Back in 2012, the American novelist
Kurt Andersen wrote a smart essay arguing
that the more things were changing, the
more they were staying the same. Plus
ça change and all that. His point, though,
was that while technology was driving
radical, transformative shifts, it was all
hidden behind the screen. Out in the real
world, the pace of change was juddering
to a halt. The cars, clothes, furniture,
architecture and cultural output of 2012
didn’t look or sound that different from
the way they looked and sounded in 1992.
Regular Wallpaper* readers, alerted on
a monthly basis to new design, architecture
and fashion, may beg to differ but
Andersen was on to something.
Where, for instance, are the aluminium
foil boiler suits we were all supposed to be
wearing by now? Send yourself back in time
20 years. Do you really look that different?
Different trainers maybe, skinnier jeans,
different current retro-revival. Pull that
person into the now and they might look
a little off, but not ridiculous. But imagine
sending someone from the mid-1970s back
to the mid-1950s, or vice versa? Now you’re
talking fancy dress. Do a similar experiment
with cars and the current stylistic slow-
down seems even more stark. Or take the
fact, as Andersen did, that most of us
still sit on ‘Aeron’ chairs. It’s as if, while
technology has disrupted and re-engineered
the way things are made, distributed and
consumed, the actual stuff hasn’t changedThis season’s silver boiler suit
Newsstand cover
Photography:
Brigitte Niedermair
Fashion:
Isabelle Kountoure
Top, £645; trousers,
£845; shoes, price on
request; dress, £2,365,
all by Balenciaga.
Boots, £1,210, by Saint
Laurent by Anthony
Vaccarello. For more
gender-bending
trends, see page 194Limited-edition cover
by Katrien De Blauwer
Artist Katrien De Blauwer
collaborated with
photographer Esther
Theaker and fashion
content director Isabelle
Kountoure on a series of
collaged works for our
fashion story on page 178
and our limited-edition
cover. See our interview
with her on page 192
Limited-edition covers are
available to subscribers,
see Wallpaper.com
Wallpaper* is printed
on UPM Star, upm.comat all. Perhaps, if digital change is so
dizzying, the safest thing to do is to stand
still and keep wearing the same trousers.
All this stasis, fear of innovation, Andersen
suggested, was a sign of mass exhaustion.
And the beginning of the end. We like to
strike a more optimistic note.
Ironically, Andersen argued – citing
the success of this magazine as evidence –
the more stylistic shift has stalled, the more
we have become obsessed with design. So
perhaps this slackening of pace is not born
of torpor but due care and consideration.
We take more care now about how things
are made. And brands are answering those
concerns (see our piece on Zegna’s new
Oasi Cashmere line, page 150). We care more
about futureproof functionality than the
quick fix (witness the rise of performance
wear, page 118). We are more resistant to
manipulative novelty and change for
change’s sake. There is an acknowledgment
that constant churn and disposability
comes at a cost. And if the demand for
instant gratification has never been greater,
that demand is increasingly for the
experiential hit. The smartest fashion
stores are using experiences to build loyalty
(see our feature on the Matchesfashion
store, page 134). We like to think that we,
and you, are not stalled, or lost in endless
nostalgic loops, but rather better informed,
more questioning and more savvy.
A tougher audience for tough times.
Nick Compton, Acting Editor Photography: Blade Kostas076 ∑
EDITOR’S LETTER
The future isn’t
what it used to be