Today’s episode is a live recording with author and cultural critic W. David Marx, best known for his books ‘Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style’ (2015), ‘Status & Culture’ (2022) and ‘Blank Space: A Cultural History of the 21st Century’ (2025).
I first met David in early 2024, when I interviewed him about ‘Ametora’, a cult classic which charts Japan’s adoption of American style in the postwar period, and how this influenced fashion in the USA (an exchange I experienced in real time).
His second book, ‘Status & Culture’, has the same Marx signifiers - meticulous research and amusing specificity - but it zooms out to encompass a much wider topic, namely how our desire for social rank influences taste, identity, art and fashion.
In November 2024 we met IRL in Tokyo, on the day of the US election, to be exact. He was in the throes of finishing ‘Blank Space’, and writing against the clock. The book surveys the first 25 years of the 21st Century, and therefore had to come out in 2025, but the already ambitious premise was made even more challenging by the fact that the cultural cannonballs just kept on coming. A case in point: Trump was re-elected later that day.
David is a whip smart cultural commentator and a very amusing anecdotalist, so I knew this episode was best shared with a live audience. Thank you to everyone who came, to The Groucho Club for hosting us, and to Thom Browne for dressing me. Here’s a close-up of the look:
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The piece that reminds David of his career…
A Bathing Ape T-shirt, purchased in Tokyo, Summer 1998.
The piece that reminds him of his childhood…
A Ralph Lauren polo logo necktie (c. 1985).
The outfit that reminds him of a high…
A bespoke double-breasted blazer from Tailor Caid.
The one that reminds him of a low…
A linen shirt from Kamakura Shirts.
The one that makes him feel part of something…
Andrew Kuo handmade screen-printed T-shirt, received in 2002.
Explore more episodes of the Threads of Conversation podcast - previous guests include Lyas, Brenda Hashtag, Alexander Fury, Lydia Pang and Jessica Willis.
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Have you read any of David’s books? Which of his ideas on fashion and culture resonated with you?
