What do you think about the current streetwear scene in France and Europe in comparison to the US market?

We just rebuilt streetwear; we just turned a new page like two years ago with the new streetwear. I think today we have three totally different streetwear markets. You have European streetwear, US streetwear and Asian streetwear. In Europe, today, streetwear is dead in some ways. It doesn’t really exist. It’s the beginning of the new generation. You have a few clients that know the brands from the US and Asia, but not so many. You can see the difference from five years ago when streetwear in France was so big, with so many European brands. Today all the European brands are dead. No one is really strong anymore. So it’s the beginning of something new. In the US it’s exactly the same as it was two years ago. It started to be really big, and a year ago streetwear became really big. Two years ago it was really hiphop. But now with Bathing Ape and Pharell, with the new store in New York, everything exploded. Everything changed because of Lupe Fiasco, Kanye West, Pharell. They changed the fashion industry within the hiphop culture. So it’s pretty new. But in Asia, the streetwear market is always the same. It’s stronger every day, stronger, stronger, stronger. For me, it’s one of the most interesting parts of the world. China, Singapore, Japan not so much, not so many new brands from Japan. But many new things are coming from Singapore, from Hong Kong, from Shanghai, from Saigon. I think for my part today the big, big market is really in Asia. Now all the new brands come from the US. All the stronger brands coming up, like Crooks and 10 Deep, are coming from the US. Then you have some good brands like Alife and The Hundreds. They do a lot of good work with image and influence, but it’s different. If you talk about The Hundreds or Alife in France, nobody knows them. Even in Italy or Germany nobody knows about these kinds of brands. So it’s the beginning. I think the market will be really, really different in two or three years. In two or three years it will be really, really strong. Today, you have some new brands from London and from France that are coming up. I think we have to be patient for that.

What do you think of the globalization of streetwear and the influence of the Internet on the culture?

The Internet: that’s the screen culture, screen costumer, screen everything. You have positive things and negative things. It’s really hard to say because I have my own online magazine. The problem with the Internet today is no culture, no culture anymore. Just buy, buy, buy. Consumerism, we only have consumerism now. We don’t talk about any influences or any culture. We just talk about, this new product—I want it; this is the limited edition—I want it. People don’t care if it’s nice or not, or where it comes from. Sometimes it’s something they don’t like. It’s not your lifestyle. It’s fashion, so you buy it. You buy sneakers because it’s a limited edition by a graphic designer. Do you know the background of this guy? Do you know what this guy did? It’s okay because in two weeks it will have a higher price tag on eBay, so you buy it. This is what I don’t like about today. I like the expression you used before the interview: “Blind Consumerism.” People with this kind of mentality become blind in some way.
Now for the good things: no more borders around the world. That’s crazy; that’s an amazing thing. You can be in connection with the whole world, everyday and anytime, with all the brands, with all the music, anything you want. So this is a really good thing within street culture. And the whole industry, not only in street culture, even for information and everything. It’s just like a new weapon. Now you have one more weapon in your pocket, but if you can’t use it very well, it can hurt you. I think this is the thing today. New consumers hurt themselves. They think they are really stylish, really hype, but really they know nothing. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I can speak for France, for my country.     The young people know what they see, but they don’t know anything else. That’s the problem. They have to push the research; they have to try to see what’s behind the screen. The screen only gives you one part of the culture. What gets you behind that could be a book or an art show. With all the websites, like Highsnob and SlamxHype, you have all the information, so you can know when there are big shows. You can go to the shows. I remember there was a great show in Paris at Agnes B gallery, with Obey and WK. It was the first time they did a show together. It was a really interesting show, but nobody came, even though everybody knew about it because it was on the screen everywhere.  Sometimes they use the information to buy 50 pairs of Nikes. Okay, not bad, why not? But it’s not enough. Today you have to push the limits sometimes. For me, the real thing is to get the information in real time, all the time. This is what I like in this new culture, to get the information. You don’t miss anything, but you really need to concentrate, and you have to open your mind. Sometimes you can learn about some new brand, but if you just check the t-shirt and you don’t check the website of this brand and what they did and everything…sometimes the brand, the designer and the background are really strong, and this is what I like. With SlamxHype, with HypeBeast and these kind of websites, I’ve met new people, I’ve found some new brands I didn’t know, and it’s really enriching to me. I think this is the real point of this new generation; if you use the Internet really well, you can get so much.

PAGE: