Molly Fisher
Staff writer
September, the traditional harvest season! Of course, I’m thinking of fashion magazines. They used to welcome autumn with a lot of advertising: fashion magazine The September Issue was once so generous that it inspired a film – RJ Cutler’s 2009 documentary “The September Issue.” Now that advertisers have turned to the Internet, magazines have become more streamlined.
Eckhaus Latta, Spring/Summer 2024.Photography: Giovanni Giannini/WWD/Getty
Two books released this fall explore the evolution of social commerce over the past decade or so, both of which I will review in next week’s issue on Monday. “Extremely online” Author Taylor Lorenz breaks down the many ways influencers and other online content creators can make a living. “Fashion was one of the first industries to recognize the usefulness of bloggers and social media power users,” Lorenz points out. Back in 2009, Tavi Gevinson—a 13-year-old fashion prodigy with a blog called Style Rookie—was a novelty on the front row of New York Fashion Week. But even as some magazine editors resented the Internet interlopers, brands and retailers were quick to recognize their commercial potential and, more broadly, the potential of having so many iPhones on stage. Fashion week has quickly become a social media event. Now, the observers best equipped to understand this shift have managed to participate in the buzzing online scene while keeping it rooted in history; fashion writers Rachel Tashjian and Emilia Petrarca are two of my favorites.
“smooth,” Author: Marisa Meltzer provides a case study of brands in the age of Instagram. It tells the story of Glossier, a beauty company founded in 2014 by Emily Weiss. When the collection first appeared, the attitude and aesthetic displayed by Weiss and her team easily overshadowed the product itself. The brand’s style—effortless, pale pink—eventually became synonymous with Instagram. Lorenz’s book focuses on paid influencers who make a living from ads and sponsored content; Meltzer notes that Glossier initially relied on an unpaid group of fans who tagged the brand in selfies and posted photos of its stores. Either way, the result is an online landscape of brands posting like people, and people posting like brands—a constant cacophony of hype.
spotlight
Photography: Erin Baiano
dance
In 1948, the newly started new york city ballet Establish a foothold and become a fixture in the city center. Until then, Lincoln Kirstein’s vision for a theater company centered on the works of George Balanchine seemed uncertain. Seventy-five years later, the company is still going strong. The autumn season features 19 ballets dedicated to Balanchine; it begins with the three-act “The Jewels” (1967), with music by Fauré, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky. Other performances include Serenade (pictured), the opening program of NYCB’s first season downtown, showcasing the range of Mr. B.’s playing: the rigor of the Baroque Concerto, the emotional depth of Orpheus and the emotional depth of Orpheus. The brightness of “Symphony in C Major”——Marina Haas (David H. Koch Theatre, September 19-October 15.)
About the town
podcast
Like its parody-hero title, the compelling new Spotify podcast “Fifth Commando” To the sound of mock solemn thunder, a shiver ran through the Hall of Justice’s Super Friends: five late-night TV hosts – Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers Si and John Oliver – banded together to do good, raise funds for show staff during the ongoing WGA strike, and enjoy the glory that comes with it. It’s an affable, loosely structured chat in which their personal dynamics – mutual respect, liberal havoc – provide some intrigue as they improvise on strike-era news coverage that they sadly missed News reports (Trump’s three indictments, the legend of Prigozhin, a terribly slow Somali sprinter), showbiz anecdotes exchanged, and the occasional discussion of the significance of the strike.Sarah Larson
classical music
Franz Schubert composed hundreds of art songs before his death at the age of thirty-one. The final composition, collected and published posthumously as “Swan Song”, is based on archetypes of romantic passion: red roses, treetops rustling in the moonlight, Atlas bowing beneath a world of sorrow. German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, known for his gorgeous voice, performs these pieces together with his skilled accompanist Helmut Deutsch. Is the music enough? “Dual personality,” A new stage version – directed by Klaus Guth and billed as “part performance, part installation” – adds narrative to the eponymous ending (a fallen soldier sees his own ghost ), and enriches Schubert’s songs with video projections and soundscapes composed by Matisse Nitschke. Romance is not dead yet. ——Fergus McIntosh (Park Avenue Armory Training Hall; Sept. 22-28.)
house music
Photo by Pedro Ridvan
Over the past few years, Afropop has been permeated by the sounds of amapiano, a subgenre of house music born in South Africa that is characterized by bouncy, percussive digital basses known as log drums. Swaziland-born DJ and producer Lungelihle Zwane is one of amapiano’s quintessential practitioners and perhaps its greatest ambassador. Uncle Waffles; Since 2021, she’s been spreading the gospel internationally, getting signal boosts from Drake and Beyoncé in the process. The two EPs she released this year — March’s “Asylum” and August’s “Solace” — showcase her style as a mood setter, with tracks ranging from shuffling dancefloor dancers to softer, more R .&B. Adjacent slowdown. In either state, her rhythms are so infectious that even she can’t resist dancing.Sheldon Pierce (Before Gardner; September 22.)
television
Misery is the only company most wanted on Hulu “This fool,” A hilariously raunchy comedy about the tension between blacks and Latinos that delves into depression and its absurdities. In the first season, Julio (Chris Estrada) is a case manager at a Los Angeles nonprofit called Hugs Not Thugs, run by the righteous but unhinged Minister Payne (Michael Imperioli), an organization that helps former gang members reintegrate into society. Julio moves in with his cousin Luis (Frankie Quinones), who has just been released from prison. In its looser and more experimental new season, Hugs Ain’t a Thug has flopped, with the men arguing over who’s more unhappy – starting some competition with the slutty Secretary Payne. When Julio opens a coffee shop called “Mugs Not Thugs” run by an ex-felon, it reactivates his savior complex, Luis’ subconscious defensiveness, and Secretary Payne’s desire for redemption.Kangyingke
Movie
