A year ago today, hypeadjacent (hype adjacent? I still don’t know) came to be. Until 3 days ago it lived on a rented domain and looked like a blue-print for the site I would make if I was accidentally given creative reign to *redacted*.com
While I’ve been aware of fashion’s superficiality, identifying it as the equal and opposite force to its evergrowing influence, in June it became difficult to write sincerely about something that teeters “mattering” and not as finely as this industry does.
Since then, as we:
confronted the prevalence of overt and covert racism built into systems, institutions, organizations and companies and the dire need to change this reality;
inspected the political system and grappled with the effects of inadequate leadership;
assessed the precarious state of the planet in the midst of forrest fires, hurricanes and a derecho;
and saw previews of the individualistic behaviors that have led to current concerns over a potential second-wave of coronavirus
taking up digital space, even a small amount, with pieces about an industry that has contributed to these problems more than it’s sought to alleviate them didn’t sit well with me.
I watched various publications I love and loath try to extract meaning from digital couture week, digital fashion week—really all the digital fashion things—in the midst of these reckonings and didn’t have the interest, nor the energy, to sit down and join them in thinking about any of it in a serious way. During those weeks, language and words, the stuff from which thoughts crystallize and action stems, didn’t fulfill their purpose for me. For the first time I shared the confusion of people who look at the fashion industry and wonder, “seriously? This matters?”
Hence, the unplanned hiatus.
Since reality feels like it’s being held together by a thread these days, the last few weeks were spent nursing my recent cynicism back into optimism in all things. And while fashion was one of the more difficult one’s to recalibrate, rewatching my favorite fashion documentaries and reading many, many essays reminded me why I believe fashion is an important social and cultural thermometer.
But when I received an email reminder about the imminent expiration date of my domain’s lease and yearlong membership with Squarespace I was…relieved? Between the sort of funny combination of losing two fully completed essays since Squarespace abruptly crashed without properly saving my drafts; and finding myself feeling restricted by an unfamiliar interest in “perfection” (humor me in agreeing that the site almost looked legit); and the half-hearted attempts to figure out SEOing, which made me hyperaware of the omnipresent algorithm, I quickly pressed Don’t auto-renew.
A short search for a new domain ensued and here we are—a rustic, lo-fi, HTML-core newsletter where I can send love letters/ lite criticisms/ profiles/ essays/ observations/ and noodle-doodles about fashion industry happenings straight to your inbox!
Did I accomplish everything I thought I would when I first clicked publish 12 months ago? Certainly not. There are pieces sitting in drafts and Word docs and Google docs and my Notes app that will stay exactly where they are, though I hope some will catch a second wind. However, even as I tally up all the things I wish I’d done or could’ve done better, I relish the mediocrity of the small wins and the lessons learned. It’s no mystery that social media, a tool inextricably tied to self-promotion and bound by propriety-approved, success-story-sharing (aka humblebragging), has conditioned us to undervalue mediocrity. And so, in the absence of a highlight-reel is here, here is the real-reel of the last year.
My hypeadjacent reel is made up of the many hours spent thinking and writing and wrangling words to translate nebulous thoughts into paragraphs, the kind messages from people who took the time to tell me what resonated with them, all the discussions that happened in the DMs and the wonderful people I met. The b-roll includes explaining to two well-intentioned friends why buying followers wasn’t a move I’d ever make and the few tears of frustration shed over the aforementioned vanished essays. While a year is hardly a satisfying measure of time, it certainly puts the amorphous blob into focus and offers a moment of pause. Perhaps that’s what makes joyful anniversaries special—they ground us in a particular present where hindsight and hope converge, making all the wonderful possibilities feel truly possible.
But in short, like I said in late October, 2019, if you’ve read just one essay know it still means a great deal to me.
For those of you who are returning readers (aka mostly my friends) welcome!
For those of you who will have found this noodle-doodle of words because of the still mysterious algorithm, welcome!
For whoever comes across this site at a later date and is curious about how this Substack officially debuted (which I totally get because I also love digging through archives) hi!
Before we this wrap up, 3 things:
hypeadjacent is still a pixelated-idea exchange-center-hangout spot to explore fashion and culture in the digital age.
Newsletters will go out on Sundays with some bonus days once in a while. What’s to come will be different and the same but different from what it was, you know?
I’m still overusing em dashes—it is what it is.
Anyway, this was just a long winded way to extend a big, huge, warm thank you to all of you. I’m excited to be back.
Sign up to receive my first letter into the void next week!
I love your style, it's witty, it's fresh.. How do you make sure others discover your rumblings. I don't know!!! After I finished it, I thought for a second what was that about. Couldn't answer, good luck to the poor bot that's going to try understand..