11/20/22

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This week has been a somewhat silly one. With one roommate gone, and perhaps the best one, I and my other roommate have been struggling to keep our sanity in check. Memories and fantasies collide in our thoughts, warping reality and disallowing us to process life as we knew it. We pray at night our minds will give us silence, yet not prevail. God has forsaken those she deems weakest. The rest of the week was pretty much the same. Classes are either becoming more relaxed as the semester comes to a close, or more face paced as the professors who slacked behind on their lessons now have to catch up to make sure they covered all the necessary material for the finals, and it's making me feel very confused. I don't know whether I can chill and enjoy my last few weeks before Christmas break, or if I should be in full grind mode and get everything done now. Also worth mentioning, Thanksgiving is this week. Christmas is in a month? I know we go over this every fucking year, but this year especially was over and done with way before I was ready for it to even start. Mentally I'm still back in April, or May at the latest. I am not ready to be heading into the second semester of my sophomore year of college. I'm going into my junior year. I need to get an internship. I need to get a good job. Bro, I'm graduating in two years. It's all going to be over so soon and I don't even think I've processed that I've graduated high school. Like I'm not currently in the same mental state as high school me, but the reality of my life is making me lose grip on it. 

With that being said, I have a conversation in mind, and being as high as I almost am right now, I'm very excited to have it with you. Today I want to discuss brand aesthetics, and brands I think do the best at it. We were talking about this kind of concept in my Fashion Merchandising class last week, and not that it's anything new to anyone who had any minute experience with any kind of branding, but I did think it could make for an interesting segment in my blog :). What is it that I'm talking about? A brand's aesthetic, as I understand it to be, is the general artistic style that that brand tries to appeal to. Playing into the target demographic, a brand's aesthetic is usually slowly developed after a few years, for it to be cemented in our heads. I really good example that is also funny is the brand Justice from when I was like 10. Justice had such a strong brand aesthetic that I feel like it almost become an element of pop culture, in which things that looked similar to that "artistic style" could be compared to Justice and people would understand the connection. So you understand what I'm saying. I think a brand's aesthetic is so significant, and so cool when you can somewhat identify with that style because it can make your brand immediately recognizable without any actual effort from the brand or its marketing team. Because of how the word "aesthetic" is used, especially in my generation, things that are in no way affiliated with the brand can instantly be drawn back to them because of the aesthetic, or what "it's giving". What I want to focus on though, are some brands I've discussed previously. And I'm also going to tie it to myself, per usual. Everything should be about me always all the time. But Dolce and Gabbana, being one of the brands, is one of my favorite examples of strong brand identity, deriving from their long-standing aesthetic choices. If we look at the runway I talked about before, I think A/W 1995, compared to their most recent S/S 2023. You can see consistency in the way they present their brand, but can also see how they've evolved to keep with the times and create modern and classic looks that are still desirable. This is how brand identity works. When you can see things and denote them to being a part of that brand. That's why other brands like Gucci and Versace wax and wean in popularity. Their designers change or they begin going in different directions, and they stop being loved for what they do. This is why things like mood boards and magazines are still so important in fashion design. Pinpointing what it is that you want to create and what you're going to be giving to your consumers is crucial for how people perceive you. Look at fast fashion brands like H&M, Forever 21, and Pacsun. Their identities shift so frequently to be producing what's on trend, they have no target audience in that way. Their demographic is 15-25-year-olds who want to be stylish but also be a douche to preteens at skateparks who decide to wear helmets, so they cant be recognized in the long term for who they are. Does that make sense? I feel like it does but I might be skipping over some details, I'm not sure just let me know. The last thing I want to mention is why the fuck I'm talking about fashion branding.

Over the Summer, as you know, I was incredibly bored, incredibly lonely, and had nothing to do the majority of the time. So, I wanted to try to fill my time with small insignificant tasks to make me feel productive throughout my day. One of which, was looking ahead on my school calendar and noting what things I should expect over my remaining time in college. As I think I've mentioned before, one of our final projects as fashion students is to do a final runway for our capstones, which I am already very nervous about, so I started brainstorming. I made a mood board including reference photos, colors, textures, and fabrics that I was looking to use in my final runway, and tried to pinpoint how I wanted Christian Reid Fashion to be perceived. In doing this, I think I forced myself to think relatively about what it is I'm hoping to create in the long run during college. What am I aiming for? How is it going to look? How is it going to feel? Will I kill myself before I get to that point? (the answer is no). What I'm saying is I think spending the time to think about who you are actually doing all of this for is a really good idea. Granted these past few months I have wanted nothing more than to change that, but that's because...I sit and think about it. The detrimant that "yolo" has done to this generation is unmatched, and I think abouts about time adress it. It is ok to plan for your future. It is ok to think of the scary thoughts that give you anxiety. Because at the end of the day, if you think about it now, you dont have to later when you just smoked and you were trying to chill but then someone said just the right thing to make your mind start racing and now its 2am and youre having a panick attack because you're still single and have no desire to get anywhere in life but you know that you do but having to think about how its all going to work makes you want to cry and its 2 am so you can't cry cause your roommate is sleeping. 

That's all for today. I love you all, I hope you have amazing Thanksgiving, I can't wait to hear all about any of them cause fuck you Thanksgiving stupid. Anyways I love you, happy holidays. Oh, Media. My favorite movie right now is Suspiria, watched that a little bit ago and my life hasn't been the same. Red hair big foreheaded Dakota Johnson slays, Mia Goth is a big wet pussy and I love her more than air. My favorite song is The Giver by Sarah Kinsley. Listen to it. My favorite artist right now is me cause Imma create some crazy shit as you've never seen. Ok, love you bye fucker.