Also, "They think they’re taking risks, but they already know that the ball is in their court." A perfect description of the faux "edginess" of the Woke crowd.
"Regime art" is exactly what we see everywhere now: movies and TV and books are, to one extent or another, propaganda in support of Woke ideology.
Reminded me of a quote from now-deceased Catholic Cardinal, Francis George. He said we live in a time in which “everything is permitted and nothing is forgiven”.
Which partially explains why some are turning to the right. However you feel about Christians, even Bible-thumpers, they do still hew to the concept of 'redemption' for penitence. With the WokeNazis it's one mistake and you're cancelled forever.
100% agree, great quote! And candidly, thanks for calling it out - because I kind of skimmed over that sentence because it was tied to the punk comment, which just bored me.
That said, I find it interesting that it’s the punk comment that made it to the headline (sub-headline?) and not “nothing is allowed.” When it’s clear from the comments that one sentence resonated far more with readers than the other.
If I put my tinfoil hat on, I’d guess that “nothing is allowed” calls out our ever more controlling establishment superiors while “punk” celebrates what is, in the end, an utterly irrelevant rebellion of one.*
If either of those last two sentences are “allowed” and therefore acceptable in the headline, it’s the sentence without the word “allowed.”
* Don’t get me wrong, kudos to Ms. Velez, truly...but you’re hardly a threat to the elites you decry when you create works that only those elites can afford and will wear.
Yeah, honestly I think everything in these pictures is hideous, but I don’t understand high fashion at all. I’ll stick to cheap stuff I find on the Internet.
2. I thought the designs were hideous but what do I know. I'm a man who wears Levis, polo shirts and sneakers.
I just met a woman named Shoshana on a Dec 2023 Carribean cruise. It's a name I had never come across before and now I met another one. What are the odds?
I actually love the items on her site (links in the article). I do like what the models wore at the show but there’s nothing there I’d ever see myself wearing.
I love this! Modern SteamPunk overtones. And agreed, “We live in a time in which everything is possible and nothing is allowed” wins Quote of the Year. I keep hearing my progressive peeps say we are “regressing, going backwards, everything is going to hell” while I see nothing but forward thinking movements. Nowadays “progressivism” is an extraordinarily regressive movement disguised by gaslit groupthink. I agree; rebel my dear! And revel in your achievements. I’m 55 years old and I see through the BS misogyny of so many things being sold as “progressive”. I applaud your independence and wish you the greatest of luck!
Spot on! Her statement “They think they’re taking risks, but they already know that the ball is in their court,” is golden. The fact that the fashion world DEIs the runway is laughable - me thinks it is just a diversion by any designer who knows their collection might not be up to standards and/or needs affirmation from the elite via virtue signaling. Being DEI is the most conventional thing any artist could do today. How boring.
There is something refreshing about rebels and I applaud Ms. Velez for provoking the fashionistas. It’s amusing to read about them, like all repressed progressives, chatter on about what’s acceptable and what’s not.
As far as “fashion” design goes, I’d say most of it is overated. The truth is , an attractive woman looks good in anything, or nothing.
In the article, “What’s exciting is to create a postmodern fashion brand, a post-woke fashion brand, a post-beauty fashion brand. And right now, it’s rubbing up against some really sensitive walls,” Velez told me later over the phone.“
Yet, in some ways Velez is just like the rest of the clothes designers she denigrates, showing off clothes that are more an exhibition of indulgent self expression that speak to an incestuous circle rather than an ideal of beauty that individuals might want to purchase and wear in their own lives.
She's a good storyteller, who saw an underserved market niche and claimed it. Kudos to her for calling out the snobbish virtue signaling of other designers.
But her clothes are ugly and expensive, which is nothing new.
And let's just say, she's no Silvio Marsan, the founder of Brandy Melville.
It's good to see a young person go her own way but I have to say that her attitude of "“I have nothing to lose, but also nothing to gain,” and "I am “prepared to lose everything.” would have been SERIOUSLY problematic for me as a parent who invested her retirement savings into their kids endeavors.
That said, I do like her rebellious attitude toward the status quo (The Sex and the City dig had me laughing out loud).
Her comment about Punk is spot on. I've been a punk rocker for decades. Now that our culture is thoroughly dominated by the Left, the idea that Green Day and their ilk are rebellious punks is laughable. In reality, they're a bunch of low IQ asshats with a fetish for communism, dreaming of turning their Malibu mansions into the new Politburo. They want to sacrifice YOUR rights as long as they get to stay rich. As I said, I'm a punk, a natural rebel. The MOST radical thing I can be is what I am: a Christian, a Libertarian, and a married father of 3, with a mohawk..Haircut notwithstanding, my choices in life put me in direct opposition the dominant forces in our nation, and yes, that includes both of the spineless idiots currently running for president. People who are born dissenters, those that face the mob and flip it off, are the best chance we have of truly making America great again.
Good job Free Press, once again, and good job Ms. Velez.
“We live in a time when everything is possible and nothing is allowed.”
“There is a henhouse of fashion editors who gate-keep and are still living their Sex and the City ‘best life,’ who moved to New York to pursue their dream of being a snob.”
But those clothes? Anyone else thinking of the Emperor’s new fashion designer?
I read the whole thing and I don’t understand what makes her edgy or more substantive than any of the designers she criticizes.
What’s the difference between putting a model onstage in a pussy hat vs. referencing Scarlet O’Hara to get a rise out of people? It seems like she just engages in cheap provocation without any deeper thought behind it, exactly like the braindead Red Scare girls, whose entire schtick is to say vaguely offensive stuff for laughs while couching it in irony. If she wanted to truly be different than the designers she loathes, she could just make nice clothes that women actually want to wear.
Also, I have a hard time seeing this woman as a brave truthteller or a woman of the people when she’s a hipster who lives in Brooklyn with her European husband and she’s proudly spending down her (hard working) mother’s retirement on this inane posturing.
What’s the difference between putting a model onstage in a pussy hat vs. referencing Scarlet O’Hara to get a rise out of people?
There's actually a huge difference. The first is conformity in the extreme; the second risks getting you canceled. The first won't have models and makeup artists refuse to work your show. The pussy hat only gets a rise out of people who aren't in the fashion industry or interested in it.
Post-woke? I would call it recycled old west whore house chic. Watch any old Clint Eastwood movie. Wait for the saloon scene where the upstairs is the whore house. All of the women have this hair and are wearing these clothes (except for the piece that looks like a draped sheet). I’m an old fashioned dude, so sticking with Audrey Hepburn in the little black dress, and my beautiful 76 year old wife in anything she wears.
Oh, there's so much to like about this woman. I enthusuastically agree with all the other comment call-outs. The MKE roots and a single mom ship captain is an inadvertent offense to the sensibilities of the mummified Anna Wintour. "Moved to New York to be a snob." So perfect. The Midwest throws its middle finger up to the holier-than-thou Manhattanites.
We have taken this flyover snob-garbage for way too long. No part of the country has the lock on creativity or decision-making on who and what is cool. So over it. She is courting the Hollywood elite, which is too bad, but she is trying to be successful so, props to her.
Except she herself moved to New York to be just as sanctimonious, just from a different angle. She’s working in hipster Brooklyn. I’m no fan of Anna Wintour’s miserable face, but Velez is not as much of an outsider as she thinks she is.
Where is she supposed to be? You have to be in New York if you're a fashion designer. She also went to school at Parsons, which is in New York. Was she supposed to move back to Milwaukee? Brooklyn, although hipster, is still more affordable than Manhattan.
As one who knows absolutely nothing about fashion ( Orvis and long defunct Rocky Mountain Featherbed are/were chic enough for me) this article really excites me. I live in the California of New England where our ‘progressive’ one-party legislature is almost as crazy as Sacramento. So I empathize with EV who comes from the great heartland a region so reviled by the bi-coastal elites. Anyone in whatever sphere who is pushing back against the toxic nonsense of ‘wokeness’ gets my wholehearted support. As an unapologetic masculine guy I guess I won’t be purchasing her fashions but I sure do wish her the greatest of success.
As someone originally from the east coast who has long lived in the Midwest, I find the perception outsiders have of "the heartland" kind of amusing. I myself used to have these perceptions, likely informed by wholesome shows like Happy Days and others. Milwaukee is actually a very Democrat, liberal city with a liberal government, albeit not as far-left as Madison. Urban areas in midwestern states are practically as woke as their coastal counterparts.
Maybe I just don’t “get” high fashion, but I don’t see how her actual work (as opposed to her personal views) is particularly groundbreaking, iconoclastic, or new. The art needs to be able to stand on its own merits, separate from the artist. Take away her outspoken statements and the controversy over them, and…what’s so interesting, anyway? What’s so new or shocking or thought-provoking about her designs? I’m not seeing it.
And if she’s so “post-beauty” in her ideals then why are all her models conventionally attractive, and if the mainstream fashion industry is so “woke,” why have models remained - with a few token exceptions - dangerously thin with all the same body types? What exactly is “post-woke” about Velez’s designs - the fact that she’s using traditionally feminine silhouettes and antebellum-style hoop skirts? I hate to break it to you, but Batsheva Hay and The Vampire’s Wife brought back the FLDS-style prairie dress years ago and made it fashion. Any major city’s Fashion Week in any year will show you plenty of ultra-feminine looks, or styles inspired from eras that were seen as more conservative. That’s what fashion is: recycling eras of history with modifications.
Velez takes herself and her industry too seriously. There has been no real change in the fashion industry for a long time, and her work is not nearly as rebellious as she thinks. But fashion runs on self-obsessed, self-important nonsense. She’s the opposite side of the same coin as those SATC types she denigrates.
I thought the clothes would be preppy button downs or grace kelly gowns very much not hyper-sexualizing the female form. So that part of the designer's "rebellion" was a head-scratcher. The philosophy though, I can get with that. Choice quotes. Sell t-shirts for the peasants at TJ Maxx and I'm yours.
I also expected to see high collars and modesty as punk rock for our time. I like the above comment about how the most rebellious thing to be right now is a Christian and have children….and would add modesty to that😀
What an extraordinary quote, "We live in a time in which everything is possible and nothing is allowed." Truth & poetry.
Also, "They think they’re taking risks, but they already know that the ball is in their court." A perfect description of the faux "edginess" of the Woke crowd.
"Regime art" is exactly what we see everywhere now: movies and TV and books are, to one extent or another, propaganda in support of Woke ideology.
That quote sums up the times we’re living in.
Reminded me of a quote from now-deceased Catholic Cardinal, Francis George. He said we live in a time in which “everything is permitted and nothing is forgiven”.
I think it's become a time where only some things are permitted and only some things are forgiven.
Which partially explains why some are turning to the right. However you feel about Christians, even Bible-thumpers, they do still hew to the concept of 'redemption' for penitence. With the WokeNazis it's one mistake and you're cancelled forever.
This sentence is gold. I want to see it on clothing and billboards and merch
i read that last quote, thought "holy shit that's a great quote" and then the first comment i saw was this. truth and poetry indeed.
100% agree, great quote! And candidly, thanks for calling it out - because I kind of skimmed over that sentence because it was tied to the punk comment, which just bored me.
That said, I find it interesting that it’s the punk comment that made it to the headline (sub-headline?) and not “nothing is allowed.” When it’s clear from the comments that one sentence resonated far more with readers than the other.
If I put my tinfoil hat on, I’d guess that “nothing is allowed” calls out our ever more controlling establishment superiors while “punk” celebrates what is, in the end, an utterly irrelevant rebellion of one.*
If either of those last two sentences are “allowed” and therefore acceptable in the headline, it’s the sentence without the word “allowed.”
* Don’t get me wrong, kudos to Ms. Velez, truly...but you’re hardly a threat to the elites you decry when you create works that only those elites can afford and will wear.
Good book title.
Totally agree.
No, you can't say that we old. Yes it may be honest, true but we are no longer interested in those old fashion virtues
Does your statement pass the test of BLM, of DEI, of hiding the truth?
I was about to post the same thought. You beat me to it. There is so much truth in her statement.
We condone what we allow. Show your teeth to the world.
For all that talk, I do wish there was more beauty to the actual clothes.
Some of them look really good. Go through the slide show.
Welcome to the post-postmodern age. Beauty (and truth) are so over. When there's nothing left to rebel against embrace ugly and call it punk
Yeah, honestly I think everything in these pictures is hideous, but I don’t understand high fashion at all. I’ll stick to cheap stuff I find on the Internet.
I agree and have two thoughts on the article.
1. At least the models didn't look anorexic.
2. I thought the designs were hideous but what do I know. I'm a man who wears Levis, polo shirts and sneakers.
I just met a woman named Shoshana on a Dec 2023 Carribean cruise. It's a name I had never come across before and now I met another one. What are the odds?
LP-- you just don't travel in the right circles! Shoshannas are very "NY" Metro! (Jerry Seinfeld's (past)girlfriend was one)
What can I say? I'm from Texas not NY, thank God.
I probably should've said "left circles"!!
I actually love the items on her site (links in the article). I do like what the models wore at the show but there’s nothing there I’d ever see myself wearing.
ditto
I like 'The parachute skirt'!
I love this! Modern SteamPunk overtones. And agreed, “We live in a time in which everything is possible and nothing is allowed” wins Quote of the Year. I keep hearing my progressive peeps say we are “regressing, going backwards, everything is going to hell” while I see nothing but forward thinking movements. Nowadays “progressivism” is an extraordinarily regressive movement disguised by gaslit groupthink. I agree; rebel my dear! And revel in your achievements. I’m 55 years old and I see through the BS misogyny of so many things being sold as “progressive”. I applaud your independence and wish you the greatest of luck!
Spot on! Her statement “They think they’re taking risks, but they already know that the ball is in their court,” is golden. The fact that the fashion world DEIs the runway is laughable - me thinks it is just a diversion by any designer who knows their collection might not be up to standards and/or needs affirmation from the elite via virtue signaling. Being DEI is the most conventional thing any artist could do today. How boring.
There is something refreshing about rebels and I applaud Ms. Velez for provoking the fashionistas. It’s amusing to read about them, like all repressed progressives, chatter on about what’s acceptable and what’s not.
As far as “fashion” design goes, I’d say most of it is overated. The truth is , an attractive woman looks good in anything, or nothing.
In the article, “What’s exciting is to create a postmodern fashion brand, a post-woke fashion brand, a post-beauty fashion brand. And right now, it’s rubbing up against some really sensitive walls,” Velez told me later over the phone.“
Yet, in some ways Velez is just like the rest of the clothes designers she denigrates, showing off clothes that are more an exhibition of indulgent self expression that speak to an incestuous circle rather than an ideal of beauty that individuals might want to purchase and wear in their own lives.
🎯
She's a good storyteller, who saw an underserved market niche and claimed it. Kudos to her for calling out the snobbish virtue signaling of other designers.
But her clothes are ugly and expensive, which is nothing new.
And let's just say, she's no Silvio Marsan, the founder of Brandy Melville.
It's good to see a young person go her own way but I have to say that her attitude of "“I have nothing to lose, but also nothing to gain,” and "I am “prepared to lose everything.” would have been SERIOUSLY problematic for me as a parent who invested her retirement savings into their kids endeavors.
That said, I do like her rebellious attitude toward the status quo (The Sex and the City dig had me laughing out loud).
Good luck to her.
There’s fashion, and then there’s costumes for parties.
Her comment about Punk is spot on. I've been a punk rocker for decades. Now that our culture is thoroughly dominated by the Left, the idea that Green Day and their ilk are rebellious punks is laughable. In reality, they're a bunch of low IQ asshats with a fetish for communism, dreaming of turning their Malibu mansions into the new Politburo. They want to sacrifice YOUR rights as long as they get to stay rich. As I said, I'm a punk, a natural rebel. The MOST radical thing I can be is what I am: a Christian, a Libertarian, and a married father of 3, with a mohawk..Haircut notwithstanding, my choices in life put me in direct opposition the dominant forces in our nation, and yes, that includes both of the spineless idiots currently running for president. People who are born dissenters, those that face the mob and flip it off, are the best chance we have of truly making America great again.
Good job Free Press, once again, and good job Ms. Velez.
I think the most authentic punk right now is Tom Macdonald, who I'm sure you've heard of.
The two best quotes from the article for me:
“We live in a time when everything is possible and nothing is allowed.”
“There is a henhouse of fashion editors who gate-keep and are still living their Sex and the City ‘best life,’ who moved to New York to pursue their dream of being a snob.”
But those clothes? Anyone else thinking of the Emperor’s new fashion designer?
Very sexual.
The women yes, the clothes? No.
I read the whole thing and I don’t understand what makes her edgy or more substantive than any of the designers she criticizes.
What’s the difference between putting a model onstage in a pussy hat vs. referencing Scarlet O’Hara to get a rise out of people? It seems like she just engages in cheap provocation without any deeper thought behind it, exactly like the braindead Red Scare girls, whose entire schtick is to say vaguely offensive stuff for laughs while couching it in irony. If she wanted to truly be different than the designers she loathes, she could just make nice clothes that women actually want to wear.
Also, I have a hard time seeing this woman as a brave truthteller or a woman of the people when she’s a hipster who lives in Brooklyn with her European husband and she’s proudly spending down her (hard working) mother’s retirement on this inane posturing.
What's the difference? Earth tones.
What’s the difference between putting a model onstage in a pussy hat vs. referencing Scarlet O’Hara to get a rise out of people?
There's actually a huge difference. The first is conformity in the extreme; the second risks getting you canceled. The first won't have models and makeup artists refuse to work your show. The pussy hat only gets a rise out of people who aren't in the fashion industry or interested in it.
Post-woke? I would call it recycled old west whore house chic. Watch any old Clint Eastwood movie. Wait for the saloon scene where the upstairs is the whore house. All of the women have this hair and are wearing these clothes (except for the piece that looks like a draped sheet). I’m an old fashioned dude, so sticking with Audrey Hepburn in the little black dress, and my beautiful 76 year old wife in anything she wears.
Oh, there's so much to like about this woman. I enthusuastically agree with all the other comment call-outs. The MKE roots and a single mom ship captain is an inadvertent offense to the sensibilities of the mummified Anna Wintour. "Moved to New York to be a snob." So perfect. The Midwest throws its middle finger up to the holier-than-thou Manhattanites.
Couldn’t agree more. More please. Expose the putrid rot of our cultural “superiors”
We have taken this flyover snob-garbage for way too long. No part of the country has the lock on creativity or decision-making on who and what is cool. So over it. She is courting the Hollywood elite, which is too bad, but she is trying to be successful so, props to her.
Except she herself moved to New York to be just as sanctimonious, just from a different angle. She’s working in hipster Brooklyn. I’m no fan of Anna Wintour’s miserable face, but Velez is not as much of an outsider as she thinks she is.
Where is she supposed to be? You have to be in New York if you're a fashion designer. She also went to school at Parsons, which is in New York. Was she supposed to move back to Milwaukee? Brooklyn, although hipster, is still more affordable than Manhattan.
As one who knows absolutely nothing about fashion ( Orvis and long defunct Rocky Mountain Featherbed are/were chic enough for me) this article really excites me. I live in the California of New England where our ‘progressive’ one-party legislature is almost as crazy as Sacramento. So I empathize with EV who comes from the great heartland a region so reviled by the bi-coastal elites. Anyone in whatever sphere who is pushing back against the toxic nonsense of ‘wokeness’ gets my wholehearted support. As an unapologetic masculine guy I guess I won’t be purchasing her fashions but I sure do wish her the greatest of success.
As someone originally from the east coast who has long lived in the Midwest, I find the perception outsiders have of "the heartland" kind of amusing. I myself used to have these perceptions, likely informed by wholesome shows like Happy Days and others. Milwaukee is actually a very Democrat, liberal city with a liberal government, albeit not as far-left as Madison. Urban areas in midwestern states are practically as woke as their coastal counterparts.
this was more old west brothel vs. fiddle dee dee Gone With the Wind. if you’re going to be offensive at least do the theme right.
Love her philosophy. Don’t love the clothing.
Maybe I just don’t “get” high fashion, but I don’t see how her actual work (as opposed to her personal views) is particularly groundbreaking, iconoclastic, or new. The art needs to be able to stand on its own merits, separate from the artist. Take away her outspoken statements and the controversy over them, and…what’s so interesting, anyway? What’s so new or shocking or thought-provoking about her designs? I’m not seeing it.
And if she’s so “post-beauty” in her ideals then why are all her models conventionally attractive, and if the mainstream fashion industry is so “woke,” why have models remained - with a few token exceptions - dangerously thin with all the same body types? What exactly is “post-woke” about Velez’s designs - the fact that she’s using traditionally feminine silhouettes and antebellum-style hoop skirts? I hate to break it to you, but Batsheva Hay and The Vampire’s Wife brought back the FLDS-style prairie dress years ago and made it fashion. Any major city’s Fashion Week in any year will show you plenty of ultra-feminine looks, or styles inspired from eras that were seen as more conservative. That’s what fashion is: recycling eras of history with modifications.
Velez takes herself and her industry too seriously. There has been no real change in the fashion industry for a long time, and her work is not nearly as rebellious as she thinks. But fashion runs on self-obsessed, self-important nonsense. She’s the opposite side of the same coin as those SATC types she denigrates.
I thought the clothes would be preppy button downs or grace kelly gowns very much not hyper-sexualizing the female form. So that part of the designer's "rebellion" was a head-scratcher. The philosophy though, I can get with that. Choice quotes. Sell t-shirts for the peasants at TJ Maxx and I'm yours.
I also expected to see high collars and modesty as punk rock for our time. I like the above comment about how the most rebellious thing to be right now is a Christian and have children….and would add modesty to that😀