Meme Lords and Barbie Maseratis
Meme Lords and Barbie Maseratis
“younger, hipper, cooler"
Phoebe Bridgers’ Teen Vogue cover is a masterpiece; 20-year-old Gabriel LaBelle beat out 2,000 actors to play teenage Spielberg; Harry Styles isn’t a bad actor, just a bad talker; and Neiman Marcus' 2022 fantasy gifts include a one-of-a-kind $300,000 Barbie Maserati.
THE BIG 12 PLANS FOR AN ERA OF COLLEGE-SPORTS DOMINATION BY THE SEC AND BIG TEN, wsj
Admittedly niche, but as someone who grew up a Big 12 fan — go Tigers! we never should have joined the SEC — I’m obligated to care about Big 12’s quest to be “younger, hipper, cooler.”
MEET FASHION'S GEN Z MEME LORDS USING SATIRE TO STAND OUT, voguebusiness
A new wave of direct-to-consumer fashion brands are using meme culture and humour to capture the attention of young shoppers online. “People want to be confused by fashion and they want clothing that starts a conversation in their head. People our age want to be unique and weird.”
FLATS, COMFY BASICS, ITALIAN BRANDS DOMINATE LYST INDEX AS PLATFORM GROWS ITS SCOPE, wwd
According to Lyst’s quarterly brand ranking, Gucci maintained its top spot, followed by Prada and Valentino; under the creative lead of Matthieu Blazy, Bottega Veneta is the fastest-growing brand driven by high demand for his Kalimera bag. And though partywear is back, customers are predominantly trading high-heels for comfy flats (ballet flats, especially) and embellished attire for practical tank tops and fleeces.
TIKTOK THINKS I’M A SERIAL KILLER, vox
When you don’t give TikTok’s algorithm much to work with, it defaults to disturbing.
Dead parents, dead children, dead pets, domestic violence, sexual assault, suicides, murders, electrocutions, illnesses, overdoses — if it’s terrible and someone has a personal story to tell about it, it’s probably in my For You feed.
'MAYBE GEN Z IS JUST KINDER': HOW AMERICA'S YOUNGEST VOTERS ARE SHAPING POLITICS, nyt
”So I’m realizing, like, people’s first political memory actually fundamentally shapes their view of politics. So mine was, Trump was elected when I was 14, and I knew enough to know that wasn’t normal, and that pretty much, very few people in the country expected it, even people on the right.” (You can listen to or read this conversation — either way, it’s very much worth your time.)
BEREAL IS GETTING THE PRESIDENTIAL TREATMENT, tubefilter
“You should get yours too, for real.” 😬
One last thought:
(Twitter can’t agree on whether the piece was a snapshot of deeply earnest scenesters or a massive troll on the “cool kids” part, but the whole thing is pretty amusing.)
One of my favorite poems of all time is Lynne McMahon's Barbie's Ferrari, the last two lines of which call back to Gerard Manley Hopkin's poem, Spring and Fall -- "It's the car she was born for. It's Barbie you mourn for."