#SSENSE magazine editorial

[timesofinnovation]

In a significant move within the fashion media landscape, i-D magazine has announced the appointment of Jamie Reid as the global creative director and Steff Yotka as the global editorial director. This decision comes as the iconic publication embarks on a new chapter following its acquisition by model and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss’ Bedford Media from Vice in November 2023. The revitalization of i-D is expected to attract considerable attention, especially given the impressive backgrounds of Reid and Yotka. Jamie Reid is no stranger to the fashion world, having previously held the position of art director at prominent publications such as Dazed and Confused, Arena Homme+, and Pop magazine. His expertise will be crucial in shaping i-D's new visual identity. Reid’s previous experiences suggest he has a strong grasp on innovative and striking aesthetics that appeal to contemporary audiences. Meanwhile, Steff Yotka, with an extensive resume that includes roles at Vogue, Style.com, and most recently as head of digital content at Ssense, is set to drive the magazine’s storytelling across multiple formats: print, digital, and social media. This diverse experience positions her perfectly to curate content that resonates with i-D's audience, enhancing its relevance in today's fast-paced media environment. As part of this strategic initiative, i-D is planning to return to the print medium on a bi-annual basis starting in March 2025. The magazine has already taken steps to revitalize its digital presence, having relaunched its website in September with a dynamic cover featuring popular artists Charli XCX and Troye Sivan. This blend of traditional print and modern digital approaches reflects a broader trend in fashion media, where publications seek to harmonize both worlds to create a comprehensive reader experience. The editorial direction under the leadership of newly appointed editor-in-chief and chief brand officer Thom Bettridge, who previously served as creative vice president of Ssense, also represents a strategic alignment with contemporary brand values. Bettridge’s expertise in digital content development is vital as i-D works to reinforce its position as a cultural touchstone. The magazine will likely continue to honor and reflect street culture while attracting a new generation of readers who are digitally savvy and socially conscious. One of the challenges facing i-D is navigating the rapidly changing landscape of fashion media, where numerous platforms compete for an audience's attention. As traditional print is reshaped by the demands for immediate and engaging digital content, magazines like i-D must innovate continuously to captivate their demographic. The combination of Reid’s creative leadership and Yotka’s editorial prowess aims to bring fresh ideas to life that are both visually arresting and intellectually stimulating. Moreover, the transition to a bi-annual print format mirrors a cautious yet optimistic approach many publications are taking in response to shifts in consumer behavior. As audiences become increasingly discerning about their media consumption, there is a clear trend toward quality over quantity. By enhancing their editorial offerings and focusing on a robust visual narrative, i-D is positioning itself to foster deeper connections with its readers rather than merely chasing fleeting trends. The fashion media landscape is undoubtedly competitive, but i-D magazine's recent appointments indicate a proactive strategy to redefine its identity and reinforce its status as a leading publication. The synergy between Reid, Yotka, and Bettridge is expected to spark creative initiatives that will resonate widely, particularly among younger audiences who are central to the ongoing evolution of the fashion industry. With a revitalized commitment to storytelling, a distinct visual identity, and strategic content distribution across print and digital spheres, i-D magazine is poised to maintain its cultural relevance while navigating the complexities of modern consumer engagement.

[scarlettholman]

Moodley, K. (2021) Thatcher’s greatest legacy: The rewriting of the Seventies, New Statesman. Available at: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/04/thatcher%E2%80%99s-greatest-legacy-rewriting-seventies. 

Punk - Museum of Youth culture (no date) museum of youth culture. Available at: https://museumofyouthculture.com/punk/. 

Grundy, B. (2022) What was punk – and why did it scare people so much?, National Geographic. Available at: https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022/07/what-was-punk-and-why-did-it-scare-people-so-much. 

Ridgers, D. (2016) Punk London, 1977: Thrilling photos of a subversive era, Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/cuepoint/punk-london-1977-thrilling-photos-of-a-subversive-era-2fa2728d9df6.

Petty, F. (2016) Photographer Derek Ridgers talks punk then and now, I-D vice. Available at: https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/mbeyjn/derek-ridgers-punk-then-and-punk-now.  

Starkey, A. (2021) The controversial reasons Sex pistols song ‘god save the queen’ was banned by the BBC, Far Out Magazine. Available at: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-sex-pistols-god-save-the-queen-was-banned-by-the-bbc/. 

Caryn Rose (2022) Why the sex pistols still matter - esquire, esquire. Available at: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a40106791/why-the-sex-pistols-still-matter/. 

McDowall, F.H. (2016) Derek Ridgers talks forty years of punk youth, Hero. Available at: https://hero-magazine.com/article/65133/counterculture-camera-king-derek-ridgers-talks-forty-years-of-punk. 

Manandhar, N. (2016) Derek Ridgers on forty years of punk fashion, Dazed. Available at: https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/31463/1/derek-ridgers-on-forty-years-of-punk-fashion. 

The story so far (no date) Vivienne Westwood®. Available at: https://www.viviennewestwood.com/en-gb/westwood-world/the-story-so-far/. 

Onessimo, G. (2023) Vivienne Westwood, Sex Pistols, and the origins of punk fashion - Pistol Hulu TV Show, L’Officiel USA. Available at: https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/vivienne-westwood-sex-pistols-punk-fashion-history. 

Savage, J. (2023) The Sex PistolsJon Savage, Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/the-Sex-Pistols#:~:text=the%20Sex%20Pistols%2C%20rock%20group,Kingdom%27s%20social%20and%20political%20turmoil.

Ahmed, O. (2022) An oral history of Japanese fashion designer and Y-3 creator Yohji Yamamoto, I-D Vice. Available at: https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/3advb3/yohji-yamamoto-ultra-issue-cover. 

Bowkett, E. (2023) Who is Maison Margiela?: Fashion history, Coggles. Available at: https://www.coggles.com/life/fashion/maison-margiela-fashion-history/. 

Gush, C. (2017) Explore Martin Margiela’s time at the helm of Hermès, I-D Vice. Available at: https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/59gpp5/explore-martin-margielas-time-at-the-helm-of-herms. 

Sicardi, A. (2018) Between two toes: The history of Margiela’s cult Tabi, ssense. Available at: https://www.ssense.com/en-us/editorial/fashion/the-uncanny-appeal-of-margielas-tabi-boots. 

Maffrett, E. (2023) Shirley Baker & the Stockport Punks, Museum of Youth Culture. Available at: https://museumofyouthculture.com/shirkey-baker-stockport-punks/. 

Rosen, M. (2023) Shirley Baker’s dazzling portraits of 80s London punks, I-D Vice. Available at: https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/m7b3gx/shirley-bakers-dazzling-portraits-of-80s-london-punks. 

Sarah Eisenlohr (2012) Escape Into Life. Available at: https://www.escapeintolife.com/artist-watch/sarah-eisenlohr/. 

Eisenlohr, S. (2023) Sarah Eisenlohr. Available at: https://sarah-eisenlohr.com/.

[lovelostfashionfound]

Suj Lee - SSENSE May 2018

[p3rfectblu3]

Telfar, shot by Torso

[bcharlesjohnson]

. grids .

[chainmailchalamet]

Lights Up (Chapter One)

Prompt: You work at a fashion magazine styling celebrities, and for this month’s issue, you’re working closely with Harry Styles on an editorial piece. You try hard not to get distracted and get the job done, but Harry’s dedicated to making that difficult for you. Black nonbinary OC x Harry Styles. Eventual sugar daddy HS. Fashion heavy (fashion is one of the kinks shh).

---

You've worked as a stylist for Extravagance for roughly three years, so you're mostly used to seeing pretty, sparkly people in various states of undress. You operate at the highest level of professionalism though, barely even drooling over the many celebrities you’ve worked with. You’d laced Timothee Chalamet into a satin corset for the Fall Issue a couple months ago, and you didn't even bat an eye, even though, yes, he was unfairly pretty and really charming in the awkward doe-eyed way you really like. 

You're only human, so from time to time there is some flirting, some innocent banter and sometimes some less innocent looks exchanged, but you're proud to say you've never hooked up with any of your clients. You like to keep business separate from pleasure, and again, your job is literally to make really pretty people look even prettier. Sometimes the pretty people are assholes which makes everything easier for you. It's worse when they're polite and charming.

  And then you find out that the magazine is doing an editorial, and at first it's like fuck yes, because with all those hours that you're gonna have to put in the payday is going to be incredible, which means your ssense wish list is going to get a little smaller (you're got your eyes on a MOWALOLA tee in a lime-green tie-dye that's going to make all the fashion gays sick with envy). 

But then your editor says "so, this is the Harry Styles issue" all casually like it's not a big deal at all instead of like, the biggest fucking deal and the end of your career. Because she knows how you feel about Harry Styles, she knows it's going to scramble your brain to be in close proximity with his half-naked pretty-boy body, to put him in and take him out of gorgeous clothes, that it's going to activate your fight or flight to have to do that everyday for like a week. 

She can see the panic in your eyes while you sit across from her in her office, and because she's your boss she doesn't outright laugh at you, but because she's your friend she also gives you a little pout with laughing eyes like she wants to. 

"I hate you," you grumble, but in a professional way, with a smile showing all your teeth. 

"I know you do," she says. "You're my best stylist, and I have complete trust in you."

And that's kind of sweet, isn’t it? "Oh, what? Thank you..."

"I trust that you won't jump his bones and put us all out of a job with the ensuing scandal," she smirks, turning back to her laptop, effectively dismissing you. She pretends not to see you flip her off as you start to leave, and then calls out, right before you get out the door, "Especially considering this issue's theme!"

You think, what is she on about? and then it hits you like a tonne of bricks, that you'd pitched this one theme a couple months earlier over cocktails with the rest of the team, and it'd been a complete joke, except it turns out the joke is your life. 

"What if, for the next issue," you'd crowed, giggly and delirious, "we did the boy-heroine, like, one of those puppy boys that followed Jane Austin heroines around begging for her strap..."

"What the fuck does that even mean?" someone way more sensible than you had asked, and then you'd said some more drunk bullshit and gone on a full rant about gender in the Gothic romantic tradition and ruffle collars and rose petals and fishnets. 

"Oh fuck," you say out loud to yourself in the present moment, as you recall your editor had asked you a week or two back if you still had the tights studded with the rhinestones. 

You did have the tights. And now you had no choice but to eat the tights, for the sake of your own sanity. 

Harry shows up twenty minutes early to your first fitting, which means you're twenty minutes late to your first fitting. You walk in too-confident in a full Jacqmeus bike short and crop top moment in a buttery rust knit, chunky sneakers, and the most elaborate Badu-scarf situation you can maneuver your bleach-blonde dreads into, feeling very fucking cute and very on time. 

"Bring on the pretty white boy," you announce, walking in and doing this little dance, a little shimmy with your hips. 

Your editor, Etta, is standing by a rack of clothes with a tall white boy with curly hair tied back with a a silk scarf that you're 90% sure is vintage Gucci, and you're about to say something like "killer scarf, where'd you thrift it?" when your rat brain catches up with you and you realize the tall white boy with the cool scarf is Harry Styles, who has turned to give you a look like he's trying really hard not to laugh. 

"I suppose I'm the pretty white boy?" he says, at the same time that Etta says "I have never met this person in my life, Harry, this is obviously an overheated toddler."

You flip her off with one hand and meet Harry halfway for a handshake with the other. "In my defense, I really only talk about the talent like that when I assume the talent won't be here for another twenty minutes..."

"And in my defense, I had an early start this morning," Harry says good-naturedly. “Woke up on the right side of the bed, ate my Wheaties, that whole thing.”

He's unfairly pretty, is the thing, like properly handsome. His hair falls smooth and shiny around his shoulders, and he's got a little stubble moment going on (you're a sucker for the sensation of stubble, the smell of expensive aftershave), and that scarf is definitely vintage Gucci, and the rest of it is giving off-duty rock star; black Bootsy Collins t-shirt, velvet lounge pants, well-loved black converse.

[whitneymallett]

author, essayist, filmmaker, brand semiotician

whitney.mallett@gmail.com text | video | twitter | instagram

PRESS: Brooklyn Tank Office Interview Nacre Journal Vogue Vice

My short fiction “Deliverance” is out now in Smutburger Editions Vol. 2 and I co-edited the forthcoming Barbie Dreamhouse: An Architectural Survey. Recent bylines include: an essay on leather in Spike Art Mag, an interview with Kembra Pfahler in Buffalo Zine, an interview with Sylvie Fleury for Kaleidoscope, and book reviews in Mousse Mag. I’ve presented work at MoMA PS1, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and Performance Space New York.

I’ve written for The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, Interview Magazine, SSENSE, Cultured Magazine, The New Inquiry, CURA., The New Republic, VICE, V Magazine, N+1, Filmmaker Magazine, DIS, The National Post, Maisonneuve, OUT, etc. Held editorial positions at New York Magazine, PIN–UP, The Editorial, Gayletter, and Topical Cream. And produced and directed documentaries and music videos featured on Nowness, DIS, and The Fader. I’ve also produced and hosted segments for Montez Press Radio, including a collaboration with the Queens Museum, and I taught video art at NYU.

As a copywriter and brand semiotician, my clients have included Christie’s, Everlane, Samsung, Proctor & Gamble, and Hennessy.

[kestimac]

God, I love Honey Dijon. Her interview with SSENSE is absolutely lit. An excerpt of which you can find below below:

Honey Dijon: I come from that school of thought where art, music, fashion, clubbing, all of it was a cultural center. This was where people—I have a saying: meet, mate, and create. 

Adam Wray (Interviewer): We were speaking earlier about how audiences have changed… 

HD: They’re straight and white. We can go there. 

AW: Let’s go there, then. What do you think changed that— 

HD: The music changed! People of color and queer people have a certain sound that’s really emotional and spiritual. I’m not saying that what other people do isn’t, but there’s a certain sound and a certain technique and a certain emotion that comes from disco and early house. The music has become more monotonous. We have technology now where DJs don’t actually have to know the craft of DJing—that changed. I’m not saying things should stay the same, obviously you need to evolve, but, sonically, music changed, and you don’t see a lot of people of color at the club anymore. You don’t see a lot of people of color dictating parties, or festivals, or record labels, or editing magazines. It’s funny how people that create the change very rarely get to experience the change. This music and this culture has been colonized by heteronormative, cis-gender, white people, and I think we’re just seeing a reflection of that heteronormativity.

“You don’t see a lot of people of color dictating parties, or festivals, or record labels, or editing magazines. It’s funny how people that create the change very rarely get to experience the change. This music and this culture has been colonized by heteronormative, cis-gender, white people, and I think we’re just seeing a reflection of that heteronormativity.“

[addpan]

Via. https://www.ssense.com/en-dk/editorial/culture/how-did-we-get-here-dis-speaks-to-christopher-glazek-on-obama-baroque-crisis-and-tech?utm_source=ssense&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=magazine&utm_term=velour_tracksuit_m_18_10_12

[lovelostfashionfound]

Suj Lee - SSENSE May 2018

[theconservativebrief]

Pornhub has 80 million daily users and more pornographic videos than any other site in the history of the internet, and now it wants to be Playboy.

More specifically, what Playboy was in the ’90s. “A lifestyle brand, a fashion brand,” explains Alex Katz, co-founder of the Madrid-based creative agency Officer & Gentleman, which has been leading the brand strategy for Pornhub for the past four years.

Co-founder Javi Iñiguez jumps in: “The girls were wearing sweatshirts and purses with the Playboy bunny even though they might not have seen a Playboy magazine in their lives.”

Fair enough. Who doesn’t want the cultural clout of Hugh Hefner, literally everything else about Hugh Hefner aside?

It may be a small shock to discover that Pornhub even has a brand strategy, but it makes sense. The company has spent the past several years doing what anybody would do once they become superrich: buying their way to coolness. And, by extension, buying their way to women, whom the company has historically had a hard time appealing to.

I mean, who doesn’t see the connection between lifestyle brands and chicks?

Pornhub’s first website launched in 2007 and was acquired by the MindGeek conglomerate in 2010, at which time it merged with YouPorn, RedTube, and Xtube to become the Pornhub network. From there, it easily consolidated power to become the biggest porn distribution platform ever, but its new challenge was to become a brand that anyone would talk about out loud, and just maybe, someday, wear on a T-shirt.

Models from the ’90s-inspired Playboy fashion line launched last year by Joyrich. Joyrich

In 2014, the network held a contest asking advertising and creative professionals to submit concepts for safe-for-work, PG-13 Pornhub ads that could run in traditional media spots. The move was a reaction to a year of mainstream misses and only two hits: In 2013, Pornhub finagled a centerpiece montage (with clips handpicked by VP Corey Price) in the heart of the porn-focused Joseph Gordon-Levitt rom-com Don Jon. It also nabbed dozens of headlines in outlets from BuzzFeed to SBNation when CBS refused to air a 20-second, completely innocuous ad spot during the Super Bowl. By the time anyone bothered to point out that Super Bowl ads are only sold in 30-second increments, the scam had done its work.

Thanks to the contest, Pornhub buddied up with both Officer & Gentleman and Vendetta Studios, an LA-based viral video production house headed by Dave Lehre — an anxiety-inducing internet personality best known for one of the first viral YouTube clips, “MySpace: the movie,” and more recently for an elaborate stunt in which he fashioned himself into “the first white American K-pop star.”

For Pornhub, Lehre made a litany of viral videos, mostly ads for Pornhub’s new product releases: a VPN service, a “BaDoink” VR headset, a $1,000 robotic twerking butt, and so on.

“Make the brand accessible to the world” was the brief, Lehre says. Make it PG-13; make it live on YouTube; make it shareable. “When we came in, it was all potential. Nobody had tapped the power of Pornhub.” He pauses. “Damn, that sounds epic.”

Officer & Gentleman’s first projects were also tech-related: videos for a cryptocurrency called Titcoin and a (real) piece of wearable tech that would recharge your phone while you masturbated. It was called Wankband. At Christmastime last year, noting the success of gift cards for streaming services like Spotify and Netflix, they started selling Pornhub Premium gift cards. “We thought it would be the perfect Secret Santa present at workplaces and stuff like that,” Iñiguez says.

(Please don’t give a Pornhub Premium gift card to anyone you work with.)

So, is Pornhub … a tech company? “Depends who you ask,” Katz says, though he seems uninterested in the proposition. “But I think the brand … it’s an entertainment company. You don’t see anyone wearing Facebook shirts because they’re cool.”

Right, right. Cool, we’re doing cool here.

“[In online porn], everyone has the same product, so the only way you can differentiate yourself is by building a brand,” Katz explains. “We only want to create advertising that can go viral.” That means safe-for-work content. “[Pornhub] has enough porn; they need content that’s shareable.”

“Everything has to go viral,” Iñiguez points out. So you throw a lot of shit at the wall to see what sticks. The list of what Pornhub has not been willing to try in the past four years would probably be more expedient, but here we are.

It launched its own lube brand, then the world’s largest lube slide. (One of Lehre’s projects, of which he says, “They didn’t come to set, they just said ‘Oh, we have these 5-gallon drums of lube we can send over.’ We got this huge slide. They sent all these porn stars to hang out and slide down it. That was a magic day.”)

“[In online porn], everyone has the same product, so the only way you can differentiate yourself is by building a brand”

At one point, the company started a record label and hosted music video premieres for California rapper Mykki Blanco and Michigan metal band King 810. It hosted a porn film festival in New York, featuring soft-core entries from Miley Cyrus and James Franco. It made an “adult adult coloring book” featuring X-rated sketches from Instagram and Tumblr artists, which it then sold exclusively at the Think Tank Gallery in LA, Verso Books in Milan, and the menswear boutique Off the Hook in Montreal. It launched a line of sex toys, then commissioned Spanish electro-pop band Perlita to create a song from sex toy noises.

The high-end Italian denim company Diesel became the first fashion brand to advertise on a porn site in January 2016, kicking off a much-covered official partnership with Pornhub. Creative director Nicola Formichetti told Dazed, “We all go on websites like Pornhub, you know? So before you start jerking off maybe you can stop and look at our new pants.” For New York Fashion Week in 2017, Hood by Air sent a Pornhub-inspired line down the runway (models wore their hair stylized as if it were coated in semen, and jackets reading “HUSTLER” and “NEVER TRUST A CHURCH GIRL”).

In September that year, the New York streetwear brand Richardson announced a capsule collection featuring Pornhub-branded hoodies, hats, swimsuits, jackets, and T-shirts — one featuring porn actress, poet, and Pornhub spokesperson Asa Akira, and another featuring the flags of countries in which Pornhub is banned. Two months later, the New York outerwear brand Moose Knuckles debuted a limited-edition Pornhub bomber jacket that was sold through the Rihanna-blessed SoHo streetwear staple VFILES.

VFILES is also beloved by Pornhub’s most important woman: Kim Kardashian.

Last summer, the team stopped by the De Re Gallery in Los Angeles for “Make Me Famous,” the first exhibition by “professionally provocative” Instagram-famous twins Allie and Lexi Kaplan — just to pick up a painting of the Kim Kardashian–Ray J sex tape, which is now prominently displayed in the company’s LA office.

Pornhub loves Kim. When she was robbed at gunpoint later that year, Pornhub offered $50,000 “in exchange for information leading to [the] arrest and conviction of criminals who robbed Kim Kardashian.” The press release said that everyone at Pornhub was “deeply saddened” by the “horrible incident,” and reminded the world that Kim Kardashian’s sex tape with Ray J “remains the most viewed video on Pornhub with 110,198,725 views and counting.”

“We consider her to be a member of the Pornhub family,” Pornhub VP Corey Price tells Vox. “As such, we wanted to extend a helping hand and do all that we could to help bring the wrongdoers to justice.” Ultimately, the police didn’t need Pornhub’s help, but it’s a nice gesture. The video now has more than 143 million views!

Pornhub hosted a sci-fi art installation in LA’s De Re Gallery last summer. Maggie West/Pornhub

This June, the company sponsored an elaborate sci-fi art installation at the LA nightclub Union — handing the reins over to LA photographer and activist Maggie West (best known for her “Fluid” series, containing abstract images of blood, saliva, and semen) and New York artist Ryder Ripps (best known for creating the branding for Soylent and using the Ace Hotel’s artist residency to hire two Craigslist sex workers for a widely-reviled project called “ART WHORE”).

Then it partnered with the editorial arm of luxury fashion seller SSENSE to produce an avant-garde photo shoot and literary companion essay called “The Data of Desire,” using Pornhub analytics to figure out which sneaker brands are most fetishized in porn. (Converse, Nike, Adidas, Vans, and Yeezy, in that order.)

Then last month, Kanye West told Jimmy Kimmel he “still looks at Pornhub” and the company reached out via Twitter to offer him a lifetime subscription to Pornhub Premium. Two weeks later, he was serving as creative director for the first annual Pornhub Awards in Los Angeles, which were reportedly a disaster but came off, anyway, as a major coup.

West debuted a new music video featuring the currently incarcerated Lil Pump at the awards and brought G.O.O.D. Music signee Teyana Taylor along to perform. He dressed porn stars in the latest Yeezy collection (when he bothered to dress them at all) and arranged them onstage to accept futuristic-dildo-shaped award statues he also supposedly designed. The next day, he announced a line of Yeezy sweatshirts featuring the night’s winners, including “Nicest Tits” honoree Kendra Sunderland and “Hottest Female Ass” honoree Mia Malkova.

“Where do these [partnership] decisions come from?” Katz parrots back to me. “Well, we can’t be in mainstream spaces, so we become this outsider brand that’s doing out-there things. That’s what attracts these other brands like Richardson and Yeezy. Pornhub has an outsider quality that draws people to them.”

Here’s the rub (sorry): Per Pornhub’s own data, as of December 2017, just 26 percent of the site’s users are women.

This is not really a problem, as what Iñiguez pointed out is true: Girls didn’t have to read Playboy to buy the clothes. But it is kind of a problem, mostly because women make up a large share of the people on earth, and Pornhub has basically nowhere to go within the demographic it already serves.

So far, Pornhub has tried selling Mother’s Day–specific cardboard VR headsets, publishing site traffic insights from the day of the 2017 Women’s March, and weighing in on International Women’s Day to announce that it would change the “female-friendly” tag on its site to “popular with women.” It also pointed out that searches for Amy Schumer rose 513 percent in tandem with her Instagram post about the holiday.

“More than ever before, women are coming forward to express their desires more openly,” Price says. “And we want to provide resources to support that.”

So, this January, Pornhub debuted “F*ck Your Period.”

“There are two types of women: women who have sex on their period and women who don’t,” Katz tells me. “It’s 49 [percent] to 51,” (based on an informal Pornhub survey of its female users). With that, uh, fact in mind, Pornhub launched a campaign with the goal of explaining the health benefits of having an orgasm during your period. It made its own period calendar app and encouraged women to fill it out so that each month, they would receive a free login code for Pornhub Premium for the duration of their period. “[The goal was] to get girls to experiment with Pornhub for the first time in case they hadn’t,” Katz says. “Pornhub is a sex-friendly, female-friendly company.”

Pornhub’s cryptocurrency launch in New York. Officer & Gentleman

Yet the campaigns aimed at women are rarely the ones that blow up. In March, the site started accepting cryptocurrency as payment and had models stroll through the Financial District in Pornhub-branded ski masks, tossing plastic coins and licking the Wall Street bull’s balls. This worked: It got press.

The following month, Pornhub launched a program called “The Visionaries Director’s Club” with the aim of “[diversifying] porn production” and gave rapper Young M.A. a budget to write and produce her own pornographic short film. The company described the film in a press release, writing that it would appeal to “our progressive generation,” and adding, “While high production level lesbian content is often clearly created with the male gaze in mind, M.A’s debut film is authentic and genuine to her taste profile.”

Last month, it gave a similar budget to pansexual singer and rapper Brooke Candy, who wrote of her film, “We had the most next level crew of fine artists from all over the world and the cast of actors that I chose really had an inner beauty which they unleashed on film. It’s queer, it’s sex-positive and it’s super-hot.” This didn’t work — it got no press. But the data says that female usership of Pornhub grows every year, Price points out. So it’s fine.

As a woman who menstruates, did I know that orgasms make period cramps less painful and bleeding cycles shorter? I mean, as a woman who drinks water, did I know it keeps my organs running?

Pornhub’s brand strategy is elaborate, multifaceted, funny, and cool. It’s also as simple as a bunch of straight boys chasing what straight boys so often chase: a projection of ease and edge that makes them appealing to other boys like them, and a veneer of caring that they hope will grant them an in with women.

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Original Source -> Pornhub wants to be a lifestyle brand

via The Conservative Brief

[pocketminstrel]

I have a very personal story with SSENSE. My mother works in fashion; I grew up surrounded by it. But at the same time, growing up as an overweight Asian-American man, I felt disenfranchised from fashion. By the time I hit high school, I got the idea that I didn’t deserve to look good. The message magazines kept sending was that you had to be skinny and white to engage in fashion. I actually discovered SSENSE while I was in grad school through its SoundCloud account. I loved the mixes, and the artists they were featuring. At first, I thought the company was a music channel. Then I discovered they were an online retailer. They were trying to contextualize fashion in a way that spoke to me. It was the first time that a fashion retailer didn’t make me feel excluded.

https://www.ssense.com/en-us/editorial/culture/dont-call-it-a-rebrand-a-conversation-with-director-of-design-eric-hu

[jessicakehoe]

Here’s All the Fashion News You Missed This Week

Raf Simons Collaborator Sterling Ruby Launches a Ready-to-Wear Line

Sterling Ruby, the multidisciplinary artist known for his paint-splattered canvases and dedication to American folk art, has launched a fashion label. Titled S.R. STUDIO. LA. CA., the line features a plethora of distressed clothing — bleach splatters, acid wash and paint sports — that draws direct influence from the artistic practice he has maintained for the past 20 years. The collection begins at $530 for a t-shirt and is available online on SSENSE. (“Being editorial driven, SSENSE goes beyond being a simple retailer, giving customers content that explores what fashion means on a personal and cultural level. The opportunity to be featured in this context made SSENSE the perfect launch partner for S.R. STUDIO. LA. CA.,” says Sterling Ruby.) This is hardly Ruby’s first fashion rodeo, however. The 47-year-old has regularly collaborated with Raf Simons since 2012, when the then-creative director of Dior asked the artist to modify one of his painting for use on silk fabric. The S.R. STUDIO. LA. CA. collection debuted earlier this week in Milan. Ruby described the medium of a fashion show to the Financial Times as “such an impactful five to 10 to 15 minutes of bodies and space and form and flow and speed and sound of rhythm.” (Press Release)

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@sterlingruby's debut fashion brand #SRSTUDIOLACA is now exclusively at SSENSE.

A post shared by SSENSE (@ssense) on Jun 13, 2019 at 11:34am PDT

Carine Roitfeld’s First Runway Show was a “Major Fashion Extravaganza”

For the past few months, Carine Roitfeld has been trying her hand at new ventures. In February, she announced she would be stepping back from the magazine she founded, CR Fashion Book, to focus on her branding agency, and shortly after was named a style advisor at the Karl Lagerfeld brand. Her latest venture outside of print media was a runway show at Pitti Uomo described as a “major fashion extravaganza” by WWD. The 102-look show, which included top models such as Bella Hadid, Doutzen Kroes and Alek Wek, included a selection of new and vintage pieces currently on offer at e-commerce site LuisaViaRoma. After the dazzling affair, Lenny Kravitz treated the 4,000 guests to an open-air concert, where he performed “Fly Away” and “American Woman.” (Unfortunately, his dick did not fly out of his pants.) If you can’t get enough of Carine, go read our 2014 profile of the famous editrix by Sarah Nicole Prickett. (WWD)

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#CRxLVR: @carineroitfeld's first official CR Runway show in celebration of our 90th anniversary

A post shared by LUISAVIAROMA (@luisaviaroma) on Jun 14, 2019 at 7:13am PDT

Humberto Leon and Carole Lim Exit as Creative Directors of Kenzo

Since 2011, Humberto Leon and Carole Lim have imbued Kenzo with a distinctive juvenile-yet-elevated aesthetic. Through tiger embroidered sweatshirts, they managed to transform the almost 50-year-old label into a thriving contemporary brand. Now, according to WWD, the pair are set to exit on July 1stin order to re-focus on running the Opening Ceremony retail business and in-house label. “Humberto and Carol consistently brought diversity and inclusion to the forefront at Kenzo, using their collections, fashion shows, advertising, and special projects to engage and galvanize a new generation of creative,” said Sylvie Colin, chief executive officer of Kenzo since 2017, in a statement. Their final collection for the brand will be presented on June 23rdduring Paris Men’s Fashion Week. Truly the end of an era. (WWD)

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Against a summer backdrop of dream-like flowers, @justinasvilutis shoots these bright colour block mules from the #KENZOSS19 collection. Mixing a chunky vivid heel with tubular patent leather straps for a contemporary yet youthful vibe.

A post shared by KENZO (@kenzo) on Apr 30, 2019 at 6:00am PDT

New Olivier Theyskens Exhibition Opens in France

It seems like the current hunger for fashion-related museum exhibitions has not abated. Hot off the heels of the opening of Camp: TKTK at the metropolital Museum o Art, former Rochas and Nina Ricci designer Olivier Theyskens helped co-curate a new fashion exhibition at the Calais Lace Museum in Calais, France. “In Praesentia,” a moody, gothic exhibition tracking the designer’s complicated history with lace, opens this Saturday. “Olivier had already done a retrospective on his work, so here we wanted to do something different,” museum curator Lydia Kamitsis told WWD. The exhibition primarily focuses on the material history of lace, presented in an unusual environment: the lighting is so dim visitors require torches in order to read the captions. “When I first started at Rochas in 2002, almost right away I got obsessed with re-creating the house’s own lace, a black Chantilly on a coloured background Marcel Rochas often used on his dresses,” Theyskens told WWD. The fascinating exhibition runs until January 5th, 2010. (WWD)

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Olivier Theyskens “in praesentia” Exhibition @cite_dentelle_mode, Calais France, from June 15th until January 13th, inauguration is today! Photo @claessens.deschamps Model @rachellehrs #oliviertheyskens #rachelleharris #lydiakamitsis #citedeladentelleetdelamode #calais #oliviertheyskensinpraesentia #inpraesentia

A post shared by Olivier Theyskens (@oliviertheyskens) on Jun 14, 2019 at 1:02am PDT

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The post Here’s All the Fashion News You Missed This Week appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Here’s All the Fashion News You Missed This Week published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

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Meet Marie-Ève Lecavalier, the Canadian Designer Shortlisted for the LVMH Prize

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Thank you so much @lvmhprize for this amazing opportunity. ✨ Really excited about this 💕 Thank you so much to my team, last months has been quite intense but it was all worth it! #lvmhprize #LECAVALIER

A post shared by LECAVALIER (@lecavalier.studio) on Feb 25, 2019 at 12:37am PST

If the name Marie-Eve Lecavelier doesn’t yet ring a bell, here’s your chance to get acquainted.

Last year, the 30-year-old Canadian designer took home the top prizeat the Hyères International Festival of Fashion and Photography while still an intern for Raf Simons in Antwerp. She used the cash winnings from the prize to found her namesake label, Lecavalier, which launched in 2018, and before the line had even hit it’s first birthday, she beat out 1,700 applicants (the most the foundation had ever received) to become shortlisted for the 2019 LVMH Prize. Her deceptively highbrow designs are sold by SSENSE and she just collaborated with Simons on a capsule collection of slinky separates inspired by, in her own words, “a weird woman sitting next to a pool and getting drunk at 11 in the morning.”

As someone who grew up the working class Montreal suburb of Saint-Hubert, Quebec, Lecavalier never envisioned fashion design as a viable career option; she assumed fashion was reserved for snooty rich people and was unattainable to someone of her background. (Lecavalier’s mother worked as a secretary and her father was an elementary school teacher.) In high school, she was an “emo kid” who hung out with skateboarders and some of h r earliest experiences with sewing involved patching holes in her friends shredded clothing. But her imagination stretched far beyond her existence and she longed for escape.

Photography Courtesy of Simons

After high school, Lecavalier studied fashion design at UQAM, where she learned foundational technical skills, but she longed to expand her horizons as a designer. “In Quebec education we have this thing of keeping everything neutral or kind of masking it and not being too personal, but actually if you’re a good designer you really go personal,” she says. She headed to Geneva for her masters degree at Haute Ecole d’Art et Design de Genève (HEAD), where she learned how to overcome her hesitations about creating personal work and mine her autobiography as a jumping off point for creativity. The result was Come Get Trippy With Me, the sophisticated prize-winning collection at Hyeres she says was inspired by a memory of being “five years old, making myself hallucinate.” (It’s now available online at SSENSE.)

“I try to make a homage of where I come from, without being ashamed of it,”she says. “I like to make pieces that have been marginalized with the working class.  I was kind of ashamed of [my background] when I was a bit younger, especially in the fashion industry, which is so elite. But right now, the fashion elite are appropriating working class garments, which I think is really ridiculous.”

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Come Get Trippy With Us available exclusively on @ssense #LECAVALIER

A post shared by LECAVALIER (@lecavalier.studio) on Apr 5, 2019 at 11:41am PDT

Lecavelier gathers anecdotes from her personal history, and much like Rumplestilkskin’s ability to spin straw into gold,  takes all of these weird references and spins them like Rumplestiltskin’s straw into gold into highly elevated, refined and sophisticated collections. Though “Come Get Trippy With Me” was inspired by her youthful brush with Frank Zappa-era psychedelia, the result is garments more likely to we worn by Phoebe Philo worshippers than hardcore Deadheads.

Being shortlisted for the LVMH Prize was an “overwhelming” experience, according to Lecavalier. “It’s still a bit surreal. I’m really surprised, everything is going quite fast.” And though she didn’t quite make the cut to the list of finalists, securing the nomination within her label’s first year of business is still an impressive feat.

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TBT COME GET TRIPPY WITH US shoot with the best team. Photo: @julienthomashamon Production: @roxannedoucet Model: @maryna_polkanova Assistant: @ya.hillt . Art installation by the artist: @gregory.bourrilly 💕 Glass buttons by: Simon Müller @arcamglass Thanks to everyone behind that project and to @bertrandmarechal for the great coaching. #lecavalier #leather #upcycling #headgeneve #master #hyeres33 #hyeres2018 #jeans #levis #prints #villanoailles #master #glass #bananas #editorial #picoftheday #instagood

A post shared by LECAVALIER (@lecavalier.studio) on May 16, 2018 at 2:01am PDT

Now she faces the inevitable decision all Canadian designers must make of whether to keep her business headquarted at home or to set up shop elsewhere. “For me it’s a disappointment in a way, I came back to Montreal to [be part of] an industry, to work with people. Then you realize that people here are just really closed-minded. I think at some point if you want to be international, you have to move out.” Though Lecavalier has already been featured in leading publications like WWDand the New York Times, she disappointedly can’t recall a single feature about her work ever published by a regional outlet in Quebec.

Lecavalier has had a banner year, but the down-to-earth designer isn’t worried about maintaining momentum or getting ahead of the hype. Instead, all she wants is to do a good job. “The goal for me is just to work really hard and get a really good final product and continue my mark in this industry,” she says.

Photography Courtesy of Simons

Photography Courtesy of Simons

Photography Courtesy of Simons

Photography Courtesy of Simons

Photography Courtesy of Simons

Photography Courtesy of Simons

Photography Courtesy of Simons

Photography Courtesy of Simons

Photography Courtesy of Simons

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The post Meet Marie-Ève Lecavalier, the Canadian Designer Shortlisted for the LVMH Prize appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Meet Marie-Ève Lecavalier, the Canadian Designer Shortlisted for the LVMH Prize published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/