of a solution until the British design community rediscovers its history.
I quote Chaucer : "For out of old fields, as men saith, Cometh all this new corn from year to year; And out of old books, in good faith, Cometh all this new science that men learn."