Can We Ask You Something?
53 observations and questions, collected over the past few months.
The following article is part of Dot Dot Dot’s ‘Pulse Check’ series that provides real-time industry analysis by connecting the dots between trends, brands, and wider cultural movements.
What? Did you think we had all the answers? Absolutely not.
At Dot Dot Dot, we spend most weeks doing what this industry expects: observing, analysing, packaging things into something that just remotely provokes thought and just looks cool. The usual stuff.
All (loosely) informed by conversations with the people who are supposed to know of course. The creative directors, strategists, founders, the ones shaping and running the multi-billion dollar brands everyone references. Access to them certainly helps.
But if we’re honest, a lot of what we do is just trying to make sense of things in real time. Same as everyone else.
And in between all of that, we’ve been collecting questions. The small, big, and slightly obsessive ones. The kind that come up after a show, mid-meeting, or halfway through a commute on a metro.
They’ve been sitting in our Notes app for the past six months. So this week, instead of pretending we’ve cracked anything, we’re just putting them out there. Because chances are, you’ve been thinking about some of these too.
We really want to know answers to these questions, so if something sparks, respond to this email with the number of the question and your answer, or hit us up in DM at @dotdotdot.zip. Here, over the next few days, we’ll open a few of these up properly and share what comes back with you all!!! Let’s chat.
And if you’ve got questions of your own, send them through. We’ll probably turn them into something later on…
53 Questions We Want Answers To…
1. What even is “luxury” today?
2. Why do the most expensive brands so often feel the most creatively risk-averse?
3. Are creative directors still hired for taste, or just for recognisability?
4. Did Pep Guardiola actually get a stylist?
5. How many people working on a brand would actually buy it full price?
6. Why are run clubs suddenly the most effective brand-building tool in every city?
7. How many people in the room actually like the idea, but don’t say anything?
8. How many people are using the word “community” without knowing a single actual customer?
9. Why do some internet-native brands feel outdated after two years?
10. How much of a brand’s tone of voice is actually just one person internally?
11. What are the best tactics for emerging designers/artists/musicians to break through?
12. Do we think Jacob Elordi’s character Nate in Euphoria Season 3 trailer wearing all Bottega Veneta is a sign for more to come in the ambassador-entertainment cross-over?
13. How real are “sold out” moments?
14. Why do certain agencies keep winning work, even when the output feels interchangeable?
15. Why do certain brands suddenly become “cool again” overnight, and what actually changed internally?
16. How many people in a meeting are just waiting for someone senior to go first?
17. Why do some logos feel instantly trustworthy?
18. How many layers of approval are too many before a campaign becomes impossible to care about? LOL
19. We all like the Burberry social content, but do we even care about their product
20. Does anyone really enjoy a sober coffee rave? Seems whack…
21. What paper (weight, quality, finish) does Hermès use for its show invites?
22. Why are some PRs so incredibly out of touch?
23. How many ideas get killed because they were “too early” rather than actually wrong?
24. What editors are still truly critical of their peers?
25. What fashion food place is actually worth the hype?
26. Who decided that putting a founder in front of a camera automatically makes something “authentic”?
27. What’s the one detail insiders always notice first that no one outside ever picks up on?
28. What is the maximum price a simple t-shirt should ever be?
29. Are we in the era of post-authenticity? (A lot more on this in a bit)
30. What happened to all the diversity progress the industry was making?
31. Are agencies still shaping taste, or just presenting it back more neatly?
32. Why do so many people in fashion keep working for arseholes?
33. Where do LinkedIn-fluencers take their partner on a date?
34. What brand is truly leading the next era of fashion? Who’s “got” it?
35. Who decided every “creative” person needs a Substack? And who is actually reading them?
36. Why do some founders talk about their brand like they’re not the reason it’s confusing?
37. Why do some founders dress exactly like their brand, and others look like they’ve never seen it?
38. How do we differ between creators with actual taste and those who learn how to imitate it convincingly?
39. How would a truly original company even launch today without being immediately compared to something else?
40. If everything is “on brand” for a brand, what actually stands out anymore?
41. How many moodboards are just screenshots of other people’s campaigns from two seasons ago?
42. Why do so many luxury brands always have “limited budget”?
43. Why do certain brand events feel like everyone is waiting for something better to happen later?
44. How many people are involved in a decision that should’ve been made by one person?
45. Why are so many people so fast to forgive Ye?
46. What is the cheapest way for a brand to blow up?
47. What media titles still truly move the needle when it comes to authority?
48. Where does culture actually start now, and how long before a brand gets there
Where did all the Triple S Balenciaga sneakers go?
If Art Basel expands to Paris, should Paris Fashion Week move to Basel?
Which car brand is brave enough to copy Ferrari’s Luce interior?
What does Jony Ive think about Teenage Engineering?
What would Virgil Abloh be doing in 2026?
Now, answer that…