Fashion Industry discussion, review, analysis, news, and information

From a very young age we’re taught what cool is and what cool isn’t.  Our friends say “cool” when we’ve done something to impress them.  Our clothes are “cool”…and so we grow up with this ideas that being cool is what is going to make us popular.  Thus, we are on this constant pursuit of being cool.  

Well, my latest reading covers this whole notion of Chasing Cool: Standing Out In Today's Cluttered Marketplace - a book written by Noah Kerner and Gene Pressman.  Kerner is a former disc jockey for artists like Jennifer Lopez and is now the cofounder of a marketing agency called Noise Marketing. Pressman used to be the Co-CEO of Barney’s.  These two interviewed top people in the music, retail, and fashion industries to arrive at the conclusion that there really is no set definition of “cool”.   This is one of those books I wish I had read for my college marketing class.  There’s an emphasis on connecting with customers and establishing relationships with them which I believe isn’t being taught in business college classes these days.  

There’s something valuable to be deciphered from this book and it’s that being cool or “in” isn’t something one shouldn’t be chasing after.  Coolness is born from having a passion for what you do - something that comes naturally.