How Does A Fashion Brand Go Cult?

Devout worship, regular pilgrimage and the occasional bout of unhealthy fanaticism – over centuries these were the hallmarks of religious worship, a uniting range of actions for followers of different sects from different continents. Today, however, they are often the actions of a group of people who have come to be pejoratively or affectionately, known as ‘hypebeasts.’ But rather than temples or churches, their pilgrimages are to retail Meccas such as London’s Dover Street Market or Supreme’s store on Lafayette Street in New York. Devout worship still exists, but despite the beard, long locks and devilish good looks, that’s actually Alex Olson – Supreme skater and designer of Bianca Chandon – that your boyfriend is currently Googling, not Jesus. Welcome to the post-internet world of streetwear and cult brands. But how exactly did we get here? Not every brand can develop a cult-like following in the manner that Supreme, London’s Palace, or Russian creative polymath Gosha Rubchinskiy has. In fact, these labels are very much an exception to the rule, prospering from a currency of cool that no marketing team or agency could fully recreate. Quite simply, it’s not what they do, but how they do it. Read more at Dazed.