EN / 中文
Image by Reflex Paris - Midjourney
Influence has unmoored itself from institutions. Editorial nods, runway access, front-row visibility still carry weight, yet no longer spark cultural fire on their own. The momentum lives elsewhere: in scene-driven studios, subcultural factions, and collectives whose value is measured in resonance. They create their own gravity, drawing institutions into orbit.
Overall, cool moves like weather: hyperlocal, ambient, sometimes untraceable.
Who influences whom?
Power no longer cascades down a single hierarchy; it circulates across networks. The celebrity is one figure among many, positioned within a constellation that continually reconfigures itself. Influence emerges in the feedback between brand, scene, and community, without fixed points of control.
Martine Rose and Gabriel Moses navigate this space with mastery. They channel the textures of underground culture through mass platforms while preserving the integrity of their origins. They operate with the same precision: an imagery steeped in myth, memory, and diaspora.
Why physical culture still matters
The feed is fast and frictionless, but it leaves little trace. We are noticing the drift toward “non-things,” where objects lose memory and weight as they dissolve into content. Constant visibility consumes mystery. In this environment, matter returns with urgency.
Zines. Warehouse screenings. Scent-based installations. Vinyl-only releases. Each restores presence where digital repetition erodes it.
Those still working in tangible form provide more than resistance: they restore cultural density.
The sharpest names root themselves in moments too alive to trademark. Don’t hold the megaphone, but shape the hush before the noise.
