{"id":63575,"date":"2018-03-29T13:42:15","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T11:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/?p=63575"},"modified":"2018-03-29T13:42:15","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T11:42:15","slug":"nan-goldin-supreme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/de\/article\/nan-goldin-supreme\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does Nan Goldin's Supreme Collab Actually Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The news came this week that seminal photographer, Nan Goldin, famed for her intimate and jarring ’80s portraits of the AIDs epidemic and life on the Lower East Side, has teamed up with streetwear giant Supreme for a skate-ready SS18 collection. Naturally, this was met with mixed emotions \u2014 silent internet cries of joy, despair and confusion that manifested in comments ranging from \u201cNEED!\u201d to \u201cWTF\u201d to \u201cI don\u2019t how to feel about this\u201d. But what are the implications, on both sides, of fashion\u2019s decision to capitalise on art with marginalised subjects at its core?<\/span>
\nAs cultural icons in their own right, both Goldin and Supreme are, by implication, attached to a string of powerful connotations that are hard to shake. There\u2019s an incongruity evident here from the get-go, forged more broadly from their positioning in two fundamentally distinct realms \u2014 on the one hand a brand, subservient to capitalism, on the other an artist, a slave to the pursuit of \u201cbeauty\u201d and \u201ctruth\u201d. And even on a less ideological, more intimate basis, one\u2019s a paradigm of millennial streetwear, the other a subversive art world icon. <\/span>
\n\"\"The most pertinent link between the two is location: New York, geographically, and the street, as a concept. Conceived in the \u201890s, James Jebbia\u2019s Supreme catered to downtown Manhattan skaters, and, as such, a distinct subculture who tied themselves to hip-hop, rock and alternative music. This original conception of Supreme firmly resonates with Nan Goldin\u2019s gritty portrayal of alternative Lower East Side street life, but streetwear has come a long way from the street. <\/span>
\nBacked by the uprising of Wavey Garms, hype beasts, high snobs and Insta influencers, streetwear has been co-opted by the mainstream, and with it, Supreme\u2019s subcultural brand identity has faded. What was once a beacon of youth culture, an exclusive \u201cclub\u201d to which alternative kids belonged, and a signifier of taste, is now the pinnacle of streetwear\u2019s new conception. Supreme is the leader in a changing streetwear model that\u2019s become more about creating hype than producing good products, and it\u2019s a trend that\u2019s paved the way for developments across the whole fashion industry. Virgil Abloh\u2019s recent appointment as Louis Vuitton\u2019s Creative Director is a move which sees haute couture taking cues from streetwear. \u201cHigh fashion has seen the success of Supreme’s game\u201d, The Fashion Law wrote on Tuesday, \u201ccreate excitement and maintain it all costs”. By drumming up hype through high prices, exclusive releases and influential backing, Supreme is no longer coveted for its cultural value, but for its prestige. <\/span>
\nhttps:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BgyeuLhlXth\/?hl=en&taken-by=thefashionlaw
\nIt\u2019s this changing role of streetwear that intensifies the incongruity between brands like Supreme and artists like Goldin, not least because of the profound change in its demographic. Supreme\u2019s streetwear disciples are literally that \u2014 global cop-til-you-drop teens who\u2019ll do anything to show their affinity to the brand. Decking themselves in visibly branded apparel is a conscious effort to self-trademark \u2014 to be affiliated with a label and its connotations \u2014 and Supreme\u2019s Barbara Kruger-inspired logo is about as distinctive as fashion branding gets. Its connotations are tied to streetwear status. And that\u2019s fine. It\u2019s a perfectly legitimate reason to buy clothes, but it means that those who wish to rid themselves of such associations have stopped wearing Supreme. It\u2019s no longer a brand worn by trend-setters, but followers, and one which now seems totally out of place on any self-respecting adult over 25, better suited to lost teens seeking cool status at any cost (or $200 for a resale T-shirt). <\/span>
\nSo why Nan Goldin? How do her raw depictions of human sexuality and the intricacies of gender fit to a brand associated with a cool-hungry herd of (pre)pubescent boys as desperate as they are <\/span>politically unaware<\/span><\/a>? It\u2019s not about Nan Goldin herself \u2014 it\u2019s one thing having an artist\u2019s work on a t-shirt, but when that work is portraiture, it necessarily implicates its subjects. Goldin\u2019s photographs depict junkies, AIDS sufferers, drag queens, queer and trans communities, misfits by anyone\u2019s definition, while Supreme\u2019s wearers occupy a male-dominated, conformist mainstream. Maybe this is an example of ultimate trolling \u2014 Supreme, fed up with their fuckboy fanbase, force an education upon them that\u2019s not only artistic, but also woke. Or maybe it\u2019s just a desperate attempt to regain some of the alternative street-cred it\u2019s lost along the way.<\/span>
\n\"\"Whatever the case, it\u2019s perturbingly reminiscent of fashion\u2019s complicated history of appropriating the alternative. It\u2019s a flashback to Nirvana hoodies worn by people who couldn\u2019t name one of the the grunge pioneer\u2019s songs, or those kids who didn\u2019t know that that \u201csick\u201d graphic on their t-shirt was in fact the cover of a Joy Division album. It raises a question of cultural value, when appropriation becomes devoid of meaning. When Nan Goldin\u2019s work is viewed in an exhibition context or a photobook it is contextualised and its significance explained. So do Supreme have an obligation to retain the work\u2019s cultural and sociological value? Is it irresponsible to reduce Goldin\u2019s art to a mere must-cop wardrobe staple? <\/span>
\nLest we forget Kendall and Kylie\u2019s ill-thought out decision to plaster their faces over classic band t-shirts, leading to public outcry. \u201cThe most iconic album of all time and its legacy decimated in seconds\u201d read one Twitter fury. \u201cI didn’t get bullied for 12 years for listening to rock just for Kendall Jenner to wear a Metallica shirt and suddenly make it cool\u201d read another. There\u2019s an understandable contempt and bitterness from those who deem their appreciation as genuine, and it\u2019s something that\u2019s often snubbed as pretension. There\u2019s a smug glee in knowing something before everyone else did, yes, but there\u2019s a bigger issue at play here, and it\u2019s about respect. <\/span>
\nBut Goldin\u2019s not worried about teenage boys disrespecting her art and she sees reaching out to a new generation as a positive step. \u201cI did this for the kids,\u201d she told Vogue, \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to seeing teenagers skating on my images and wearing them. To my mind, people have become so conservative, especially the millennials \u2013 it\u2019s like the 1960s never happened \u2013 so I like the idea of them being exposed to my real world.\u201d <\/span>
\nThough they can\u2019t ensure it\u2019s fully appreciated, as dictators of what\u2019s dope (at least for its followers) Supreme is, undeniably, exposing a new generation to Nan Goldin. And it\u2019s probable that this move will birth some genuine Goldin fandom, just as Sonic Youth fans latched onto Gerhard Ritcher, and <\/span>that Consolidated cover<\/span><\/a> earned Barbara Kruger a following from a new niche. And it just might reignite a flame for other culturally significant artists from a bygone era, too. <\/span>
\n\"\"The uproar induced by collaborations of this kind are almost always tied to the notion of \u201cselling-out\u201d, and Supreme x Nan Goldin is no exception. Payouts are fundamentally out of line with the enduring ideology of the struggling artist, whereby integrity becomes its own kind of morality, and money is seen as dirty. This view is tired, not to mention at odds with the entire structure of the art market, but there\u2019s still a line between unwarranted greed and artistic integrity, and it\u2019s hard to ascertain when that\u2019s been crossed. For works such as Goldin\u2019s, which offer such powerful insight into marginalised subcultures, there\u2019s bound to be outcry when their cultural significance is at stake. It\u2019s hard to back any project where art is being knowingly undermined, and there\u2019ll be some who, despite Goldin\u2019s willing participation, think this is one of those times.<\/span>
\nAt the end of the day, Supreme x Nan Goldin is a mutually beneficial partnership \u2014 one that sees Supreme desperately seeking to regain their lost underground reputation by synonymising with Goldin\u2019s misfit subjects, and Goldin conforming to the streetwear model, using Supreme to generate hype. We just hope that it inspires some meaningful engagement in the process.<\/span>
\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The SS18 collab drops today, but what are the cultural implications of this unlikely pairing?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11856,81,139],"tags":[5306,1399,7097,1421,567,7879,10435,1271,4104,7658],"class_list":["post-63575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sleek-art","category-fashion","category-art","tag-90s","tag-80s","tag-appropriation","tag-collaboration","tag-nan-goldin","tag-skate","tag-skate-culture","tag-subculture","tag-supreme","tag-youth-culture"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\nWhat Does Nan Goldin's Supreme Collab Actually Mean? 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