X marks the collaboration
And a Pepper Party
Entrepreneurial subculture » subcultural capitalism
The letter X has been working hard lately. As the third least frequently used letter in English, this probably comes as a surprise to X itself.
It can’t have escaped your attention that in popular speak, X has been elevated to symbolise cultural cachet. If you’ve seen it wedged between a rotation of fashion houses and fast food - à la adidas x Gucci, Shake Shack x Hot Ones - or seen the improbable cross-pollinations that weirdly make sense (Primark x Greggs) - you’ll recognise that the interstitial “x” means one thing: collaboration. And these collaborations tell you who’s hot and what’s cool.
The semantic “x” has its roots in fashion; specifically Japanese subculture:
Tokyo in the 90s was in what seemed to be an eternal funk. As usual, it was the young people that offered hope and creative juice to society, thus a highly entrepreneurial subculture began to discover it own influence. These new creators and designers were born from a tight group of friends, so although they were perhaps competitors, they often joined forces to create new products and identities for the young.
Only in Tokyo does consumerism have such spiritual power. Thus the emergence of double brands, where products were able to take on dual characteristics and unique personalities. Soon the “X” in Japan’s subculture became a symbol of personal collaboration. A good collaboration starts with an inspired idea, a desire for unexpected results and mutual respect or pure love of another’s work — X: Mark of Collaboration – Issue No. 0053X1
Where did “x” come from? The choice of the letter ‘mimic[ked] the use of a similar mark in denoting botanical hybrids, for which scientifically the multiplication × is used’.2
Thirty years on, the use of “x” to signpost subcultural entrepreneurship has lost its potency. “x” is just as much a symbol of subcultural capitalism, driven not by the ‘new creators and… tight group of friends’ of 90s Tokyo, but by global fashion conglomerates desperate to infiltrate subcultural nooks and crannies. Now, a fashion collaboration is not always about ‘mutual respect’, but pure market economics. I would know: I worked in fashion for over a decade and have been part of such behind-the-scenes machinations.
The buzz letter “x” eventually osmosed into other creative industries, like food. The ways in which the latter aspires to be like fashion… well, let’s leave that for another article.
‘Contra-what deal?’
Since my Instagram following rose into the ‘micro-influencer’ category, so too did my eyebrow, as emails asking for collaborations started coming in.
Subject line: [REDACTED] x Celestial Peach collab
An email sent by a PR invited me to collaborate on a food delivery service (one that I am a fan of tbh!) in exchange for providing recipes and stamping my name on the collab. Do I earn anything?, I asked. No fee, she said, it’s a ‘contra deal’ basis. Contra-what? *I look it up*. Oh, it’s legalese for ‘no cash changing hands’. I turned it down.
Subject line: [REDACTED] x [REDACTED] Collaboration
In another cold email from a creative agency they wanted me - as an ambassador of my community centre - to ‘collaborate’ with their content partner for a major new museum opening in East London soon. (It’s not hard to work out which museum that is.) A cynical old-timer like me knows the museum is going through the motions of required due diligence: paying lip service to local communities who have long existed in the area. In other words, a basic CMA$$ policy to appear culturally sensitive and tick the relevant diversity boxes in their launch campaign. Would I be compensated for my time?, I asked. You guessed it…
Often these ‘collaborations’ are manufactured by PRs and creative agencies. I have nothing against either, having worked as/in them myself, but I can smell insincerity from a mile off. The ‘collaboration’ starts with a content-led brief, meaning, they think about the ideal outcome, an optics-led result - @winnie_thepooj’s Commercially Viable POC skit comes to mind - then retrofit the campaign. You are rarely a true collaborator; you are a content chess piece.
To add insult to injury, these agencies and brands try to avoid paying you by offering the nebulous ‘exposure’, as if social media currency could pay your bills over cold hard cash…
A Pepper Party
On Monday, I was part of a pepper-themed supper club featuring five dishes from five chefs, curated by Dr. Anna Sulan Masing. In the company of appreciative diners, the evening brought to life her narrative podcast Taste Of Place, which explores themes of nostalgia, colonialism and spice trade, with pepper as its thread. Do listen.
I and the other chefs had all contributed to her project in some way. This supper club was a retroactive launch party for her podcast - the result of months, if not years of work on this project. The dinner was beautifully executed, stimulating and fun, and it was also a perfect example of what I thought was ideologically collaborative about Taste Of Place. Anna chose to collaborate with people she had previously worked with or spent time with over the years. (Time is another hidden cost which is rarely compensated, but necessary for relationship building.) As opposed to the ‘optics-led’ content brief that I mentioned before, this was a values- and idea-led collaboration.
Case study: Anna Sulan x Jenny
Our informal and formal conversations go back over three years - sometimes as peers, sometimes as co-creators, latterly as friends. She’s interviewed me (Sourced, Resy, Chinese & Other Asian), I’ve interviewed her (Beauty of Batik, A-Z), etc. etc. No money has changed hands.
The tacit rule of ‘contra deal’ collaborations is that in the absence of monetary exchange, enrichment must come from elsewhere. This is the ‘inspired idea, a desire for unexpected results and mutual respect or pure love of another’s work’, described above by Alex Calderwood (founder of Ace Hotel). And I know this intricate matrix of mutual respect to be the same of each chef who had the privilege of taking part on Monday night.
The fruits of co-labour
collaboration (n.)
1830, “act of working together, united labor” (especially in literature or scientific study), from French collaboration, noun of action from past-participle stem of Latin collaborare “work with,” from assimilated form of com “with” (see com-) + laborare “to work” (see labor (v.)).3
What was admirable about Monday’s event was that Anna was up front about fees: we would all get paid, and equally. Regardless, before the collaborative supper club had been planned all the chefs had given our time and knowledge freely and generously, because Anna had laid the groundwork of our mutual respect and we knew she would do a great job with the podcast.
Trust is vital, because even where a fee is offered, entering into an “x” collaboration without an existing relationship requires a leap of faith. There are volatile factors such as quality control and reputation damage. (Yeezy X GAP etc.)
We also can’t talk about collaboration/co-labour without talking about who is the one labouring. In my area of work - which is primarily around cultural exchange and volunteering - labour has mostly been offered by women and the LBGTQ+ community. Perhaps my collaborators would be different if I myself were a white man, but again - that’s for another article.
I’ve written this piece because I’ve observed so many collaborations in all shapes and sizes across the industries. I’ve done many myself too, and learned the hard way about which ones didn’t work. These days I pick my collaborators very, very carefully; the fruitful projects bloom from seedlings planted way back - relationships that have been watered with mutual exchange of ideas and nourished by acts of goodwill.
For anyone planning collaborations in the spirit of doing something cool, here’s my simple advice:
Stay true to the essence of “x”
http://arkitip.com/product/x-mark-of-collaboration-issue-no-0053x/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X#Other_uses
https://www.etymonline.com/word/collaboration
Really enjoyed reading, Jenny! Your newsletter is fantastic. (Great to see you again at the Pepper Party, and v. chuffed you used my photo!..)