UNLEARN AND RETHINK

It’s up to each and every individual to interpret Unlearn in their own little way, and any result this leads to is correct. Where is the relationship between Unlearn and Streetwear, art and lifestyle? Perhaps ‘streetwear today’ is not really a suitable name for a magazine, which is no longer a trade magazine. Perhaps stw2d sounds cooler. But hasn't S2C already done something like that? Yes, Stussy quotes and interprets in a new way and moreover, even better! Why has it been a professional magazine and what is it now? We started this way and now we are somewhere else. We are gossiping with pleasure and we are trying to react on things that happen, we try to react very quickly, in order to do it different. Is Unlearn an action, relating to something you have learned and you are supposed to unlearn? Or maybe the meaning is, you shouldn't act according to the same pattern „F“ in the future? Is an old book without any value or can you paint the sides and paste them somewhere or could they even be exhibited in a gallery? Has the book’s value risen, in addition to the artwork on the cover, in particular because it was borrowed, or stolen, from the public library of L.A. in 1996? Do I convey my personal note to the wall by the way I handle aerosols? Or maybe brushes, markers and paper are the better medium? When I spray paint a wall with an aerosol during daytime (legal or illegal), five minutes later the first police car will stop. If I stick a poster with art there, only those, which are interested in it, will take notice. It shows more notes and sticks to every wall. Will Streetart become a word of disgrace, because hookahsmoking aliens freaking at the turntables already invoked once to do things different? Are things taught years ago by parents, teachers, professors or bosses still correct today or doesn't it work any more as one gets older, as things simply change? Perhaps it is the truth that things which used to work properly yesterday, won’t work any more tomorrow, yet the next week one will notice that they would have worked, with a slight modification. If something doesn't work, simply shifting the gear, switching down or accelerating the speed might help, instead of waiting for the change to come from behind and drive by. The decease of the trade fair interjeans is a suitable example. In streetwear one can not evoke any trend or make it cool by kicking up a fuss and placing it on stage. „You can not plan or decide to be hip, it just happens“. It is important to be present at the Bread & Butter, ispo or somewhere else, to represent the brand in a successful an excellent way. But a presence at trade fairs is not a guarantee that it will work out. It happens or it doesn't happen. In any way, new ideas are risky, or maybe not. Anyone who is willing to take a risk will be rewarded, or maybe rather not. In times like these it is no longer of great importance to have learned something, as things change so quickly. Understanding the things learned and to adapt and transform these things in other situations, perhaps even reaching the opposite, is at least of the same importance. Developing long-term strategies can be good, but one should still be able to react. Being a strategist doesn’t always mean the direction chosen makes sense. Just as important are intuition, the feeling in the stomach, experiences mixed with being prepared to take risks; and last but not least the little genius, who shows up from time to time somewhere, illuminating the right impulse to things. Rethink!

Martin Magielka for streetwear today team