Welcome to The Fabric of Culture

The first post of many. Tap in for the discourse.

Let’s try something new (and creative)

What’s good everyone! For those of you who know me know that I’m extremely over-indexed on my extroversion. But only a smaller group of people know that I’ve been searching for a creative outlet for quite some time. Now that we’re halfway through January 2025 (and I’m between jobs so I have way too much free time on my hands), I decided to start this Substack. Here’s what I want to do with it:

1. Talk About Cool Shit

Per Statista, the fashion global fashion industry is worth an estimated $1.79 Trillion dollars (which equates to 1.6% of the global GDP). This means that once you account for some of the big brands (LVMH, Gap, Ralph Lauren, etc) there is a MASSIVE long tail of small and medium sized companies changing the game and creating beautiful clothes, shoes, and accessories every single day.

2. Find All the Ways Fashion Intersects with Life

We normally think of “fashion” in one swim lane. But in reality, it alters how we feel about ourselves and how we interact in the world. Tech companies have generated billions of dollars in how and what we purchase. We’ve seen large clothing companies invest in sports marketing strategies to be part of the zeitgeist. Brands have collabs with everyone under the sun in order to make their products more enticing. Our favorite actors and actresses adorn some of the coolest (and weirdest) fits whenever they step out of the house. Whether you make an conscious choice to participate in this ecosystem or not, you’re in it.

3. Inspire Everyone

Over the last few years I’ve very deeply gotten into fashion. While I was always someone who cared about what I looked like, I didn’t put too much thought into it besides making sure it “matched” and my clothes weren’t wrinkled. Some of my biggest sources of inspiration have been my friends who are in or adjacent to the industry (big shoutout to Dela Gbordzoe, Sheyi Davies, Alex Mondalek, Jared Johnson, Aaron Stinnett, and so many more). Now that I’m nearly addicted/obsessed, I have a feeling that when other people start to see that the sky’s the limit, they’ll also start looking at what they wear in a dramatically different way.

4. Get People Away From Fast Fashion

I can promise you there are better options for you to buy than that $20 Shien t-shirt that will disintegrate after wearing it four times. Zara, FashionNova, H&M, have a huge carbon footprint at the detriment to our planet. There are plenty of large companies who are guilty of this too (and we’ll talk about those in subsequent posts) but my goal is that as you all continue on your fashion journey, you think about spending just a liiiittle more for pieces that will last longer and have less of an impact on the environment. I do love luxury fashion (yes I’m bougie, we all know this) but there are tons of other affordable brands that I know of/will learn about and expose you all to.

Lewis Hamilton getting to the F1 Track (this is not an example of an affordable option I just mentioned)

I’m planning to publish one piece of content every weekday (audacious, but that’s the point). This will be a mix of short and long-form content, rank lists, highlighting brand drops that I’m a big fan of, etc. Eventually I’d love to start including interviews of people who are doing some really interesting things in the industry (think of a “on the rise” series) with designers and people who love to create. Lastly, I’ll start creating “premium” content that people can pay a small fee to access, but that’ll come much later.

I didn’t get a degree in journalism so bear with me as I try and find my voice over the next few weeks/months, but I promise if you stick around, it’ll be well worth the wait.

Welcome to The Fabric Of Culture.

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