In 2010, Desedo has been spending a lot time in the streetwear space, for both business and pleasure. On Monday and Tuesday this week is the Cargo Tradeshow at St. Patrick’s Center in SoHo. I spoke with Rich Rodriguez, co-founder of the show, about the rise of small clothing labels over the last decade. Some thoughts from that chat which keep running through my head:

As the means of production and distribution become more democratic, and other art forms are digitized, this has paved the way for a social value shift in tangible goods. Clothes are increasingly personalized and contain more emotional data now than in the past few decades.

People can start clothing labels in the way they used to start rock bands. And it is a new mass space of artistic sharing/ entrepreneurship that has a clear path as a business model – clear at least in the ability to track and understand the ROI. Understanding this is why Cargo opens their doors to both industry buyers and the public. This approach echos the way that brands/events now court not just established press, but new media too.

As streetwear matures – labels going beyond t-shirt/hoodie into cut and sew – we’re starting to a new influx of styles and genre blending in terms of fabrics, patterns, colors and details. In many ways this is an offshoot of the hybrid/mashup culture of both Gen Y and hip-hop – creators of clothing within this space may see opportunities that are not on the radar of other folks. And in turn this has fostered a space for clothing to both be a patron of artists from other mediums as well as a new space of discourse about ethics and politics.