In this issue:

OVERWORLD:
-Dries Van Noten quit - let’s learn about him.-
Mini-Stories:
-NVIDIA is AI’s pop star.-
-Russia is nuking space, is it a problem?-

THE DEPTHS:
-Here’s 5 weird ass patents.-

“Repetition is the father of learning.”
— Lil Wayne

✦Trend Picks✦

Fashion

Dries Van Noten quit - let’s learn about him.

That’s right, we won’t be oooh’d and aaah’d by the mind of Dries Van Noten for a while.

The final curtain call came via Instagram where Dries announced his decision. After four decades of reshaping the fashion, the Belgian legend is bidding adieu to the helm of his own brand.

In honor of DVN’s legacy, here’s a speedrun of his career.

✦Born to design.✦

Dries had fashion in the bone marrow. His father and grandfather were tailors - meaning that he was in a three-generation-long lineage of textile workers.

And so, in the 80s he attended and graduated from Belgium’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts; an accomplishment in and of itself.

Intra-industry fame came early, as he garnered attention as one of the infamous “Antwerp Six.”

This was a sort of Avengers-esque group of talented graduate designers from the Royal Academy who created some of the most radical and eccentric efforts in fashion design - which fully revolutionized the fashion medium.

✦Takeover.✦

After some time of consulting and freelancing, Dries set up his first Paris boutique in 2007 and slowly expanded across Europe, and eventually to Asia.

Today, DVN has six stores, including a five-story department store in Antwerp. Outside of that, his designs are sold in over 500 wholesale stores worldwide.

Which is crazy, because Dries Van Noten doesn’t advertise. This means that this worldwide takeover is thanks to decades of clothes speaking for themselves.

✦Business booms.✦

For the longest, Dries was independently funded. But in June 2018 Van Noten sold a majority stake of his namesake business to Spanish group Puig - and they remain the shareholders today.

As Dries stepped down, Marc Puig, the CEO and chairman of Puig paid tribute: “We respect Dries’ wish to step aside, after an exceptional 38-year career in fashion,” he said. “It is a distinct honor for Puig to now be entrusted with carrying his legacy into the future, and a unique responsibility we will treasure as a new and exciting chapter opens for both Dries and the brand.”

Puig is now in charge of making sure that the right people do the right things at a legacy brand. This is hard, because for 40 years, it has been synonymous with one person, and now that person is gone.

P.S.

If you’re new to Dries, here are the 4 favorite looks.

✦Mini Stories✦

-NVIDIA is AI’s pop star.-
-Russia is nuking space - is it a problem?-

🤖 NVIDIA is AI’s pop star.
A wise man once said: “NVIDIA is just Taylor Swift for dudes.” This week, this hot take has never been truer.

From the 18th to the 21st, NVIDIA’s GTC (GPU Technology Conference) is taking place in San Jose - and every tech worker and their mother is going.

This Monday Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s big boss, took the stage inside San Jose’s SAP Center, a sports arena that hosted WWE in February and is going to host Justin Timberlake in May.

“I hope you realize this is not a concert,” Huang echoed into the mic in the 11,000-seat conference.

But just cause it isn’t showbiz in the direct sense, doesn’t mean showmanship is forbidden.

Case and point: After a hard-for-most-to-understand video presentation of how NVIDIA plans to train humanoid robots, 9 robots were elevated from underneath the stage. Camera apps lit up the venue and cheers went through the air. It might as well have been a concert.

NVIDIA’s outlook: Sometimes the AI revolution seems scary. Other times, we feel like we’re living in the most exciting times. NVIDIA wants to turn the other times into all the times - to do that, you need to get a little flashy.

Here’s a highlight reel of everything NVIDIA revealed at GTC (16 minutes)

💣 Russia is nuking space - is it a problem?
In case you missed it, Russia might start sending nukes into space to blow up foreign satellites.

It’s a different type of nuclear threat, as it’s too far to fry your flesh into radioactive KFC - so don’t worry about that.

Instead, the havoc would instead be wrought on global communications and surveillance. In a world where everything is interconnected, that’s sort of a big deal.

It’s like, a thing: Sniping satellites with bombs isn’t anything new. The U.S., Russia, China, and India have all tested stellite-smashing technology. The difference is that these tests were carried out on their own satellites for demonstration - it has never been used to destroy other countries’ equipment.

Controversy: When Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon in 2021. The explosion was dangerous, as it sent debris that threatened astronauts on the International Space Station. Since that fumble, a UN panel has called for a ban on that type of testing.

… And those weren’t even nukes.

The point: Besides fucking up communications, the nuclear option could dial the debris dilemma up to eleven. And honestly, a cosmos littered with nuked satellite debris is the most 2024 thing ever - at least we’re on-brand

✦Quick hits✦

• Gen Z loves shopping at Facebook Marketplace. This is much thanks to Gen Z's second-hand appetite for secondhand shopping. Also, social media's role in shopping is growing, with 68% of Gen Z using it for product searches, leading to purchases.

• Telegram has hit 900M monthly users worldwide. Celebrated for various uses, from socializing and activism to controversial activities like illicit trade, the platform is now hinting at an IPO. Not bad a staff of 50 full-time employees.

• Gap is launching a 90’s inspired 55-piece collection with Palace. This follows the appointment of Zac Posen as creative director to rejuvenate the brand under CEO Richard Dickson, emphasizing a unique brand identity and perspective.

• Adidas reported its first annual loss in over 30 years, marking a significant downturn with a €14M loss in 2023, following the end of its lucrative partnership with Kanye West and the Yeezy brand. The sportswear titan is grappling with a 16% drop in U.S. sales and a surplus of inventory, including $1.3B in unsold Yeezy shoes.

• Shigeichi Negishi, the inventor of the world's first commercially available karaoke machine, has died in Japan. He was 100 years old.

• Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and NBA star Rick Fox are investing in technologies to make cement, a major pollutant and contributor to global carbon emissions, more environmentally friendly.

• Meta is being investigated as a platform for illicit drug sales by US prosecutors.

THE DEPTHS

History

Here are 5 weird ass patents.

Forget the AI chatbots, and humanoid robot warehouse workers. This is the true cutting edge.

In 1963, Salvatore Cirami of New York patented a “robot amusement ride.” It’s basically a robot passenger car made to look like it’s walking freely around a track - complete with “eye simulating lights, space antennas, and other fanciful or attention attracting devices.”

If you ever start a restaurant that wraps a taco how Taco Bell does the Crunchwrap Supreme - you’re getting sued. In 2007 Taco Bell Corp. filed a patent for its “comestible wrap product” - which is… well, it just is.

Some people are just next-level thinkers. David Shearon of Jackson Mississippi is one of those people, because he patented this thing.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is his hot dog holder which “...provides a receptacle capable of trapping surplus mustard, catsup, juices, and drippings in a manner to keep the same from trickling on the user’s hands or clothing.”

This thing even has openings so you don’t miss out on clasping that soft bun, and a slot for shoving your napkins — although you won’t need them, since your hands will be so clean.

Honey bottles… Why are they so lame? Let’s switch it up. Make it more psychosis-hallucination-core. Between 1951 and 1960, inventor Edward Rachins submitted a patent for a nightmare-inducing clown. Nice, dude.