The Red-Pilling of Kitson
August 31, 2021 6:32 PM Subscribe
The boutique that defined early-aughts L.A. style has taken an … unexpected turn. “But we don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe he is going to become the MyPillow guy of L.A. fashion.”
There's so much in this article, it's a wild ride.
posted by subdee at 9:25 PM on August 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by subdee at 9:25 PM on August 31, 2021 [3 favorites]
I’m always happy to see intelligent fashion/business/culture/politics articles on the blue! Now if you’ll excuse me I’m heading back to Reddit to argue about denim rises.
posted by Hypatia at 6:24 AM on September 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by Hypatia at 6:24 AM on September 1, 2021 [4 favorites]
Utterly arrogant train wreck. A good tale of how covid has turbocharged social media driven political messaging by people who can’t understand the world isn’t built just for them.
posted by glaucon at 7:08 AM on September 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by glaucon at 7:08 AM on September 1, 2021 [3 favorites]
A good tale of how covid has turbocharged social media driven political messaging by people who can’t understand the world isn’t built just for them.
I think the cause is up for debate, but the highlighted part by me just feels like a universal truth at this point.
posted by NoMich at 7:50 AM on September 1, 2021
I think the cause is up for debate, but the highlighted part by me just feels like a universal truth at this point.
posted by NoMich at 7:50 AM on September 1, 2021
I don't think it's a surprise that many rich people are reactionary heels, but it is a surprise to me that the long-held consensus that they pretend not to be in public is breaking down.
posted by ob1quixote at 7:53 AM on September 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by ob1quixote at 7:53 AM on September 1, 2021 [5 favorites]
I used to work over the old Kitson Store, back in the heyday. All of my memories of Robertson are about how deeply, religiously stupid it was. It was a universe of postures and empty symbols intended only to provoke a reaction and attract attention. It actually made me anxious to be living in an off-by-one facsimile of a functioning community. I don’t know why I never considered the parallels to red pill “culture,” but here it is, and boy is it obvious.
posted by q*ben at 9:11 AM on September 1, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by q*ben at 9:11 AM on September 1, 2021 [9 favorites]
The early 'aughts were the worst cultural time, I hate that this is all back. I was in my early 20s and fully depressed, I grew up in Los Angeles and was so disappointed that the cultural scenes I was so excited to join in on when I "grew up" (still waiting on that to occur tbh) were completely gone by the time I was old enough to get into anything. I was ready to join bands, go to parties, wear messy eyeliner and get into trouble, but all that was there for me were Friends on the bar TVs, rhinestone encrusted tshirts and sweatpants, appletinis and midori sours and skinny eyebrows and long lines to get a table at the Ivy so you might catch a glimpse of a d-list celebrity, and long lines to get into Skybar.
And this Trumpy mess of a bottom-feeder and the victimhood he oozes despite being also the most powerful and clever person in his own story. It was there, under the surface the whole time, and now it's just pouring out of every corner. This guy is really out here trying to feel sorry for himself with no remorse for his part in any of it. The casual mention of "growing up in an orphanage" just a few paragraphs away from complaining about services for people, I just can't with this anymore, I really really can't.
I look back on that time, and the transition the world was going through, the anxiety about Y2K, the popular culture fully bereft of any compassion, art or dignity. The consolidation of all media and the lazy turning out of "content" had left us a wasteland with nothing to connect to, and no way to connect to each other. I am heartened when I remember all of the exciting things that were burgeoning underneath as the way of life was starting to turn away from the monolithic, marketing-driven stores of the 80s conglomerates that had gotten out of control and to the more fluid and (admittedly less polished) accessible hands-on culture growing on the internet.
All that felt like training wheels for this nonsense today - Y2K was no big deal but covid was not the nothing-burger we thought it would be. I can't help but see the irony in us being here so quickly again, the mega-conglomerates having cannibalized the very thing that sustained us culturally back in those bad old days, but what really gets me is I see no end in sight to the people who profit off of these moments and exploit everyone they come into contact with, the way the same vultures come in and profit until there's nothing left, and their stupid tales of how much injustice they have suffered. As a natural born Valley girl who was spawned adjacent to the hell this article describes, I can only say: BAAAAAAAAAARF O RAMA TO ALL OF THIS
posted by pazazygeek at 11:16 AM on September 1, 2021 [13 favorites]
And this Trumpy mess of a bottom-feeder and the victimhood he oozes despite being also the most powerful and clever person in his own story. It was there, under the surface the whole time, and now it's just pouring out of every corner. This guy is really out here trying to feel sorry for himself with no remorse for his part in any of it. The casual mention of "growing up in an orphanage" just a few paragraphs away from complaining about services for people, I just can't with this anymore, I really really can't.
I look back on that time, and the transition the world was going through, the anxiety about Y2K, the popular culture fully bereft of any compassion, art or dignity. The consolidation of all media and the lazy turning out of "content" had left us a wasteland with nothing to connect to, and no way to connect to each other. I am heartened when I remember all of the exciting things that were burgeoning underneath as the way of life was starting to turn away from the monolithic, marketing-driven stores of the 80s conglomerates that had gotten out of control and to the more fluid and (admittedly less polished) accessible hands-on culture growing on the internet.
All that felt like training wheels for this nonsense today - Y2K was no big deal but covid was not the nothing-burger we thought it would be. I can't help but see the irony in us being here so quickly again, the mega-conglomerates having cannibalized the very thing that sustained us culturally back in those bad old days, but what really gets me is I see no end in sight to the people who profit off of these moments and exploit everyone they come into contact with, the way the same vultures come in and profit until there's nothing left, and their stupid tales of how much injustice they have suffered. As a natural born Valley girl who was spawned adjacent to the hell this article describes, I can only say: BAAAAAAAAAARF O RAMA TO ALL OF THIS
posted by pazazygeek at 11:16 AM on September 1, 2021 [13 favorites]
Y2K was no big deal but covid was not the nothing-burger we thought it would be
Weren't there a lot of people who worked extremely long hours to fix all the code and THAT'S why there was no Y2K apocalypse?
I grew up in Los Angeles and was so disappointed that the cultural scenes I was so excited to join in on when I "grew up" (still waiting on that to occur tbh) were completely gone by the time I was old enough to get into anything. I was ready to join bands, go to parties, wear messy eyeliner and get into trouble, but all that was there for me were Friends on the bar TVs
And meanwhile in NYC, the Strokes are what happens when there's no St. Marks Square anymore so you just pretend the punk scene is still alive and create the image of it; and in London it's the Libertines doing a similar thing and reinventing a scene that had already died before they got there.
posted by subdee at 10:06 PM on September 1, 2021
Weren't there a lot of people who worked extremely long hours to fix all the code and THAT'S why there was no Y2K apocalypse?
I grew up in Los Angeles and was so disappointed that the cultural scenes I was so excited to join in on when I "grew up" (still waiting on that to occur tbh) were completely gone by the time I was old enough to get into anything. I was ready to join bands, go to parties, wear messy eyeliner and get into trouble, but all that was there for me were Friends on the bar TVs
And meanwhile in NYC, the Strokes are what happens when there's no St. Marks Square anymore so you just pretend the punk scene is still alive and create the image of it; and in London it's the Libertines doing a similar thing and reinventing a scene that had already died before they got there.
posted by subdee at 10:06 PM on September 1, 2021
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