Revenge of the freaks: how nu metal took over the world By Dai Link https: www. loudersound.com/features/revenge-of-the-freaks-how-nu-metal-took-aver-the-world ley (Metal Hammer) June 25, 2016 Thanks to Korn, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot, nu metal was the sound of the late 90s. Fred Durst and Coal Chamber's Dez Fafara look back at how the lunatics took over the asylum (mage credit Kevin Winter/Getty Images) On October 27, 1995, a rising band from Bakersfield, California, played their first British gig at London's LA2 club. Their self-titled debut album had caused a minor stir among the country’s, more clued-up rock fans, 800 of whom were here tonight. The band's name was Kam, and if they weren't an entirely unknown quantity, then they were certainly dark horses. Quite literally in the case of singer Jonathan Davis, a former mortuary assistant who whispered, gibbered and shrieked his way through a set of songs about insecurity, twisted sexuality and child abuse Kor sounded like little that had come before. They took the pumped up rap-metal of Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine and the Red Hot Chill Peppers and twisted it intounrecagnisable shapes. Guitars were downtuned, lyrics were painted several shades of nasty, and they even busted out a set of bagpipes at one point during their set. For the 800 people in the LA2, this was the sound of tomarraw. Within two, the scene Korn had spearheaded would be the biggest noise in rock. The bands that came in their wake were an unholy collection of misfits, weirdoes and dead animal-hutfing madmen. This movement would soon be branded nu-metal. It was the sound of the lunatics taking over the asylum. Los Angeles was dead in the early 90s. Hair metal had gasped its last, Aquanet-choked breath, and the snooty grunge hipsters who had stepped into the breach wouldn't be seen dead on the Sunset Strip. Instead it was left to a bunch of local bands to build something from the ground up. (One of these bands was Coal Chamber, whose singer Dez Fafara— son of farmer child actor Tiger Fatara —was a fan of punk rock and 80s synth-pop. When Fafara started Coal Chamber in 1994, they played standard-issue alt-rock. It was only when they decided to down-tune their guitars that they noticed other bands doing a similar thing, Nowhere was that gang mentality stronger than on the Ozzfest. Founded in 1996 as a one day festival-cum-mini tour held in three different cities, by the following year it had become a hugely successful traveling circus, and a lightning rod for freaks and weirdoes onstage and of. The out-of-the-box success of Ozzfest spawned a rash of similar multi-band tours, most notably Korn's Family Values extravaganza, which kicked off in 1998. Limp Bizkit played bath events, and played a key role in the burgeoning hedonism that marked the start of nu-metal’s imperial phase. In the wake of Ozzfest and Family Values, the floodgates broke. Nu-metal became a truly mainstream proposition. Karn’s Follow The Leader and Limp Bizkit's Significant Other were huge global hits, paving the way for a new wave of bands to ride their coattails. There was Static-X fram Chicago, whose singer, the late Wayne Static, sported a hairstyle that resembled the result of a bizarre electrical accident. There was Orgy, a bunch of eyeliner-sporting hair metal refugees who came on like Duran Duran in leather onesies. There was Snot, Human Waste Project, Videodrone, Adema and countless ather long forgotten outfits. all with their own ‘crazy’ shtick, all cranking the dial up to ‘weirdo’ In 2000, Linkin Park released their debut album, Hybrid Theory. It was an instant success, selling 5 million copies in 12 months (sales eventually exceeded 10 million). Linkin Park sounded like a nu-metal band, but looked like a boy band. They didn't swear, they didnt drink, and they certainly didn't shave strawberries up anybody's arse. The downside af its success was that it raised expectations to unrealistic levels, sucking the oxygen aut of the roam and leaving everyone else gasping for air. A band like Coal Chamber,who looked and sounded like an explosion in a nail factory, stood no chance in this new, hyper-commercial climate. Over the next few years, nu-metal became a dirty word. Some bands ploughed on regardless (Korn, Limp Bizkit), some bands wisely ducked out (System Of A Down), some reinvented themselves as more straight-ahead rock'n'roll bands (latecomers-to-the-party Papa Roach). Some, such as Slipknot, even managed to remain on an upward trajectory, though they were firmly in the minority VETEMENTS: FALL 2016 READY-TO-WEAR COLLECTIONLink: httos://www_voque.com/fashion-shows/fall-2016-ready-to-wear/vetements/slideshow/call ection#9SUCCESS LIES IN THE SHADOWS: THE STORY BEHIND VETEMENTS Link: https://sgranary.com /interviews/designers/vetements/ The Paris-based brand Vetements has experienced a massive growth ever since we first met the head designer Demna Gvasalia in Paris, where he was presenting the collective's clothes to the jury members of the LVMH Prize for which they were shortlisted, in the showroom on Rue de Montaigne. On day 1, their AWa5 collection could not be photographed, because during the very next day they showed it in nightclub Le Depot for a packed audience. Since then, their amount of stockists has nearly doubled — from 46 they have gone up 80 stores, and their initial 8-man team grew to 13 (which is, as it turns out, Demna’s lucky number) — spread out over creation, research, prototypes, product development, production, and sales. The brand shows no signs of slowing. When we talked over the phone, Demna was actually on the hunt for anew studio to sustain that growth, as three people are sharing his table at the moment. Demna Gvasalia — the seemingly public face of the brand — studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Antwerp and worked as senior womenswear designer for the rather non-communicative brand Maison Martin Margiela. Vetements in turn seems to get a lot of comparisons with the press approach of the maison Demna initially worked for, as they prefer to be in the background and let the product speak. Is that comparison rooted in truth? “It wasn’t really something we wanted to do on purpose, by concept. We're just trying not to be employed against our own character and do things that we don't like to do. So, there's no concept behind it at all.” Studying at Antwerp’s Academy, Demna says, was very much disconnected from the reality of fashion, so he did not have information on how to create a brand. “Idefinitely knew that Id have to learn how it works — to learn from sither mistakes or other things that you learn while working for other brands. Iwanted to do it, but Iknew Ineeded time to gather it all.” All of the friends on the Vetements team were initially working for established houses, but needed ‘some kind of creative expression’, and got together during the evening times to slowly build a core. They wanted to dress their friends in “something that wasn't necessarily shown in fashion magazines, but just the kind of clothes that wouldn't be defined on the market. The certain attitude and style was the reason we started to serve that niche on the market. We saw there was a demand for our clothes and then it became areal, commercial project. At the beginning it was really enchanting for us to be creatively happy.”When it in tum became a real project, they soon gained popularity and the LVMH Prize nominations came knocking on the door. With all the exposure they have recently experienced —and the growth that comes with it — their biggest challenge is to physically keep up with the production, even if they now have 13 people on board. “It's still a very small production structure and every day the challenge is to find out how to get things done in the right way within the timeframe that we have. It’s crazy! [laughs].” Demna believes that ensuring the production eyele is the number one challenge for any young brand. It seems to be the case. When asking other LVMH Prize nominees during the judging days in March what they would spend the Prize’s money on, many noted: ‘growing the team, making sure production is perfect’. “It’s a problem,” Demna says, “because when you're so young it’s quite hard to approach factories, you know. We've always been on the end of the list with all the heaviest suppliers, so first come the leaders and then we're supposed to deliver on time.” Is it actually possible for a young brand to have a structured plan when business can easily accelerate in a short period of time? The aim is not to earn as much money as fast as possible, Demna explains, but to establish a stable client base and to keep them. happy with what they buy. “But for this, of course, you need to have some kind of strategy.” Reflecting on their own business-progress, Vetements is doing fine at this point, hoping to keep things on a high level without going too fast; avoiding the demand that they will not be able to meet. Vetements is a brand that can be classified as ‘cool’, but how important is hype for them? “Everything is immediately available on the Internet and then people talk about it. It definitely helps on any level, but it's not something that we really push for or that we think is necessary for a brand in its development stages. Ithink staying cool is more like being independent from that, and we're following our intuition on what's good.” And what they're doing, is pretty much that. They maintain a product-oriented ethos, and think about the person who will actually buy the clothes, not the buyer who will come to the showroom. “Everything's for sale. Our approach is to make a product that you would want to have and wear. admire and enormously respect that kind of fashion. when you just kind of want to look at it, but with us it's not really about that.” Their research largely consists out of information from the Internet —a lot is directly pulled from social media like Facebook, and Demna says there is lots of sociological research involved — what's most important for themis the dialogue with their friends who wear the collection, while smoking cigarettes and listening to music. They knowtheir customer by heart, and as a point of advice for all young students, Demna says: “the key is to know that the product that you make is needed by someone. The market is oversaturated, that’s for sure. Is all about following your heart. Especially in Paris, everything's so complicated here, but if you're really believing in something and someone neads that —it works! However, you can never predict the result. There's alot of space today for newbies to come out. Paris is very corporate, it’s all about the big houses. People have interest in something else and different.”Vetememes Is the Internet's Answer to Vetements Link: https:/ /www.vogue.com/article/vetememes-vetements-internet-parod, [= J be poe ey Mara pas Correos coe Part of the genius of Demna Gvasalia’s Vetements is its appropriation and refinement of mass culture into tongue-in-cheek garments. First there was the Thrasher logo—turned_Vetements logo of Fall 2015. Then came the Titanichoodle of Spring 2016, only to be tapped by the Justin Bleber—gloritying #ustindever sweatshirt of Fall 2016. When such pap appropriations happen on the runway, we call it fashion, but when it happens on the Internet, well, we call ita meme. It seems Vetements just got the meme treatment Without ceremony, a website purportedly selling Vetements-inspired merchandise appeared online earlier today, with the unforgettable and slightly genius name Vetememes. A Four Pins tweet introduced it to the world, and since then fashion fans have been trying to get to the bottom of this Vetememes mystery. Though hosted by Big Cartel, an e-commerce website, the \Vetememes store doesn't actually allow you to buy anything—it only mentions a preorder—and the photo showing off its knockoff wares is a Photoshopped version of a street style pic taken by photographer Julien Boudet in Paris during the Spring 2016 shows. Should the item ever actually go on sale, it promises a price of just $59Brands To Know: Vetememes & Boolenciaga Link: https:/ /www.tsingapore.com/article/brands-to-know-vetememes-boolenciaga end ar a3"| just got tired of seeing the Vetements raincoats in street style [pictures] at the time. It was very prevalent in every single street style [website]. It became a meme to me,” 23-year-old Davil Tran recalls Then came Veternemes which Tran launched in March 2016. As soon as his "Yetememes" logo emblazoned raincoats hit the street style circuit two weeks later, it triggered a questioning in the wider fashion industry. Publications started criticising the seemingly literal and capitalist ways of Vetements' logo-jacking phenomenon. Founder of ManRepeller.com, Leandra Medine promptly wrote a lengthy antithesis titled, "Confession: | Don't Get Vetements — Do you?" Later, The Fashion Law published an article outlining the possible legal backlash to Vetememes. But Vetememes was well-received, and it continues to be. Take a look at their website and you'll find a majority of the items sald out. "People were really supportive and loved the idea. A lot of people thought it was going to get shut down.... The New York Times reached out to Demna and asked what he thought about it, and if they were going to sue, Demna told them they were very supportive of my little project and wished me the best. | love Demna," Tran adds. Tran's parody was not out to diss the Vetements phenomenon but is in praise of Demna Gvasalia's refreshing outlook on fashion. “I get what Demna is trying to do and it's honestly the greatest. It's wonderful and [a] welcomed change to the fashion industry." To Tran, Vetements is more than "hoodies and graphic tees for crazy high prices" Gvasalia and company are about breaking out of conventions and challenging the status quo of high fashion With Gvasalia's appointment and collections at Balenciaga, Tran thinks it follows the same train, only "Balenciaga is more refined [in my opinion]." This June, Tran launched Boolenciaga in response ‘Tran maintains he's not a designer, "I'm just an internet troll.”What is a Meme? Link: http://www lifewire,com/what-is-a-meme-2483702 az a “or MAT aC IT A UNAM CLA A meme is a virally-transmitted photograph that is embellished with text that pokes fun ata cultural symbol or social idea The majority of modern memes are captioned photos that are intended to be funny, often as a way to publicly ridicule human behavior. Other memes can be videos and verbal expressions. Some memes have heavier and more philosophical content. The world of memes (which rhymes with ‘teams’) is noteworthy for two reasons: itis a worldwide social phenomenon, and memes behave like a mass of infectious flu and cold viruses, traveling fram person to person quickly through social media According to Cecil Adams of StraightDope.com, the concept of memes “is either really deep or really, really obvious."HANSEL « GRETEL sels reel WITCH -HANSEL AND GRETEL HANSEL AND GRETEL HANSEL AND GRETHL HANSEL AND GRETEL HANSEL ANDGRETEL HANSEL AND GRETEL HANSEL AND GRETEL HAUSEL HUD GREFEL an OP] my Uy \yt TUMBRF UT NERTRST HANSEL AND GRETEL EDAD REE HANSEL AND GRETEL HANSEL AND GRETEL HANSEL AND GRETEL OU SEL AMO GRETEL HANSEL AND GEE TEL WENISE, cH GRE HANSEL AND GRETEL HANSEL AND GRETEL HANSEL AND GRETEL