Bearded millennials and milk

Have you read about the Everlane founder starting a new brand after selling to Shein?

I mean, the story is too good to be true, literally when life imitates parody.

I honestly dont know how anyone in their right frame of mind can take this industry seriously any longer.

I cant wait until we are free from the grip of these bearded millennial men carrying a ‘latte’ and making brands underpinned by jargon and bullshit.

Plus, I need to let you in on a secret.

‘Latte’ in Italian means milk.

As in straight milk, without any coffee.

Every time I hear someone - particularly burly bearded men - ordering one I wish I had a spare man sized dummy to offer as well. There there big boy, have your cup of milk and your dummy sweetheart … all better now. It has been my intimate way to sneer without sneering, picturing these losers walking out of Starbucks holding their frothy babycinos. (It’s called Caffe’ Latte in case you are interested).

But the best is yet to come in the form of the brand’s new name, Still Radical.

Can’t you just see the tech bros slapping each other on the back after yet another branding meeting congratulating themselves on such a cool name?

Still Radical, I can just see the ad campaign, a bunch of celebs parading with yet another basic / denim / perfect T (it will probably be AI generated, they are that radical) pouting lips straight to camera: I am Still Radical !

All the while peddling a product we dont need, which doesnt ameliorate one iota of the lives of the people who made it nor the land that donates its resources to its production.

And then there is the blurb he used to launch the brand and which I couldn’t read in full because I wanted to avoid vomiting all over my coffee and newspapers, but I did catch a glimpse of him saying that consumers still have hope.

And here he is our maverick big bearded boy carrying a nice cup of frothy latte like the little insicure boy he must be, selling us hope, selling us fluff, so he can carry on making more cash, so he can make more startups, and buy more things he likes besides his hot milk.

Sorry all, I disagree with Stella. Sustainability is not about growing money following today’s business blueprint - aka rampant exploitative capitalism.

I am going to quote from the very end of my book, Loved Clothes Last, published by Penguin Life in 2021 … “because the only thing we need more of right now are trees and whales and birds and bees - not clothes”.

The minute sustainability became about product was the minute we lost.