Supreme Never Happened
“When I waked, I cried to dream again”
- Caliban, The Tempest, William Shakespeare
Before The O.C.’s Seth Cohen became a heartthrob to girls across America, I was a virgin. In a world full of Ryan Atwood chads, there was no room for a young man who thought Ryan Adams was more important than Ludacris. With each Death Cab for Cutie reference, solo sailing adventure, and snarky joke, Seth built a type of guy. He gave women a different kind of something to dream about. And I lucked out because, in many ways, that different kind of something was me.
A friend of mine is entirely convinced that we all died on September 11, 2001. He literally believes that life ended that day and that everything since has been a simulation, some form of purgatory or, as I would argue, a dream. I do think he has a point. Since that day, our country has been led by a guy named Obama and a reality tv show host. Since that day, we’ve all bought the same iPhone every year with only slightly different renderings. Since that day, we’ve experienced “murder hornets” and a virus that magically appeared because of ….. Bats???
Maybe my friend is off base. Maybe he’s been tapping into the mushroom stash one too many times a week. But I cannot say for sure that he is wrong.
In the spring of 2001, New York Skate Brand Supreme collaborated with artist Brian Donnelly to release a skate deck featuring his creation titled “Companion.” Fast forward to 2020, and you can still see the figure known as Companion in the music video for Drake’s Toosie Slide. What began as a dream has repeated itself, multiplied, and ingrained itself into our simulation. We’re stuck with it forever.
Some days it feels like we’ll never wake up. We’re stuck with the same imagination. Will there ever be anything new under the sun? Last week I purchased a bathing suit from Noah. I was impressed upon delivery with the cheeky stickers they included with my order, but what I found inside the packaging was a pair of Patagonia Baggies with a Noah logo slapped on. Just as Toosie Slide ended up being a lowest-common-denominator letdown, so too is the reality of modern streetwear. Earlier this year Virgil abloh declared that streetwear is dead. He was wrong, as he is about almost everything. Streetwear isn't dead—streetwear never happened. At least I hope that’s the case.
