The Reign of the Great Fashion Amateur

When Tracksmith dropped its new ad last November, it sent the direct-to-consumer world in a minor frenzy. Tracksmith is a running brand, founded seven years ago around a particular aesthetic of 1970s long distance runners. More than that, Tracksmith is created in honor of the Amateur Spirit.

In its own words, the brand champions the Running Class, “the non-professional yet competitive runners dedicated to the pursuit of personal excellence.” Transport the sentiment to streetwear, watches, luxury fashion or any form of collaboration between them, and one would be hard pressed to miss an amateur changing the rules of the game. Teddy Santis, Dapper Dan, Kanye West, Virgil Abloh, Raf Simons or Hedi Slimane are all fashion amateurs. Simons studied furniture and industrial design. Lotta Volkova, largely credited for Vetements and Balenciaga’s look, is a fashion stylist. West’s background is in music. Self-taught artist Helen Downie, a.k.a. The Unskilled Worker, is synonymous with a good part of Gucci’s aesthetic. Downie, as her Instagram moniker suggests, is an amateur.

Modern amateurs have nothing to do with the anachronistic meaning of the word. They are not dilettantes or laypersons. They are not aspiring professionals either.

Amateurs are taste machines.

Thanks to their passion bordering on nerdiness, they keep brands alive and move the culture forward. The proto-amateur, Jean-Michel Basquiat began as a street artist. Andy Warhol trained as a commercial illustrator, but this didn’t stop him from working in sculpture, films, silk screenings and paintings that are today one of the most coveted and expensive works of art.

Japanese otakus, once referring to hardcore anime fans, frequently featured in William Gibson novels as trendsetting cultural obsessives. With a good reason: Tokyo emerged as a global cultural lab during the economic boom of the Japanese late 80’s bubble economy. Famously, stores of Bape, Undercover and Pinkhouse dubbed as gathering spots for street artists, DJs, city pop clubbers, skaters, zine makers. The brands themselves were the forerunners of future trends thanks to their mix of global influences through their niche perspective.

Rewind a decade back, and New York City’s It Girls of the 1970s, like Anya Phillips…