Someone who understands how my brain processes.....

But the impression I am getting, especially from lifestyle brands ( mostly fashion, but also consumer electronics etc ) is that they have hired everyone they could find to be a “cool hunter” and identified every imaginable niche sub culture to explore to the point where the original “cool hunter” has again become the consumer/target group. A snake that bites it’s tail sort of analogy. Even worse, I feel as if every brand I have come across, doesn’t matter if we are talking Nike, Dries Van Noten, American Apparel, Supreme, Mark McNairy or H&M – I mean this goes for every idiot out there making clothes, has taking it upon themselves to identify a niche to cater to, and if it is not there, create one to sell to and identify with. It’s mind boggling and hugely off-putting. Nothing is genuine, it doesn’t matter what store I went into, everything felt fake, used, empty and utterly boring. Every store, every ad, every magazine, every online platform is trying to SELL something to a real or imagined subculture with promises of stardom.

On a side note – or maybe the antithesis in my Hegelian dialect in status quo analysis, I also feel that the necessary content of any subculture has been replaced with something sell-able. In my opinion, it is the non-sellable stars in my friends eyes caused by music, art, thoughts, conversations, ACTIONS and such that make up a sub-culture, which OCCASIONALLY, have resulted in a sell-able piece of clothing. Very occasionally. Today, the creation-process, the intellectual and emotional currency building process of any sub culture has become irrelevant. The cool hunter quickly comes up with a new sub-culture to brand the shit out of, puts together a mood board and the clothes are made within a few months to, one the one hand sell and on the other hand place the creator squarely within the real/not real subculture. None of the brands I came across with all their marketed extensions into the real world or the internet seem to have content – as far as I am concerned every activity by any brand reeks of marketing/branding, invasion of private mental space to only benefit the brand, and no one else.