Happy new year. Hold off the social media threats of impending greatness and triumphant/anti-hater sloganeering for a minute and realise that you’re not going to be as successful as Ralph Lauren in 2015. Still, it’s something to aim for in the long-term though, and this interview on YouTube with China’s Oprah-esque media mogul Yang Lan (I originally, excitedly, read the title as, Yung Lean One on One with Ralph Lauren) at his NY home is worth a watch to extract some tips from. There’s nothing too insightful here if you’re already a fan boy or fan girl, and the sound inexplicably turning mute 30-minutes into both one-hour segments isn’t too helpful either, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Incidentally, am I the only person who finds the new label in Polo gear deeply disorienting?
If you’re looking for ideas to borrow this year because you haven’t got your own, you could do a lot worse than get the retrospective of former Junya Watanabe turned solo innovator Chitose Abe’s Sacai brand from Rizzoli when it drops in April. Sacai: A to Z compiles 16 years of experiments in fit, material and design from a Japanese label that’s acclaimed but seldom explored in any great depth with essays from people who know what they’re talking about like Tim Blanks.
GWARIZM 