My Dazed Addiction: Better Than Netflix

Let's start this edition of our newsletter by deconstructing the title. I should add that this is the only kind of dissection I'm capable of doing. Dazed, of course, refers to the alternative and often provocative cultural publication founded as Dazed and Confused in 1991. Netflix is just a reference to streaming.

Streaming—which will partly explain a flaw you'll find in this essay. From this flaw comes our first big lesson: don't trust blindly in the replay availability of every Zoom webinar.

Fashion x Streaming

Still, we must acknowledge the relationship between Fashion and streaming. It helped us get through the dark moments of the pandemic. Who could think about the apocalypse while Anna Wintour debated fashion with Marc Jacobs or John Galliano on Zoom?

All fashion media, organizations, and outlets took Zoom by storm and democratized truly important discussions about fashion.

In Portugal, ModaLisboa - Lisboa Fashion Week didn't just use Zoom—they created real television and streaming programming, bringing together designers and fashion insiders with TV personalities. They maintained all the excitement when events couldn't happen in person. They had already started livestreaming in the pre-pandemic period and continued afterward.

Something that didn't happen with many organizations and institutions, though I don't follow their work as closely. Nevertheless, the additional resources needed to broadcast live events compared to webinars are justified by the industry's need to continue being an example of plural dialogue in a society undergoing abrupt transformation.

An Addictive Series Called "How I Became..."

The digital webinar series from Dazed we're discussing here is titled "How I Became..." It showcases the journeys of various industry professionals, inspiring students and others.

This programming ran from March 17 to May 2. On Mondays at 2 PM, you could meet with Jack Sunnucks, creative director of Dazed Club - Alexander Fury; Ariella Starkman; Jawara Alleyne; Anna Meacham; Imruh Asha and Katie Grand.

Each week featured different variations of the "How I Became..." premise: fashion journalist; executive producer; fashion designer; fashion director; and creative director.

When I mentioned that we can't trust blindly in replay possibilities, it's because I wasn't able to access the replay of the Dazed Club creative director's conversation with the founder of talent agency Huxley, since I didn't watch it live. Although the video was available on YouTube, it was a private video link. I should note the helpfulness of Shel Kaplan, Dazed Club's community manager, who clarified via email that this video is not currently available publicly.

I'd like to suggest checking out the Dazed Club app, part of The Dots' club functionality—super useful networks for establishing connections in our field. And no, none of this is advertising; that's not The Fashion Standup's model. When there's something like advertising, it'll be, in a way, for you and for you.

With all this, we still haven't played "who's who," so here we go:

• Alexander Fury is a fashion critic and author, though often called a journalist. He studied Fashion History and Theory at Central Saint Martins. His resume includes Show Studio, AnOther Magazine, The Independent, Love, Elle, Vogue, and The Business of Fashion;
• Ariella Starkman is an executive producer who, after working as a freelancer for several years, founded her own creative (events) agency in 2022—Starkman & Associates. She's also founder of Homme girls, a fashion brand and cultural magazine;
• Imruh Asha is a fashion director and stylist. He started his journey as a stylist at a concept store in Amsterdam, which he describes as a Dover Street Market equivalent, carrying brands like Jacquemus and Vetements when they were starting out, plus brands like Maison Margiela. In 2021, he became fashion director at Dazed;
• Jawara Alleyne graduated in Fashion Design and Marketing from London College of Fashion and studied Business Administration at University College of Cayman Islands. In 2020, he completed his Master's in Design at Central Saint Martins. The following year he founded his eponymous brand, part of the Fashion East incubator. Currently, he balances managing his own brand with teaching at CSM;
• Katie Grand is a journalist, stylist, and creative director; founder of Love magazine (2009). In 2020 she created the creative agency and reference fashion magazine—Perfect.

Fury expressed his enthusiasm for attending fashion shows, which continues today. He compared it to the "fever" of a die-hard football fan regarding a derby match.

The founder of Starkman & Associates maintained a relaxed conversation, highlighting the idea of empathy she applies in the creative process of each event she organizes. She always maintains the perspective that she'll also be a guest or visitor beyond being an organizer.

Imruh Asha has a very balanced perspective on building his career, between his sense of initiative and commitment and the zeitgeist we're living in, where the Fashion System, in general, is now more receptive to new people/professionals entering.

Designer Jawara Alleyne demystified the myth that a fashion designer's work involves spending most of their time creating or developing creativity. When you have your own brand, in his view, creativity goes to the bottom of the priority list, overtaken by all the tasks related to running a business.

The mother of Love and Perfect publications maintains an optimistic attitude toward her work, the Fashion System, and its insiders. She didn't have a long-term career plan and has enjoyed her journey.

Don't Use My Fabric Scissors - 10 Other Lessons

The continuation of this essay is divided into two parts: 10 lessons as important as the fabric scissors rule (they can only be used to cut fabric!), all gleaned from these webinars; followed by 5 mirror moments—situations I especially identified with.

1. Listen and observe everything, even what you're not supposed to hear and see. (Alexander Fury)

2. Fashion isn't a money-making machine for those who work in it. It can take, like Fury, five years to find financial stability doing what you love. (Alexander Fury)

3. Listen actively to those you work with, practice your multitasking ability and problem-solving skills. (Ariella Starkman)

4. Learn to build relationships with everyone, start conversations with anyone and anything, even with a tree.(Ariella Starkman)

5. Always use something that allows you to keep a record of everything that inspires you, in physical or digital format.** And I'm not talking about that poetic sense of gluing a shell you found on the beach to your scrapbook, because it's not functional and you'll never close the notebook again... Save links, save screenshots, write notes... (Imruh Asha)

6. Research everything. When you lack references, go to major magazines and look at the credits, investigate those people's work, get lost in all that research.(Imruh Asha)

7. If, as a fashion designer, you want to have your own brand, be responsible for taking care of your creativity—it's the only aspect of a brand that no one will hold you accountable for.(Jawara Alleyne)

8. If you want to follow fashion, just liking it isn't enough. Liking alone won't give you the ability to overcome the countless challenges you'll face. (Jawara Alleyne)

9. There are easier ways to become millionaires than the magazine and fashion content field.(Katie Grand)

10. It's not that hard to create a creative project you're proud of. (Katie Grand)

5 Mirror Moments

1. Alexander Fury considers Substack a cool universe. He believes that new generations, if they use their own unique perspective with good curatorial sense, will be successful. However, he doesn't know if he'd have the necessary discipline to have his own Substack.

2. Ariella Starkman is a big advocate of sending DMs to people you don't know as a way to establish relationships, with the worst that can happen being ignored. And whoever's reading this knows I love DMs—I send them to people close to me all the time and to those who might share my interests, also with record frequency.

3. Imruh Asha states that not everyone has to make the decision to establish themselves in one of fashion's traditional capitals. Some people develop their work relevantly and independently from cities like Copenhagen, Amsterdam, or Berlin. And so I add Lisbon here (I know I don't live in Lisbon, but I orbit the city).

4. Jawara Alleyne considers that energy to do something is very important—not that you need inspiration from the muses when performing creative tasks. And that we often need the focus of solitude. All this describes my process as a Fashion Design student perfectly.

5. Katie Grand wanted to create content and a publication where she wrote the rules. Not wanting to compare myself to her vast and diverse journey, I couldn't help but identify.

Dazed brought back this raw fashion thinking via Zoom. Something we had already discussed in the essay "A Fashion Career is not a microwave meal" about CSM's digital open day.

The democratization of fashion reflection should continue, deeply and ethically by institutions that defend Fashion as a System of freedom, since the moments we're living, for various reasons, appear as uncertain as those experienced during the pandemic.

And what about you—what streaming content about fashion, scattered throughout this vast digital universe, inspires you and is more addictive than Netflix?

See you soon!

With love,

Vera Lúcia