{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","title":"Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism  The Value of Selection, Narration, and Expertise in New Media Cultures","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781032023007","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","id":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","uuid":"d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","title":"Curation in the Age of Platform Capitalism  The Value of Selection, Narration, and Expertise in New Media Cultures","normalized_title":"curationintheageofplatformcapitalismthevalueofselectionnarrationandexpertiseinnewmediacultures","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781032023007","isbns":["9781032023007","9781032023014","9781003182801"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":177,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Curation%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20Platform%20Capitalism%20%20The%20Value%20of%20Selection%2C%20Narration%2C%20and%20Expertise%20in%20New%20Media%20Cultures","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/d1c31cd8-6afd-4ea5-b7b0-085c26a4e406/search"},"page":{"printed_page":93,"pdf_page":103,"physical_index":103,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"1143ac7cb38a26634453e5e71a73dbf495669466d4fc02cb80243c94be80324d"},"chapter":"CURATION IN THE AGE OF PLATFORM CAPITALISM","content":"Vetements tights cost several times more than the average monthly salary. In this sense, while the selfie trope aims to build intimacy with the audience this is a pseudo-intimacy, or a “cold intimacy”, to use the term of Illouz in another context (2013), as the intimate relationality that the brand cultivates stumbles over the inequal distribution of resources in society.\n\nThe Instagram selfie is part of Vetements performance of banality that spans from their social media accounts to actual apparel creations. The idea here, reminiscent again of Duchamp, is to turn ordinariness into a cult object, to render its boringness and repeatability into a desirable fetish. Luxury fashion is, of course, first and foremost an extremely profitable business, and therefore this gesture, contrary to the one by Duchamp, is dictated by the profit motive. The gesture has to arouse the feeling of desirability in networks of industry professionals, rich buyers, and the luxury fashion public alike, convincing them that it is worth spending time, money, and attention on the brand.\n\n4.5 Poor Chic, the Security Uniform, and the Damaged Sneakers\n\nThe first widely popularized banality of Vetements was their collaboration with DHL, in which, similarly to the examples above, they marketed a common yellow and red DHL t-shirt as luxury fashion in 2016. This DHL t-shirt cost around \\$200 at its release in stores, and now its price is rising on reseller platforms as it became a collector’s item (creating artificial scarcity is very important for Vetements strategy and vision). In October 2021, Vetements pushed banality further by launching a new hoodie called “Okhrana” in collaboration with the online concept store SVMoscow (which after the invasion of Ukraine was renamed to “S77”). The hoodie was a simple all-black hoodie with the yellow logo Okhrana (охрана) printed on it, which is “Security” in Russian. The term is loaded with references to the Russian security and police apparatus, known for their brutal methods. For instance, okhrana was the name of the notorious tsarist secret police that used falsification and torture against political opponents, especially leftists and Jews. Apart from the signification with the tsarist police, the word okhrana in contemporary Russia is printed in the uniforms of security personnel that guard public buildings (it is this uniform that Vetements copied). These security personnel are paid little and come from working class backgrounds. Furthermore, the word okhrana bears references to state discourse, whether as the provision of security or as prohibition and unfreedom, and at least in popular parlance, it is the radical other of contemporary fashion, which supposedly celebrates the values of freedom, individuality, and expressiveness. In the context of growing authoritarianism and censorship, okhrana comes to signify the more repressive and lumpenproletariat elements of Russian society that would unquestionably embody the conservative values of the state discourse (without of course meaning that all security personnel individually share these values).\n\nAtmospheres of Banal Luxury in Digital Warhol Economies\n\n93","previous_page":92,"next_page":94}