rest, and the fabrics of its own recession
bedcore enchants me
i wrote this in december, then laid it to rest. now that the cold days are past us, i will allow it to thaw. let’s see how it holds up in time.
at the height of my recession-core obsession at twenty-one i wrote this: “there’s nothing that paints fashion’s connection to everything more clearly than the economy. trends don’t go out of style, only adopt a form that can survive its current socio-economic landscape. [T]his isn’t the first time that buying habits changed in the face of economic uncertainty.” and now, halfway through twenty-three, i can only make vague romanticizations about how sleepy i am.
spring is an aesthetically charged season. or — like all seasons, spring is aesthetically charged. where summer sees lots of forms (brat summer, 2024; barbie summer, 2023; ect), spring is predictable. it’s the reset, the renewal, the (re)blossoming. it’s flowers and allergies. it’s promising myself, again and under the witness of others, that i am going to be better/cleaner/softer after recycling the promises i crafted specifically for the new year. a bountiful spring following a lethargic winter should excite me. motivate me, even.
instead, it’s been months since i felt moved enough to write about fashion. but in a turn of events that were a surprise even to me, maison kimhēkim’s ss25 collection and other intimately life-related experiences have inspired.
from 2021 on, kimhēkim debuts a new obsession each season where their creative team showcase the best fruits borne from experimental details and silhouettes. obsession n°13 “dreamers” turns sleepwear and exhaustion into structure and softness. the collection pays homage to all the whimsy we can write into our own dream song: the dreams that take us everywhere and anywhere, and the dreams we aspire to achieve. it’s within the first and last touchpoints of this collection that make it positively bri-core—did creative director kiminte pull this obsession right out of my brain?
the first touchpoint. invitations for the runway were accompanied with a white, transparent pill to symbolize the pure dreams we often forget. the pills had their own *do not eat* disclaimer (the[se] pills are harmless but should not be ingested). a dramatic display of glorified melatonin to awaken the reverie. how could i not be intrigued?
the last touchpoint. the show is dreamy, whimsical, and relaxed. as the affair comes to a close, all of the models initiate their final walk down the runway only to fall gracefully into slumber, returning right back to the comfort of their dreams. these sleeping beauties! my favorite moment of the whole show!
n°13 dreamers has many pieces and ensembles i would pull into my closet immediately (it’s so my style!), but its fashion isn’t the only thing that moved me. my love belonged to the details. i saw models walking down the runway with slippers and it reminded me of how my mom loves to travel just to rest in hotels. all my mom has done since moving to america for college was study and work. and then she had me and my siblings, and worked some more. and then we all went to college and she kept working. and then i started working and here she is, still working.
so every vacation where she looks down on people for not dressing up for the airport anymore and then promptly sinking into the hotel bed, determined not to move until our staycation is over, i see that her rest is not only necessary, but well deserved. how long, then, has sleep been treated like a currency?
as blissed out, and drowsy, as possible
in the name of productivity, my recession-core obsession has dug deep roots into my choice of media. in other words, i’m having an affair with scifi. it’s raised the ranks from genre i like to my favorite genre. i can dig my teeth into it. i can look for themes and motifs in its dirt, on its ground. science fiction is merely an extension of what we can be—a question and answer for what our present will become. looking at scifi and seeing the heart of humanity is honest work. scifi likes to rip into capitalism as much as the next luigi mangione variant.
is it the phones? is it the drugs? is it the politics and policies? well yes!
before the start of our long distance friendship, me and asia spent our last week in savannah together gaming. our time was occupied with nintendo cooking games, afrofuturism, and rupaul’s drag race as a palette cleanser. asia also gave me a parting gift: one last recommendation. here’s the thing, i am not a gamer girl, but i like watching gameplays and cut scenes like a movie. enter, my new favorite video game (who knew anything could dethrone until dawn).
detroit: become human is a decision-based video game that branches into thousands of narrative outcomes determined by the individual player. in this 2038!detroit, machines serve humans—that is, until their desire for humanity overrides their programming, leading them to revolt. the destiny of both mankind and androids rests in the player’s hands.
in and out of game, machines make for perfect workers. they do not require sleep. they don’t need fuel in the form of food or nutrients. their bodies will not collapse from very natural processes. they can keep working while you and i are left behind to recover, unless we attempt to mimic mechanic abilities with our own flesh and bone.
people used to brag about the hours they are not sleeping. “i’ll sleep when i’m dead.” not once did i walk to class proud of the all-nighters i spent to produce my best work. yet i was convinced that i could achieve that betterment if i push past the limits i set for myself over and over again. i can excel if i continue to work, if i continue to put off sleep, if i put all my energy into this.
it only costs every every waking moment.
you are now ready to begin detroit. remember, this is not just a story. this is our future.
2025!bri has got a lot of viva la resolutions—a majority of which can be summed up to more things to try, more things to talk about, more things to see. more things that feel absolutely, positively, undeniably human. to simply stop and feel.
i am no longer an academic weapon. i now wake slowly and surely, floating down from my bed to my desk of choice when its time to clock in for work. i lounge often. with my family and even by myself, never agonizing over “five more minutes.” daydreaming has become a means to find creative potential. my bed has become commonplace for good sleep, good conversations, and good ideas.
oh i’ve been daydreaming. worse, i’ve been thinking.
riffraff (if you are unfamiliar with bri!lore, this is my uncle) says that rest is revolution. as a serial napper, i am inclined to agree. the very notion that we have to reclaim the right to rest is tiring. next to that lone idea is a truth. sleep, universal and undeniable, is a human need we can all connect with. the intent and purpose behind rest is revolution is all about dreaming, and knowing that dreaming without hope is not dreaming at all.
tricia hersey, also known as the nap bishop, coined riffraff’s beloved phrase in her manifesto, which you can read an excerpt from: here.
she is the final boss of sleep-prioritized romanizations. even i at my most pretentious found myself skimming right past some of her blanket statements like “daydreaming is a form of rest and feels like the opening of your heart doing what it’s supposed to do” and “i want our intentional rest to scream at oppression on a bullhorn then emerge soft and full.” i pick at her sentences like the last bites of cake after my stomach certainly can’t handle another taste—yet that same pickiness is how we are led astray, how we come to miss a point in its entirety. so i read on. absorbing rest until it permeates my mind and body.
one might mistake her stance as a call to inaction. as if we should take to dreams and treat them as escapism from reality. what she really proposes is looking to your dreams as the foundation that inspires every action you take in the present. at the core of our lives is the presence of free will, of an active choice. after all, its the dreamers that carve futures from what they dare to imagine.
The dreaming is our work. The resting is our goal.
more reading, less rotting below <3
[Comme Si founder and creative director Jenni Lee] attributes the hyper focus on sleepwear to a series of trends in beauty, fashion, and design converging. “There’s this blurry line now where in the past it might be you have pajamas and then you have outside clothes, but now there’s this category and we call it ‘loungewear,’” she says. “It’s just in between where you can wear it to sleep, you can wear it outside, you can wear it at home.”
— sydney gore, bed rotting, adult bunk beds, and “bedcore”: how sleep culture took over the world (circa oct 2024) (the slumber party persists) (i particularly love its intimate references, like danielle mckinney’s quiet storm exhibit and lifestyle brands and sculptural statement pieces)
Sleep has never looked so good, nor been so attainable, coos the sleepmaxxing market – provided you can afford it, of course. [F]or many, sleep today means precious time away from the attention economy. No wonder, then, that our sleep patterns are being converted into metrics and KPIs – that we are being put to work even as we rest.
— madeleine pollard, the rise and shine of sleep capitalism (circa sept 2024) (title so brilliant i’m almost jealous i didn’t come up w it myself, but if i was jealous i would die immediately and so i’m fine) (marx found at the scene of this crime)
For [Mason Moore, lifestyle buyer for East London streetwear phenomenon Goodhood], the introduction of luxury sleepwear links with the Goodhood audience’s current wants and needs. “We have an affluent creative customer who probably earns a decent amount of income, but like most of us in our millennial era, is unable to afford a home.” Enter: homeware products that make your rented flat feel a little more luxurious. [L]uxury fashion brands have chucked on their slippers and settled down to snooze, too.
— ryan bassil, from the streets to the sheets: why hypebeasts are obsessed with bedcore (circa aug 2024) (all this confirms is that sleepy!bri will meet the styled-sleep final boss at copenhagen fashion week) (i’ll call up my cousin ayo to get me there one day) (with extreme haste) (not too eager though, i am rather tired)
in my fondest of dreams (pun very much intended) i’m running around the halls of bri’s massive brain. this was beautifully written 🫶