A Thread about softness in hard times
Plus musings on the new i-D, castlecore, and tactical play from our favourite sporting brands
Hi everyone - to the regular readers, sorry I’ve been AWOL for a while. After chatting with business powerhouse Sharmadean Reid last year, I made it my New Year’s resolution to accelerate my career in 2025. But then I took on so much work that I got submerged. Be careful what you wish for!! I’m starting to find a sense of ~ balance ~ again, and there’s lots of exciting stuff in the pipeline.
Enough with this ‘I’m so busy’ pick me energy - this week I’m back with a patchwork quilt of musings on things I’ve been noticing lately. I’m not going to talk about fashion week (too much), because that commentary will be airing soon with one of my front row faves…
Serving softness
Firstly, I want to discuss a theory I call ‘the wolf in sheep’s clothing’. It comes from a trend I’ve been noticing, whereby everything is going soft. This all started with a video from GAP that Rachel Karten shared in her newsletter, Link In Bio, which appears to be part of a new campaign celebrating their soft essentials.
Then I noticed On have also just launched a campaign called ‘Soft Wins’, in line with their new Cloudsurfer 2 sneaker. ‘A new world of softness is here’ claims Djerf Avenue (despite claims that their founder is anything but…).
Could our desire for comfort, for gentleness, be a response to a prevailing sense of anxiety and uncertainty in the world at large? A salve for all the ‘masculine energy’ going around? My theory was expanded when Emily Sundberg linked to this article about Luigi Mangione in a recent newsletter.
In the piece, Joseph Rosenfeld - a New York-based image consultant and ‘executive presence tactician’ (whatever that means) says that “we see [Mangione] in these thick, plush, more textural sweaters that are cable-knit and soft… he looks cuddly, he looks nice, he looks warm.”
This quote made me realise why this trend feels eerie. Beneath Luigi’s soft sweaters lie some hard truths about today’s world, ones that can’t simply be covered up with a cosy knit. I’m reminded of the story of Little Red Riding Hood, where the wolf dresses up in the grandmother’s nightgown and clambers into her bed. Perhaps beneath our desire for softness lies something more sinister…
The weather fashion forecast in London
One person who definitely wasn’t wearing anything soft was the knight at Burberry’s London Fashion Week show, who clanked around entertaining guests and posing with fashion’s finest. I’m really enjoying the brand’s evolution after a few rocky years - the whole mood is very charming and British, like my favourite Richard Curtis film (Notting Hill).
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Per the brand’s “it’s always Burberry weather” strapline - my feelings also reminds me of a question I often ask myself when the sun shines in London. Is it happiness, and/or relief? Burberry is Britain’s only major heritage fashion house, and draws a lot of international attention to London Fashion Week. So there’s also a sense of relief knowing that our knight in shining armour is back in action.
That’s not to say there isn’t brilliant talent in London. The city still lives up to its reputation for producing innovative, avant-garde design - a few exciting new names that spring to mind are Marie Lueder, Johanna Parv, Bianca Saunders and Sinead O’Dwyer. Then there’s Grace Wales Bonner, Ib Kamara, Simone Rocha, Martine Rose and Ferragamo’s Maximilian, who are all doing the UK proud. Fashion East and the BFC’s NEWGEN remain two of the fashion industry’s top talent incubators, and CSM is still one of the world’s most prestigious fashion schools.
But the lack of government support has kept fashion week feeling lacklustre. Especially when you compare it to France, where fashion is prioritised as an essential part of culture, not just a frilly ‘nice-to-have’. To be fair, things are looking up - in January the government announced a £60 million boost for the creative industries, including fashion. And the British Fashion Council are also getting a new leader - Laura Weir, previously creative director at Selfridges. I’m excited for September already.
Anyway, back to the Burberry knight - I realised that LOEWE also featured a knight back in October last year. Per Pinterest’s 2025 predictions, castlecore is going strong.
Meet me in my office
Speaking of soothsayers that were eyeing up trends in October last year, I want to refer back to the piece I wrote about ‘the fashion fan to business analyst pipeline’. Basically, why everyone seems simultaneously obsessed with either working in fashion, or dressing up for work.
Since then, the trend has only gained momentum - these days I can barely open my phone without a briefcase-toting office siren gazing back at me. Recent sightings include Commission, J Crew, H&M and a naughty version at Galerie Perrotin. In the words of, er, me: “The corporate world becomes a symbol, representing our anxiety around the economy, our desire for stability, and the corporatization of creativity in response to these feelings.”
The trend has also been popping up at Paris fashion week, as seen at Stella McCartney and Balenciaga. Here’s what my friend Charlie had to say:
How magazines got their mojo back
Let’s talk about the resurgence of i-D - I. Am. Loving it! It feels like a football club when they get a new owner, and steadily start buying up all the best players to create an unbeatable team. So far they’ve hired Thom Bettridge (editor-in-chief) and Steff Yotka (global editorial director), formerly of SSENSE fame, alongside cool kids Alex Kessler (deputy editor) and Nicolaia Rips (senior editor). As
put it:
The latest in the winking dream team is Art Director Brent David Freaney of Special Offer fame, who I became aware of after watching Martine Syms’ amazing film, The African Desperate, a semi-autobiographical tale of her graduation from art school. I was hypnotized by the typeface and title design, which my friend Louise Chen told me were by Special Offer. A couple of months later, Brat green was everywhere. The studio behind the design? Special Offer!
So what did this uber talented triumvirate do for their first cover? They chose an unknown model from Ohio, Enza Khoury, who was selected from a casting call of 800 to be the magazine’s new face.
I’m always interested in the politics of choosing a new face. We’re in a really 80s-esque era of ‘it-girls’ where brands prefer a familiar name with plenty of brand equity: models like Kendall, Gigi and Bella, and the new supers like Alex Consani and Paloma Elsesser. We’re also seeing a lot of cameo casting at the moment (when celebrities or recognizable non-models pop up on the runway). For i-D to choose someone unknown feels like a bold, subversive move.
It’s not the first time a new editor has signalled a step change via casting a new face. For her first issue of Vogue China, titled ‘New Beginnings’, Margaret Zhang launched the “Hello New Face” initiative on Vogue China’s Vogue Club app. They cast Fan Jinghan, a 19-year-old dance student at Beijing Sport University, as Zhang’s first cover star, shot against a mesmerisingly beautiful sunrise in the northwestern desert of China.
Still, in our multiple-cover age, I felt sure that a Big Name would follow shortly after… and voila!
Another thing I’ve noticed in my i-D snooping, is that they’re bringing affirmations back. I remember when this Instagram page was popping off in 2021 - I was so into it, I even got a mug:
Also, they keep changing their Instagram bio.
Sports brands are playing to win
Something else I’ve been doing over the past few weeks is filling
’s DMs with responses to his reporting (he writes the amazing sports-fashion newsletter, Sportsverse, and has also been a guest on this newsletter, twice.)One thing I was keen to chat about was the NikeSKIMS announcement. It was a smart business move, especially given Nike’s historic struggles with womenswear, and I’m sure the execution will be flawless. But Nike’s signature is confidence, and they always take the lead in their collaborations. So the challenge lies in resisting being overshadowed by SKIMS, a brand at the height of their cultural powers.
Speaking of sporting juggernauts, adidas’ slogan, ‘You Got This’, feels in the same world as On’s ‘Soft Wins’ campaign, which I mentioned up top (I love the campaign, regardless of my deeper feelings about the ‘soft’ trend as a whole). Taking a different approach to sport, one which is more about care and camaraderie. This type of messaging seems like a deliberate differentiatior from Nike, whose stance is about winning at all costs. I love watching these brands compete - it’s literally like watching top tier sport, with the world’s most skilled players facing off against one another. Player(s) of the match goes to the creative teams!
That’s all for this week! It’s nice to be back. Hit the heart button if you made it this far.
Threads of the week
I found this secondhand Comme des Garçons skirt at a sale in Paris a couple of weeks ago. All the other bits you’ll recognize from my 2024 outfits roundup: trusty flight jacket bought over 10 years ago at Spitalfields market for £20. Secondhand COS boots from Depop, designed by my friend Leonie. White kidswear tank from Hanes. Unmade bed model’s own.
Loose Threads
Trigger warning: Millenials. This OC-themed mix is the purest nostalgia you’ll find this side of 2010.
You all know I love my FiveFingers shoes, so this news was very sad. Rest in peace, Robert Fliri - such an inspiring guy.
Mixed signals: the power of clothing to confuse and amuse.
Start your own Thread
What have you been reading/ doing/ enjoying? Have you been keeping tabs on fashion month? Let me know in the comments.
You da best <3