A-COLD-WALL* Stops Selling Streetwear Because It's "Dead"

The word on the 'street', if that's not too much of a pun, is that street-wear is dead.  Everyone from fashion bloggers to Virgil Abloh has been saying, it, and now Samuel Ross, owner of A-COLD-WALL*, one of the major breakout brands of the last five years, has announced that he is pivoting his brand away from streetwear.  The question has to posed, why, and do we care?

The first part of this question is pretty formulaic.  The fact is that fashion is an ever-changing, ever-evolving beast.  the only way that businesses in that industry stay afloat is by constantly re-inventing themselves over and over.  The reason for this is simple, you don't need any of the things you are buying from fashion, lifestyle, and luxury brands.  Once you have a few items of clothing you can avoid the shame of public nudity, and prevent death from exposure, the fundamental reasons for wearing clothing. And one burlap sack is sufficient to carry all life's essentials.  But brands won't be making a billion dollars, or even close to it, if everyone bought clothing for the purpose of practicality alone.

So we are bombarded with newer and new designs, colours, and variations, to spark our primal desires, to fit in, to have something others don't.  But at some point, there isn't enough variety, and so we will stop consuming.  So when Virgil said "you can only have so many tees and hoodies", he means, "if we don't give consumers something other than tee's and hoodies we won't make money any more because they have enough of them".

That's the why, now, should we care?  That depends.  A-COLD-WALL* say on their site here they are a "maturing menswear brand", and will be "expanding it's reach in the wider luxury menswear sector".  As the risk of indulging in repetition, read this as "we want to keep making money, more if possible".

The new line-up doesn't really look very inspiring though.  We get the feeling Samuel Ross is attempting to stay ahead of the curve, but he doesn't know what is round the corner.  A brand like his was famous for it's avant-garde designs that managed to be both minimalist and daring.  His new collections look safe, and frankly a bit boring.

Head over for yourself and check them out, please consume of you disagree.  They are getting pricier too.  Just saying.