In today's newsletter:

​— In "unscalable" brands we trust

— Turtlenecks of various lengths

— First jabs at fall outerwear

— Cold-weather clogs

FIXATION OF THE WEEK

“Slow news week” usually means there’s a disappointing dearth of events worth reporting on. But in Shopper-world,  a slow news week offers the chance to compose a state-of-shopping dispatch of various scooplets on our current fragmented climate of consumption. Walk with me now.

Let’s start with COS’ viral Rodeo-purse lookalike. A spitting image of the Balenciaga original, the slouchy “Trullo Flap Bag” recently invaded every last one of my feeds. Hopelessly sold out on the brand's own webstore, the dupe is all over resale sites, selling at markups of up to 100%. Priced at €249 (roughly $300), I see it going on Vinted for double that. While that's only about a tenth of what Balenciaga's would set you back by, it's still no small cost for a polyester-lined high street accessory, pretty as it may be. Whether the bag was engineered to cause a craze or simply an instance of “right dupe, right time,” its apparent scarcity has now made it, ironically, a premium product. 

It's classic trend mechanics in action — a mass-appeal brand pulling from the playbook of a more niche player. (Lately, we're even seeing a lot of these brands branching off into more IYKYK-esque "spin-offs," such as Lefties, which is Zara's comp for Uniqlo's youthfully faddy sibling GU.) There’s clearly a contradiction between fashion's big brands and the modern customer's much-articulated desire for the hyper-specific, “kind of chic,” or “tasteful” (yet not too played-out). These consumers want the cool, accessible thing that isn’t so accessible that everyone else already has it, much to many a global corporation's chagrin.  

As a result, the brands that are winning favor right now are the ones that still seem “limited run” or “indie" at heart. Take, as an example, contemporary menswear's most revered names: the Auralees, Sssteins, and Mfpens of the scene who have been in business for a decade plus now, but are being talked about today with giddy awe and reverence. 

Of course, hotness and commercial viability don't always beget one another though. In women's, Victoria Beckham shared that her company is profitable for the first time in 15 years since launching. Even Phoebe Philo's eponymous label is yet to break even (or disclose as much) — it’s  a young venture still, sure, but for someone with a vise-tight hold over the fashion industry and such a roster of in-crowd folks to outfit, you'd think the popular former Celine designer would have cashed in by now. 

Still, factor in Dior-alum Kris Van Assche's namesake rising from the ashes as a deadstock small batch production, or Emily Dawn Long's unique grip on guys’ closets, and you've got yourself a bunch of would've-been-terrible startup pitches that make an argument for how scale is sus, and that to be (perceived as) big, known, and everywhere is… kind of not chic, actually. It's symptomatic of the same cultural shift that made offlineness aspirational, high follower counts embarrassing, and “sober-curiousity” a meme-ified expression people use to say they've cut back on but not totally eliminated alcohol from their diet.

As we slowly leave behind this era of objectively stylish — if boring and sometimes tastesloppy — clothes, in which an untrained eye might confuse Massimo Dutti for The Row, we're (re-)entering an epoch that favors true copy-resistant personality. You can already see it on recent runways, in freshly-crowned LVMH prize winner Julie Kegels, and in the rumblings of this incoming Fashion Month: statement details that determine whether one wears a garment versus truly owning it in every sense. The discernment will be revealed in the specifics: the jewelry, the belts, the composition of items old and new, cheap and expensive; in the model's ring stacks and the maker's tiny design idiosyncrasies that fast fashion players have a harder time imitating. And what happens then, when consumers who've spent years studying what to buy are suddenly required to learn how to dress? TikTok-taught minimalism gave them guardrails. Personality-maxxing, however, requires judgement.

EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT OUR EYES ON RIGHT NOW:

ICYMI, Alpha Industries’ signature bomber comes in a supple brown leather iteration (and it's on sale!).

I've been testing this rainproof Peak Performance shell. So far I can say I'm a fan.

And in other outerwear news, Barbour x Paul Smith introduced round three of their collab. Its highlight wax jacket comes right on time to ring in fall.

If you're not quite there yet, worry not, Save Khaki United's American-made corduroy harringtons are great to throw over on these last nights of summer, ahead of Pumpkin Spiced Latte season.  

Who let the clogs out?! SOREL did, and these are actually perfectly suited to withstand the cooler days ahead. 

Meanwhile, even the most passionate of open-toe apologists will soon have to let the dogs back in, so to speak. Prepare by picking up Los Angeles Apparel's multi-pack of colorful cotton socks.

Either shade of the above would work with what may just be my favorite sneaker-loafer-hybrid yet, courtesy of KEEN. 

The highly teased On x POST ARCHIVE FACTION running shoe team-up finally dropped, after rightfully converting my colleague from foe to fan.

Question for the chat: How do we feel about gray denim? I'm genuinely curious, because these silver AG jeans have got me feeling some type of way.

Everyone had strong opinions on J. Crew's tiny rollneck. Maybe better to stick to the silhouettes we know, eh? Or, at least that's what I'm doing, in opting for its navy-washed 1988 sweater.