Thanks to Jyri (another impossibly bright Finnish digital boy), I am alerted to the rise in something called 'fashion crafting', courtesy of this blog. There's even a Draft Craft Manifesto:
1. People get satisfaction for being able to create/craft things because they can see themselves in the objects they make. This is not possible in purchased products.
2. The things that people have made themselves have magic powers. They have hidden meanings that other people can’t see.
3. The things people make they usually want to keep and update. Crafting is not against consumption. It is against throwing things away.
4. People seek recognition for the things they have made. Primarily it comes from their friends and family. This manifests as an economy of gifts.
5. People who believe they are producing genuinely cool things seek broader exposure for their products. This creates opportunities for alternative publishing channels.
6. Work inspires work. Seeing what other people have made generates new ideas and designs.
7. Essential for crafting are tools, which are accessible, portable, and easy to learn.
8. Materials become important. Knowledge of what they are made of and where to get them becomes essential.
9. Recipes become important. The ability to create and distribute interesting recipes becomes valuable.
10. Learning techniques brings people together. This creates online and offline communities of practice.
11. Craft-oriented people seek opportunities to discover interesting things and meet their makers. This creates marketplaces.
12. At the bottom, crafting is a form of play.
I have only one contribution of street anthropology to add to this: the return of "scoubidous" to North London schoolyards (my partner's boy Conn just handed me one). But the writer also extends this to a thesis about a post-'No-Logo' response to branding:
First, in the global entertainment industry, an increasing percentage of sales come from products that were never meant for the masses - that is, products that make up the Long Tail. Recently, niche production has also increased sharply in the fashion industry. Witness the increasing number of designer and crafter communities who discuss trends and techniques, post photos of their designs, and often also sell their hand-crafted products online. On the demand side this means that an increasing number of people prefer products that a) they have made themselves or b) somebody they personally know has made.
For the young people who are leading this trend, buying a mass-manufactured garment is totally uncool. Instead, buying a garment that has a (hi)story is awesome. I guess this could be interpreted as a form of self-expression - partly by rejecting readymade mainstream designs offered by global fashion brands, but also (perhaps more interestingly) by inventing new designs of their own. An essential aspect of the own logo phenomenon is the branding of one’s own creations. Many of the people who have started to make their own designs (including me and my friends) want to tag their creations with their own symbol. The symbol can be their initials, a nickname, or any other sign that they want to adopt as their own brand.
These people would probably agree with most of the arguments that Naomi brings up in her book. Still, instead of No Logo, they are signing up for Own Logo.
