#001: “In The Know”
Weekly Fashion & Culture News From Around The World. Stay In The Know.
Note: the first issue of “In The Know” is free for everyone in our audience, but will become a benefit exclusively for paid subscribers in the near future.
We welcome you to subscribe:
Welcome to the first issue of “In The Know”, a new series that the Manic Metallic Substack Newsletter will have going out on a weekly basis!
For those who were on Manic Metallic’s original pre-Substack mailing list, you should recognize some of the sections that the newsletter contains — except for the newsletter name. For those of you who joined more recently, here’s how it was structured:
We’d start the newsletter off discussing what Manic Metallic has been up to as a company, as well as giving my takes on a couple of major issues in fashion that had happened since we’d released the last issue.
We’d move on to a section that I called “Good Things Come In Threes”, where we’d briefly talk about a fashion news story in the following categories: sustainability, technology, and a wild card (which was anything else notable that we wanted to share, like a fashion resource, multimedia link, etc).
Then, we had a section called the “Fashion Is An Art” Spotlight where we let our audience know about a fashion creative doing great things in the industry. We generally kept this focused on newer folks, but sometimes we’d make an exception
Last, we’d give out our “Fashion and Culture Recommendations”. We’d talk about exhibitions, books, magazines, documentaries, or anything that we thought our audience would like to have on their radar to engage with in fashion and culture in the near future.
We’ve tried our best to adhere to that setup, but the layout is, of course, different because Substack doesn’t actually allow for much customization in the way of newsletter design. This is unfortunate, and I hope it changes in the future, but it won’t affect the content — the most important part.
“In The Know” is the first of a few different series that the Manic Metallic Substack Newsletter will have. We want to create as much writing that is specific to our newsletter subscribers as we can. What will those other series be? You’ll know soon, so keep an eye out for them!
Our Articles
We released two articles recently that we’d like to share. Here are the links:
Our website is a subscriber-based platform offering a complimentary (read: free) 7-day membership as well as a monthly and a yearly membership. The website contains all of our longform journalism over the past 5 years that we’ve been in business.
If you’d like to sign up for a free 7-day trial to read our articles, click here.
Other Happenings
We deleted our Meta-owned social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, and Threads). If you’ve read previous issues of the Manic Metallic Substack Newsletter, you have a feel for why we did it, but of all the myriad reasons to do it, it was just time. Between political concerns, data/privacy concerns, and the effectiveness of the platforms for our company, there was really no reason not to do it.
You can support us by subscribing to our Substack newsletter, following us on Bluesky, subscribing to our website, or visiting this page for the full list of ways to join our community.We paid attention to news about the January inauguration of Donald Trump — and to coverage of the days that have followed — from the fashion industry, and we are displeased. Please look out for an article from us about this in the very, very near future. Trust me, you will want to read that one.
Without further ado, let’s get into the first issue of “In The Know”!
Appreciate you,
Liberty Imhoff
Good Things Come In Threes
Fashion/Sustainability:
The British Fashion Council is adopting Copenhagen Fashion Week’s Sustainability Requirements, which were originally released in 2020, for London Fashion Week in a move that seeks to increase the British fashion market’s positioning in sustainability. The rollout will start with BFC’s Newgen Initiative in 2025 and be widely implemented in 2026.
Read more about it here: https://www.britishfashioncouncil.co.uk/bfcnews/4893/The-British-Fashion-Council-Adopts-Copenhagen-Fashion-Weeks-Sustainability-Requirements
Fashion/Technology:
Amazon is going to be cutting about 200 jobs in its stores unit, which encompasses its Fashion and Fitness division. It’s a curious move, considering that there are still 20 job openings for Fashion and Fitness on the company’s website, and it brings to mind our recent article about canceling Amazon Prime where we expressed our view that Amazon is not a serious player in the fashion industry.
You can read the story here: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/amazon-lays-off-about-200-employees-in-its-stores-unit/6110520/
Wild Card:
If you’ve ever struggled to find copyright-free images to use for your various projects, the Public Domain Image Archive (PDIA) contains over 10,000 out-of-copyright historical images. It is registered in the UK, and draws from over 200 sources for its material.
Here’s the link to it: https://pdimagearchive.org/
“Fashion Is An Art” Spotlight
Delali Ayivi, Photographer
Fashion photographer Delali Ayivi creates work centered aroung belongong, identity, and community. Her work combines tradition and modernity, using her Togolese ancestry as inspiration. Ayivi’s photography is characterized by the use of vivid colors and a strong narrative focus.
Learn more about Delali Ayivi at the following links:
CNN Style: https://www.cnn.com/style/delali-ayivi-following-footsteps-togo-first-photographers/
Vogue India: https://www.vogue.in/content/photographers-delali-ayivi-and-bhumika-sharma-talk-about-craft-creativity-and-the-year-ahead
It’s Nice That: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/delali-ayivi-the-graduates-2020-photography-170820
Manic Metallic’s Fashion Culture Recommendations
Fashion Fatale: The Human Obsession with Feathers
The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is hosting Fashion Fatale: The Human Obsession with Feathers, an exhibit examining feathers as status symbols expressing both beauty and power while asking us to contemplate how we’ve affected bird populations.
Fashion Fatale will remain on view through September 7, 2025 in Santa Barbara, CA.
David Bailey. Eighties
British photographer David Bailey is releasing a book with Taschen chronicling his fashion photography work throughout the eighties. Throughout the decade, Bailey worked with many well-known fashion publications, stunning models, and talented designers.
And you can get that work right now via pre-order (use our Bookshop.org link below). Its release is slated for February 16, 2025.