NFT Girl Summer and Vintage Ed Hardy

Your daily digest of youth culture

Tomorrow I’ll be sending out my first Friday edition for paid subscribers, which I’ll be calling Extra Credit¹. You’ll find more takeaways, more tangents, and more than 500 words on Shein, Depop, and the “circular fashion” economy — plus a recap on everything that happened this week. I’ll also be digging into the things I’m reading, buying, watching, hearing, etc. each week, and I plan to occasionally spotlight the picks of different people, from writers to founders to VCs to teens.

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Kith teases its Team USA collection, HBO Max finds its Gen Z Batgirl, Wrangler and Billabong collab on a surf-cowboy collection, Bad Bunny and Adidas made a *checks notes* Cheetos tracksuit, Nike’s veryyy lawsuit-happy, and…

Meet Batgirl

NEW STUDIES QUANTIFY TIKTOK'S GROWING IMPACT ON CULTURE AND MUSIC

This is admittedly a commissioned study, but the stats still seem worth noting: 71% of users believe the biggest trends start on TikTok, 63% have discovered new music on the app, and 7 in 10 users believe TikTok communities have the power to create change in culture. tiktok x flamingo // Related: How TikTok's algorithm figures out your deepest desires. (Basically, the more videos you watch, the more they know you. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that how algorithms work…?) wsj

NEW KID ON THE BLOCKCHAIN: THE YOUNG PEOPLE USING CRYPTO FOR GOOD

Instead of minting coins purely for profit, young people are developing goal-oriented coins — like Veggiecoin and LGBT Token — to democratize the arts and aid social mobility. dazed

“The way I thought I was going to be having Hot Girl Summer in a bikini on a boat in Dubai,” she says on her recent pivot, “and now I’m at home, in my sweatpants on Reddit and Discord being like, ‘Have you seen the new NFT drop?’”

ED HARDY’S INEVITABLE RETURN IS FINALLY HERE

With a new creative director and fans like Bella Hadid and Addison Rae, the brand has found renewed popularity among Gen Z shoppers. (To wit: There are currently nearly 12,000 results for “Ed Hardy” on Depop.) nylon // Related: The over-the-top blush look of the ‘80s is back in a big way. tzr

HOW NICHE LUXURY SHOES BECAME HUGE IN CHINA

“Millennials see luxury as a form of social capital that helps set them apart and achieve personal and social goals,” while Gen Z buys “luxury to feel different rather than conform to social norms.” jingdaily

SUDDENLY IT’S BARE SEASON

Twitter is having a heyday with this piece — and it is very how-do-you-do-fellow-kids; most things in the Styles section are — but I will say that I’ve never seen so many people walking around NYC in bras and bikinis than this summer, and I’ve lived here a decade. nyt // Related: The pelvic cutout trend is everywhere. (Goes well with a bra and absolutely nothing else.) nylon

One last thought:

rachel syme @rachsyme

ok dad

July 22nd 2021

35 Likes

1. I was hoping to give people who prefer one weekly email vs five emails a week the option to opt out of daily and receive only the paid weekly — but Substack makes it very hard to do this. (There are subsections, but subscribers have to manually opt in in addition to upgrading and it’s a whole thing) If you’re someone who would strongly prefer receiving one email a week from me rather than five, please email me and I’ll try to figure out a solution.

2. I love you forever and ever