#there are so many other 90s and 00s mvs that come to mind

[kithtaehyung]

3D - jungkook (2023) // no scrubs - TLC (1999)

[sanstropfremir]

I'm curious for your take on a fashion trend that always has been hanging out in the wings, but seems to have really taken off in K-Pop in particular the last few years.

It seems like every way I look these days, we're getting hit with luxury "looks" that are legit just the luxury brand printed all over a bland or non-innovative item. This definitely isn't new (it makes me think of the prevalence of those stupid - and stupidly expensive - Abercrombie & Fitch t-shirts in the US back in the 2000s), but I feel like it's now seeping into K-Pop album concept photos and stage outfits in addition to just their every day fashion/sponsored photo shoots. In some cases it doesn't bother me as much because its a small addition (like Sunmi's triangle Prada barrettes in some of her latest comeback photos - I don't like the barrettes, but they work because the wider concept is great) or its used unconventionally (like TxT's latest concept photos, where you can see some of the usual brands but thrown together with unconventional pieces so they feel fresh).

But in other cases, it feels like they're just phoning it in by picking luxury clothing so they can say "look, we're expensive" and calling it a day. I'd submit the examples of The Boyz in some of their latest teasers, the latest Stray Kids concept photos, and quite a few of Blackpink's albums/promotions since they all have their own brand sponsors that they stick to these days. A lot of American celebrities are guilty of this as well so its not just K-Pop, but I honestly just don't expect more from Hollywood like I do from K-Pop.

It's clear that you can have effective styling without defaulting to the luxury branding (A.C.E comes to mind immediately), and there are plenty of luxury pieces that don't have their branding all over it that often allow the same luxury feel without shoving the brand in your face. So this branded merchandise trend really ends up rubbing me the wrong way.

What are your thoughts? I think my stance is clear, but I'd love a different perspective from someone that has a lot more background in fashion, particularly stage fashion, than myself.

anon ilu i have many thoughts on this topic but i don't think i've ever mentioned it before so thank you thank you for somehow reading my single braincell and asking about it!

basically for anyone who doesn't want to read me going off about luxury branding the tldr is yes i agree, i personally don't like branding in general and luxury branding especially. i don't own a single item of clothing or accessory with an obvious/recognizable brand logo and i haven't for probably over a decade now. now let's get into some nitty gritty.

in the current fashion climate i think most of the time it's tacky to display wealth so openly and obviously and it is one of the main factors in driving the machine of fashion consumerist culture. i also think it's a weak styling choice because it only has one association: money. 99% of the time it does not contribute anything meaningful to the artistic vision of the work and it's just to brag. sm stylists pull off luxury branding better than most other groups because they tend to integrate it well into the overall aesthetics of the specific mvs, and it's usually pretty sparing. with sm they use it more as a confirmation of the quality of the sm brand than just boasting about money in general. notable examples where i think visible branding works are kun's supreme jacket in kick back, and taemin's balenciaga 2017 in day and night, because both well integrated into the aesthetics of the videos and they're also offset by other looks. i also like the styling in bambam's ribbon, because although the whole mv is designer looks, he only uses one actually logo-ed one (louis vuitton escale summer 2020), which gives a visual indication of expense to anyone who isn't familiar with fashion. the only time i can think of an idol using a brand ironically is taemin's supreme instagram bad bitch outfit in advice, because he's parodying a specific look.

most of the clothing from designer houses is absent of logos, with the exception of a few (lv, gucci are the main offenders). but, there is the caveat that it does tend to be the ready to wear collections that have that kind of design. (ready to wear is the stuff that is available for off the rack purchase). here's a few examples:

taemin and key in balenciaga menswear ss2018 for story of light, taemin and ten in louis vuitton menswear ss2021 for advice and paint me naked.

in my opinion there's only one house that can get away with the irony of its own branding and that's balenciaga, because they consistently do the weirdest shit you could possibly think of. they have a collaboration with crocs. no i am not joking. the shoes for their fall 2021 collection are platemail stilettos. yes like the medieval armour. they launched that collection as a video game. they recently cleared their entire instagram but prior to that they were just letting models post cryptid blurry shots with no captions. there are designers that are doing interesting things, but very rarely is it with the physical branding itself. it's difficult because like i said before, it locks the audience into an extremely specific connotation and honestly most kpop stylists are not deft enough to work around that in a truly meaningful way.

the important things to hit in any styling are colour, harmony, and silhouette. thank you for bringing up a.c.e because i would have done it anyways, because their stylist is probably the best in the business right now. i talk about the basics here (of styling and of a.c.e in particular), but anon you are correct, a.c.e uses very very little branded styling and they look great. good styling is not about looking expensive, it's about looking the best as befitting of the concept.

but here's where we come to an important point. like with most things about kpop and western pop culture as a whole, luxury branding and streetwear as a trend has been appropriated from black hiphop artists and black streetwear fashion in the 90s and 00s. it started in the hood as a reclamation of items that were meant to be 'outside their station' (luxury) and an elevation of plainclothes that were available to them. sportswear by and large was always cheaper and mass produced, in comparision to day to day wear, which used more expensive materials and had more complicated construction. and was activities based only. it wasn't until around the 1860s that sportwear even existed at all, and even then it was not what you would think of as sportwear by modern standards. there was, up until the 1980s, a pretty strict unspoken dress code that if you wanted to be taken seriously in polite (white) society, you had to dress according to the class standards at the time. (this still exists by the way, it hasn't gone away at all, especially in relation to workplaces and black/natural hair). streetwear at the time was a form of celebration of black excellence and a subversion of white society. but like all innovations by black people, it got jacked by white america and now it's lost the meaning behind its context. on black bodies and paired with black achievements, branding is an important and relevant styling choice. on kpop boys? they're already lifting second hand at this point. do better.

[moonlight--cafe]

Thanks! And sure thing! I'll let you know when I post my story in the future 😊

About your fic, the story sound so engaging so far 😯 I have a suggestion (if you've haven't done it already), what if you made a playlist to go with your story? Since you said your fic is based off TxT's discography, I can totally see the story aligning with songs like "Anti-romantic" or "I know I love you". I was thinking of doing the same thing with my Spotlight fic, but you know, you can do you. You know what? I just had an idea. Would you be down sending a list of song recommendations to each other (in the asks I mean, doesn't have to be outside of Tumblr in case you were worried about that) to make a playlist for our fics? Idk it literally just popped in my head. It's cool if you don't wanna do it.

If it's ok still, I have another fic I'd like to share (it's still in progress of writing though)

I'm still trying to find a title but it's another BTS fic. This time it's in a dystopian setting. And it's based on the "ON" mv. This fic is inspired by movies, tv shows, and/or youtube videos. Mainly the Marvel movies, RWBY (the Rooster teeth series), and the youtube series “Autodale” (if you haven’t seen those last 2, you should check them out when you get a chance). 

The story is set in a world called Cyron, home of the Seven Houses. And each of the Seven Houses have a certain theme. I thought of either basing them on real life cultures, elemental or giving them different military values. But like I said, this is still in the works. Cyron is ruled by a queen, named Sylas, who is also the villain of this story. And each of the Houses possess a map (appearing as an ancient amulet), known as the Seven Maps. I'm still having trouble writing y/n's background (and some of the lore), but the main plot is that in Cyron, people who have super powers are called "Users". They were once known as heroes until Cyron started to decay. When Sylas came to power, she saw Users as the root cause and makes a plan to eliminate every single one of them. Many years later, a rebellion formed, and they're known as the Red Hoods (or The Seven), lead by the members of BTS.

Ik some of this doesn't make sense. I'm also struggling with y/n's background but that's the main plot I have as of now. Sorry again for making another long ask (hopefully you don't mind) but that's just another fic I've been working on haha

Honestly I love how your brain works! I actually did start compiling a bit of as playlist, it's not official yet but it's basically just the songs I’ve had on repeat while I weas writing my fic . And can you believe I totally didn't add Anti-Romantic! I'll actually do that now, It would honestly work so well😋, And of course I would love to share song recommendations, I'm always listening to music and I don't really have people who really ask for song recommendations so hell yes! Plus I also need some more suggestions from you, and when I finally finish this fic I'll definitely credit you for your help 💜 And I also don't mind it can be on tumblr or somewhere else I'm not too fussed it's really all down to what you feel comfortable with.

Also I would love to share the playlist I currently have because I was actually invested in my own fic for once and I've given it a type of early 00's/ late 90's coming of age feeling, which just worked with Yeonjun.

And wow!!! I'm so bloody floored by your ideas, you are so unbelievably creative, I'm speechless. I've seen all of your references except for Autodale so I will totally check it out when I can 🙂

And don't apologize I love seeing your asks in my inbox also I hope it's okay but I wanna dub you my fic buddy so I can bounce ideas off of you and get playlist advice, and if you feel comfortable and you want to I can totally bounce around ideas and suggest music, this can be a mutual thing! Thank you so much for sharing these ideas with me seriously it all sounds insanely cool.

P.S don't worry all of it made perfect sense 😁

[xiaoxiongmaos]

omg your biases really make sense to me!! from the ones i know, they all seem to have similar energy.

ahhh, my ults are way too many. but some of my favourites are probably irene, jisoo, hyunjin, (han) jisung, doyoung, yuna, and more!! they're the first few that come to my mind but i'm sure there are others i'm forgetting.

i think the most similar out of my ults are irene and doyoung. i feel like they can pulverise me with their eyes. they're also very straightfoward, no BS type of people so i can imagine them being brutally honest to each other.

jisung, hyunjin, and yuna also kind of have the same energy to me!! they're very bright, bubbly, and just enjoy making the people around them smile. sometimes, esp in jisung's case, this tends to overshadow their talent unfortunately, but they don't let that get them down. they're good at what they do, and always have a cheerful smile on their faces while they do.

and jisoo is a mix of those two to me. she's very smiley and cheerful, but at the same kinda has a no BS attitude. she knows what she wants to do, and does it well. she knows when it's time to joke around and when it's time to be serious.

i really love all those qualities in all of them!!

and, moving on to today's mission, what is your all-time favourite kpop mv?? what's your favourite mv from each of your favourite groups? is there something you don't like to see in mvs? something you like to see and wish there was more of? just let me know your thoughts on kpop mvs!! i really want to know.

i, personally, loveeee when mvs lean into a dark fantasy type of vibe. or have a royal theme. just watching those types of mvs make it feel like less of an mv and more of a cinematic experience.

as always, i hope you're doing well and i'm sorry this is so long!!

- 🗝️ anon

I totally get the Irene & Doyoung comparison! When I read the names, I immediately imagined their cold stares… I just think they have that as resting face in general haha cool to know your ults!

Ah, yes; at first I didn’t focus too much on Jisung as a kpop star, more so as a funny & cute dude in the group after their début… but once I rewatched a few of their stages and paid close attention to his vocals, adlibs and expertise in freestyle, I have so much respect for him as a performer too. He’s really got a good control over his pitch & doesn’t strain his chords, as I’ve seen a ton of mainly rappers do while singing; he just belts so naturally and I adore his singing voice.

As for his rapping —leaving the lyrics his mind comes up with instantaneously— I really love how he keeps his voice natural most of the time and doesn’t go too high (most female rappers & g-dragon for example ehe) but not how Changbin & Hyunjin do it by keeping them almost all natural, like; he goes into a higher pitch but it’s not the kind that would bug me? I really love hearing him rap, while I usually don’t like how most rappers sound in their rapping voice if they go with a higher pitch.

He’s also an exceptional dancer as we all know and really keeps his expressions in accordance to the song (I’ve noticed Beomgyu does this too), he has the kind of charisma and presence on stage that keeps the audience engaged!

(One would think he’s actually my skz bias after reading this essay on him LOL)

Ooh this week’s questions are interesting! I think one thing I don’t like in MVs would be too much/the wrong use of cgi? I really don’t like it when companies overdo it, or if they use it in a place where it wasn’t necessary/add a scene the MV could do without. I have many examples for it, but I think the biggest one would be txt’s blue hour MV? I think that the weird 3D-esque look one would find in Jimmy Neutron or 90s-00s video games isn’t really all that appealing :/ it was in the scenes with the colourful plants and squirrels, and I didn’t like it all that much. Then for the scene where they jump off and are shown skydiving was a little choppy and I feel like it would’ve been perfectly fine if those weren’t included in the end result, but each to their own, I guess! I personally find going the yg route and adding big screens showcasing those aspects into the background looks cleaner and more aesthetically appealing than shots relying solely on the green screen.

As for my favourite parts; I also really adore the royal aesthetic some directors go for! Some examples are astro’s all night, favorite’s loca, red velvet’s psycho and a good chunk off of nu’est’s MVs! The. There’s also the gold & black woth quite a few of sf9’s MVs + golden child’s wannabe and almost vintage? yet rich look for the latter’s without you & oneus’ MVs like those for valkyrie, twilight, to be or not to be etc… oh and the futuristic yet free feel MVs shot like jihoon’s 360 & sungwoon’s forbidden island have! I dunno what category they fall in but I love Wooseok’s sugar and all of park jihoon MVs!

Sorry, I probably wrote twice the amount of words you put in akdnfbvn but you’re always welcome to say as much as you want, I really love reading it all <3 are you, perhaps, into reading and/or writing? Your flow is really smooth while talking and the way you craft sentences is really similar to how a writer friend of mine talked :3 hope you have a lovely day ahead, anon!