This week we read “The Coolhunt” by Malcolm Galdwell from The New Yorker. I found the article very interesting because it mainly discussed finding the “cool” in fashion. I actually don’t agree with the “coolhunt” and don’t find the act of coolhunting to be a great role in society’s fashion. It’s hard to believe that people get paid to be “coolhunters.” My definition of “coolhunting” is people going around and trying to find the one different person that’s wearing the one different thing and then they call it cool and make it a trend. I guess I don’t see the point of “coolhunting” because I think that designers should make their own cool and not take it from someone else.
What I have been taught in all of my design classes is when inventing something take inspiration not from fashion but from other things. For example, in one of my classes we had to make an inspiration board, but the images could not be about fashion (we couldn’t put images from fashion magazines on our boards.) We were forced to look outside of the box, my topic was architecture in Italy. I have actually made some new intriguing things that could be considered cool and I didn’t get my inspiration from something that someone was wearing.
Malcolm Galdwell says that “you can’t convince the late majority that Hush Puppies are cool, because the late majority makes its coolness decisions on the basis of what the early majority is doing, and you can’t convince the early majority, because the early majority is looking at the early adopters, and you can’t convince the early adopters, because they take their cues from the innovators.” I think that the innovators should be the designers themselves. The designers shouldn’t take “cues” from people on the street because the designers are getting paid to be the innovators. I think that as long as a designer is original and creates their own “cool” then these designers can go with the trend of fashion, but make the trend their own.
I also had a discussion with my mom about this topic because she is in the fashion industry. What I started to understand is that designers can use the “coolhunters” to gather information but it shouldn’t be the only source that they use. Designers need to go out on their own and find their own inspiration but the “coolhunter” findings are useful because then one will be able to know what will sell and what won’t.
3 comments:
I agree that coolhunting seems kind of pointless, and I like the idea that designers should find inspiration outside of fashion. You stated that coolhunters look for the one person who is dressed different. What if that one person just lost a bet and was forced to wear zubas and a tuxedo t-shirt? Would those become the new fad if spotted by a coolhunter? If so, I think it shows even more how absurd the job of a "coolhunter" seems.
I like how you said that as long as the designer creates something their own that they make cool they can make the trend themselves. however, what about those fashions or creations that are creative and unique that flop? what happens with those?
I agree with your post and feel you have a good perspective with your knowledge of fashion. It does seem pointless to use "coolhunting" as a source of cool, but as you alluded to, I do think it is a good source from a business standpoint. No designer wants to make something that they think is cool if it won't sell anyhow, so maybe coolhunting allows for a way to find out what people on the streets will be willing to pay for.
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