Cool, Fashion, Menswear, Women’s Office wear and Branding

The phenomenon of cool fascinates me. I have seen people in their conversations often spit out the word ‘cool’ to describe something that seems to enjoy  high resonance and liking. The word’s usage is preceded by anything that eludes categorisation. It appears to be free from the floating currency of language as if everybody knows it and understands it. Anything like a shot on the cricket ground or a clothing ensemble on someone or an act on a street or a statement or décor of a room or hair cut or a brand is pronounced as cool. The meaning it contains is instantly decoded and recognised among members of a group but it appears to be a puzzle for the others. In a study I sought to explore and understand this cool phenomenon (Leveraging ‘Cool’ for Branding: Is It Paradoxical Juxtaposition or Radicalism?). As the title of the study suggests, cool was found to be paradoxical juxtaposition.

The culture which stands in bi-polar opposition of nature is created. It is a kind of lens through which the phenomenal world is seen. It helps people make sense. The beauty of culture is that it doesn’t operate at conscious level, rather, its presence is sensed upon moving into a different culture, and you say ‘oh god why do they do this, it is not like this’. This is as simple as- do you make a drink with water and ice or only ice. Body weight and its attractiveness are purely culturally defined. Sex is nature but gender is culturally constructed. Two important principles that help us understand the world are categories (male/female, work/leisure, good/ bad, ruler/ruled, dark/fair, cooked/raw) and principles (concept governing classification e.g. raw and cooked is about ready to eat or male/ female is strength and role, upper and lower class is about status or refinement (McCraken, 1986), Lord Krishna in The Bhagwat Gita also mentions  categories or binaries (pleasure/pain, love/hate, happiness/distress). These divisions or categories and underlying idea are crucial to understanding and negotiating the phenomenal world. This is possible only when categories are perceived through lens of value or importance (fairness is good because of the belief  that  it confers advantage; vegetarianism is good because of the belief that  killing is not good).

The intersection between categories and values provide blueprint for action. It is here that stories, myths and narratives become instructional. Accordingly members make choices to side with one cultural category or the other. Movies and stories are mostly developed around categories like good/evil, innocent/corrupt. These categories draw people to take clear sides depending upon interplay between overarching collective framework and an individual’s autonomy. We found cool does not radiate from conforming and being on either side of these binaries. On the contrary, it is sparked when binaries are juxtaposed.

Sometime back I came across two pieces one about menswear at Milan Fashion Week and regular office wear for women (Manish Mishra, Mint Jan 20, Feb 5, 2024). The dressing is implicitly governed by codes for men/women, office/sports/ morning/evening, classic/modern. So at Florence the designers showcased blending or re-contextualising code in menswear category: juxtaposing classic with playful touches. Here Prada and Simmons added as dash of colour to office wear, Dhruv Kapoor intersected sportswear with office wear and what characterised the show as sexiness in what otherwise has been masculinity in what men wear.

The other setting is dressing for office for women. Office dressing typically conjures images of  a uniform which robs one off individuality, identity and uniqueness. Here binaries at play are uniform versus uniqueness. The “cool” strikes when the categories are skilfully juxtaposed. The prescription reported is that well fitted could be crossed with identity expressive colour or pattern or accessory. An office is a playground of masculinity/feminity, hard/soft side, sameness/difference, formal/informal. The idea behind uniform is about transformation of differences into sameness for efficiency and productivity gains. The idea of ‘me’ militates against ‘us’. It is here that cool is sparked when individuality is expressed as a subtle expression through textures, watch, socks, belt or scarf; not as sign of rebellion but reconciliation.

Brands can learn a great deal if their name is to be prefixed with Cool.

Which brand is cool to you?

Products, New meaning and Re-contextualization

Every product is designed with an intended use. For instance the intended use for a razor is to cut hair safely and a pressure cooker is intended to cook fast using pressurized steam.  Products are born with a specific meaning which is set in a use context. This meaning defines and determines the relationship between the supplier and the customer.  Adam Smith proposed two types of values: ‘value in use’ and ‘value in exchange’.  The paradox of value explains the contradiction as to things such as water which has great use value (value in use) but has little exchange value (value in exchange), whereas diamonds which have little use value enjoy huge exchange value (a lot of goods can be exchanged for a diamond).

Saturation is often experienced in marketing when a product-customer exchange is set in a context (intended use).  Such a relationship can slide the product down its life cycle pushing it into oblivion. This calls for rearticulating the product-customer relationship in innovative ways to infuse relevance back into the product or object.  But the critical issue is if product-customer relationship is defined by intended use how can a fresh life be breathed into it? The answer probably lies in re-contextualization or use innovativeness (Hirschman).

Use innovation calls for innovating uses of a given product. The question is can an existing product solve a new consumption problem? It is mediation between existing solution and new problem. Consider  example of Arms and Hammer baking soda which was used to deodorize the fridge. But the product found unintended uses in stain removal, dish cleaning, deodorizer, wash fruits and vegetables off chemicals, teeth cleaner and coffee stain remover, hot bath to remove muscle aches, baby nursery cleaner, and fire extinguisher.  Aspirin which was meant to provide relief from headache has found a new use for heart patients who want blood to  flow freely in their arteries. Aesthetically designed whiskey bottles are used as show pieces and to grow indoor plants.  Foxall uses the term ‘use innovativeness’ to suggest behavior of people to use a product in non-intended way. Not all people are prone to use ‘innovativeness behavior’. People differ in the ‘use innovativeness trait’ . People who have innovative personality are more prone to exploring ways to find new uses of an existing product.  Innovative unintended use of products may be accidentally discovered or the user ingenuity may play a role. People use ubiquitous newspapers to dispense merchandise, as packaging material and make paper bags. This behavior may add an entirely new dimension by recasting user-product relationship.

Products or objects may find new utility by acquisition of a new meaning. Piaget and Strauss call this recontextualization. The literal meaning of the term ‘recontextualization’ is to place something in a context other than it was initially intended for.  The meaning depends upon its context. By placing an object in a new context it  acquires a new meaning or achieves a change of its meaning.  Consider vinyl record players (functionally meant to reproduce sound inscribed on LP records) thats have acquired a new meaning as display object (artifact that belongs to a different era) by recontextualization. Worn out pair of jeans which are abandoned (trashed) by people are recycled and command high prices from some people who use these as means to express their style. In seventies, punks used everyday objects like safety pins and blades as jewelry (new context). Rugged pair of jeans originally meant for the workers found new meaning as ‘casual wear’ as an alternative to ‘formal’ wear (not only wear but also attitude and personality).  Recontextualization as a concept is linked with ‘bricolage’ which means constructing something with whatever material is available. For instance an artist may sculpt something by using everyday objects (utensils or discarded material).The  Rock Garden in Chandigarh as well as the human skull made out of utensils by artist Subodh Gupta.is a bricolage where discarded materials have been used to lend concrete form to an artist’s imagination.