The Issue with Modern Day Lookbooks
In a culture where menswear revolves around snapping a good fit pic, it isn't surprising that lookbooks have gotten so boring.
A few weeks ago Sprezza posted this post about vintage J Crew lookbooks catalogs that pulled my attention more than it should have. Naturally, I had to share my (obviously extremely important) thoughts on the post:
I immediately started to dive into the lookbooks and ads from brands that are relevant today and a pattern began to emerge. The transition from print media to digital media did more than just expand our ability to see what else is out there, it also made ads and campaigns infinitely more boring.
Look at some of these J Crew ads from the 90’s/early 00’s. What do you notice? What’s the common trend?
They’re outside. They’re on boats. They’re carrying things. They’re surrounded by nature, or at least by the outdoors. It’s lively. They’re in motion! Now look at some of these photos from previous ALD lookbooks. What do you notice here?
Everything is inside. Like every single shot. Google ‘ALD Lookbook’ and every single image is a picture of someone (1) against a backdrop or (2) against a fully stylized set that’s made to look like someone’s swanky reading room. Everyone is posed. Everyone is stationary. There is no movement. The clothing is immaculately styled without any wrinkles being there organically; some stylist adjusted the model to make it look more alive and natural. Compare this to the outdoorsy ads from J Crew above and you start to see that there’s a really big change in how clothing is showcased and advertised to us.
What changed?
I have three thoughts, 2 are more objective and the last one is more of my own thoughts.
The slow death of print (and catalogs). Back in the 90’s and early 00’s, your best insight to a brand and their product was a quarterly catalog showcasing all the newest looks and products for the upcoming season. Whether J Crew or Abercrombie & Fitch or Ralph Lauren, these catalogs were no joke. The looks were perfectly chosen and stylized. The locations were unique and exciting — it usually was somewhere far away to advertise an adventurous lifestyle or somewhere nice and fancy to make you feel like you too could be rich one day. The campaigns were shot beautifully and the photos were processed and the catalog was laid out and the editors and designers went out of their way to make the products jump off of the page. There is nothing that compares to the catalog era of fashion. But that shifted and changed. Campaigns could now be shot quicker and more efficiently, and locally too. There was no need to fly out to a location for a shoot when a backdrop would work just fine. Why would you go through the headache of putting a book together if you could just upload the designs online? It feels like the death of print created a new issue where efficiency was prioritized over creativity. Rarely do you see a campaign released online that carries the same weight and excitement as some of these vintage ads did. They made you long to be a part of a fully immersive world, their world. I don’t know what any recent ads made me feel that way, except for…well, we’ll get there.
I want to be a part of late 90's / early 00's Ralph Lauren so bad. CAPITALISM BABY! I don’t know the exact costs, but the price to fly out a crew for a campaign in the jungle, along with models and support crew, and the clothing and the photographers and the equipment, and then the process fees for the photos and then the actual magazines…that is MONEY. I’m sure it still costs a bit to hire a good photographer and editor and stylist today, but a draped backdrop is infinitely cheaper than buying out an airline worth of flights for a catalog. I think the world is becoming so aware of how much $ matters to the corporate side of fashion. If money can be saved, it will be saved. In the worst cases it gets passed along to the consumers where the quality of the garments tanks slowly but surely. In the best case, the heads of the company made money by foregoing the big creative campaigns at the cost of creativity. (Which isn’t good, but at least we aren’t being directly affected by it?) It is upsetting to know that creativity doesn’t seem to matter as much as it used to, but at the same time I don’t think that most people care. Like as much as I miss the catalogs, a majority of people don’t. Which sucks. That also leads me to my third point…
In a digital / social media world, lookbooks are a reflection of the culture we’ve created. I was on the Throwing Fits subreddit today and saw this post:
The whole sub is 75% fit pics and showing off what ‘jawnz’ were purchased, hoping that you’ll be affirmed by other guys in the sub. It’s the strangest thing in the world. But in 2024 I do think that matters a lot — the fit pic interaction. The ‘here’s my ootd’ and the ‘get ready with me’ videos. It’s photos and videos of guys in their bedrooms or offices or work bathrooms showcasing what they’re wearing. I mean there’s a guy on the sub who brags about how many times he was reposted in the FRIDAY FITS post!!! It’s like the most important thing is to showcase this one (questionably) good outfit that you’re going to wear to sit on a comfortable office chair for 8 hours as you type away at an excel sheet.
This isn’t a critique of Throwing Fits. This is a critique of the fact that we’ve gotten to a point to where the fit pic reigns supreme above all. And then we look at what our current lookbook offerings are like and…
They aren’t fit pics. But they function the same way fit pics do: one outfit, posed and stylized in a stationary pose, highlighting the best parts of an outfit. It’s show and tell. It’s a deep desire to be affirmed by other people while inside and comfortable and protected from the outside world. The clothes are ironed, they aren’t dirty or worn; they’re crispy and clean and fresh out of the laundry, always. The rooms are clean and stylized with mid century modern lamps and a Virgil Abloh confutable book. There’s a nice chair with a nice blanket folded over it. It’s your room, but it’s also the ALD lookbook.
And it makes sense, doesn’t it? The same way that we used to want to have lives that reflected the J Crew or Ralph Lauren catalogs, now we want a life that reflects the Aime Leon Dore lookbook. We used to want to be outside and on a boat or driving a Land Rover in the snow or trekking through the forest, but now we want to exist in a nice living room filled with wood and candles and picture frames in an important city. We’ve always desired to live a life that reflects the brands that we admired, but it’s a shame that the desire has shifted so aggressively in the last 10-20 years. We went from wanting to be outdoors to wanting to stay indoors. We don’t wear jackets that stand against the frigid cold, we wear jackets that keep us just barely warm enough to walk from one bar to the next. We aren’t wearing boots that can survive a long day in the city and also a hike in the mountains, we wear boots that look like they can perform while being more appropriately built to stand on your feet for a concert than anything else.
Oh how the times have changed.
The good news is that some brands are still doing a great job of providing lookbooks and campaigns that are tuned to a more active way of living, or at least offering them in conjunction with the more item-focused, indoorsy photoshoots. Here are a few I like.
Drakes does a good job of balancing both types of lookbooks. I love their Perennials in New York campaign as a means to showcase their suiting and clothing for the fall on people who are significantly involved in building NYC. But if you click on their editorials section you’ll find what I consider to be much better lookbooks in the form of interviews and stories where the clothing is interwoven into the narrative, and is often shot in motion while someone is walking or working or doing something. Look at this editorial about their chore coats. You see the coats, you see them worn out and about, and you get a sense of “Oh I can wear this beyond my bedroom” and “Wow this coat might actually hold up to the wear and tear of life.” Shocking!
J Crew does a good job of highlighting both as well, although I genuinely think they shine best when they lean into campaigns that are aligned with the outdoors. For example, this Spring 2023 lookbook is…fine. Like just fine. But this Fall 2022 lookbook is incredible. It made me feel like I could also be wealthy and white and wandering though the New England coast. At the same time it does feel like they were told to be outside but not to touch any dirt. Like be outdoors but do not actually be outdoors. At least they tried. Hey, but their newest one with the olympic swim team is actually really cool. Looks like they were allowed to stand in the sand!!! That's huge!!!
Finally…and to much of the controversy around my unofficial beef* with JJJJound…I do enjoy their campaigns. They aren’t super easy to find but if you click on this link for the New Balance 990v3 or this one for…well, another New Balance 990v3, you’ll scroll down and see that their strategy is to give some product shots, but also lifestyle shots as well. They’re clearly staged too, but it’s much better than what most brands are doing out there right now. I think Justin’s campaigns are one of the brand’s strong points and I always love to see what they’re going to put out next.
I think the chances of big companies going and putting out truly good campaigns again are small and rare. But I do think it’s refreshing to see some brands trying to do it, even if on a smaller scale. In terms of the culture we’re a part of today, I think for as long as fit pics reign supreme brands won’t need to adjust their strategies for marketing and ads. If it’s a small minority of people who genuinely care enough to sit through them, and the majority are more focused on product shots, it makes sense to focus your energy on good clean product shots. Still…I can’t help but miss the catalogs of old. I always stop to swipe through every photo of an old catalog whenever it shoes up on my instagram feed. I’m sure a few of you feel the same way too.
For now, I think the best thing we can do is repost so many J Crew and Ralph Lauren catalogs on our feeds that these brands are forced to rethink their whole marketing strategies. Flood the feeds with these ads to the point where it’s all you can see online. It’s like a protest but infinitely less cool.
On the real, go outside and wear your clothing you loser. Get it dirty and take cool photos of you living life in what you wear, and stop with your mirror selfie fit pics. And if you absolutely cannot go on without posting a fittie, for heaven’s sake please clean your mirror bro, it’s disgusting and crusty and makes me wonder how dirty of a human you are. No wonder you’re still 31 and single.
*** = I do not have beef with JJJJound, I have beef with the JJJJound fan boys that cry whenever you say that the newest New Balance collab wasn’t actually that good.
Rivay, a very great menswear shop in Bedford, NY, just released their lookbook and it’s all outside and looks great!
I’ve been saying this. Great post!