Manic Metallic

Manic Metallic, having begun with online publishing in 2019, was officially incorporated in 2021 by Founder/Editor-in-Chief Liberty Gaither.

Manic Metallic is a woman-led fashion media company that creates audio, written, and video content supporting our belief that fashion is an art, discipline, and societal force for change. It is a fashion media company that aims, first and foremost, to critique fashion as an art and respect it as a discipline. We take fashion seriously, yet we allow for fun to be had within that seriousness. We wan

t to bring the emphasis back to the fashion industry and its players – and away from the hype of the entertainment sector. Manic Metallic offers written, audio, and video content that furthers its goal of disseminating knowledge of fashion as both art and discipline. While the heart of our business is our online fashion publication, we will be expanding into the following activities in the foreseeable future:

- Hosting discussion groups/facilitating workshops centered around fashion topics pertinent to Manic Metallic
- Selling e-products that have the goal of helping the public to understand fashion as an art and a discipline – and to treat/respect it as such
- Building partnerships in order to collaborate on hosting fashion exhibitions, gallery shows, and possibly festivals
- Supplying publications other than our own with well-researched articles
- Speaking engagements that will further our overarching goal (stated above)

Manic Metallic reserves the right to critique all subjects pertaining to fashion. Equally, we reserve the right to be independent – to be without master. In the interest of maintaining the integrity of everything that we publish, we fully intend to stick to this ethos.

01/06/2025

We’re excited to bring our newsletter to Substack!

We explain that decision - as well as have a discussion about other cool topics - in the first edition of this version of the newsletter when it is sent out tomorrow at noon.

If you are already a newsletter subscriber, you have already been converted to a free Manic Metallic Substack subscription.

If you’re not yet subscribed, check out our bio link to get on the list.

Any Q&A, feel free to DM me here on Manic’s account!

- Liberty,
Manic Metallic founder

04/30/2024

“Who really holds power when it comes to creative professions?

Is it the artists, with all of their trial-and-error over countless years to see what styles, media, and forms work best for the type of art they want to produce and the vision they wish to execute?

Is it the persons or entities who control the purse strings, making the achievement of the artist’s vision wholly dependent on their backer’s financial cooperation?

These are a couple of questions that I’m left with after attending the Alexey Brodovitch: Astonish Me exhibit at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, PA, and referencing the finely detailed guide accompanying the exhibit.”

“The fact, however, that this is the first major – and let us define “major” by “well-known”, in this instance – national exhibit of Alexey Brodovitch’s work leaves one to wonder how someone who held so much authority in the arts, fashion, culture, and publishing spheres in New York has not been honored by any of that city’s illustrious arts institutions.

This would, for example, have seemed prime territory for the Museum of Modern Art or the Jewish Museum. That the Barnes Foundation took the initiative to honor Brodovitch’s work in Philadelphia – the city where he first made his mark in the United States – has a ring of poetry to it.”

Read the article at our bio link.

04/26/2024

“In viewing Brandy Hellville & the Cult of Fast Fashion, one is hit with the soul-crushing realization that we have been down this road again. And again. And again. And again.

More photos of the mounds of discarded clothing from Western society forced into the hands of Ghana’s citizens – after all, why should we Westerners have to deal with our own issues? Why not make third-world countries figure it out for us? A sordid tale – one as old as time.

More stories of workers who were exploited and abused. Mostly women, but that seems to be standard procedure throughout the supply chains of a number of companies in the fashion industry.

More moments of reckoning for the bad corporate actors, followed by a canceling of their cancellation and a return to profitability.”

“It all feels like an unfortunate rerun that we’re doomed to watch, over and over again.

And, as a film from the great Stephen King once noted, “Hell is repetition”.

Read the full article at our bio link.

04/08/2024

In line with our goal of putting forth solutions in a fashion industry that frequently engages in conversation that doesn’t move the needle, we’re releasing a list of brands that we’ve found to be on the affordable side of the sustainable fashion spectrum.

Specifically, these brands provide affordable sustainable fashion under $100.

We realize that what would-be consumers see as one of the biggest issues with the sustainability movement is the issue of cost.

After all, even if you believe in being environmentally-friendly with your fashion purchases, how can you do that when you simply don’t have the funds to purchase this eco-friendly clothing?

While sustainably-minded people (including us at Manic Metallic) have specific ways that they frame the affordability issue (cost-per-wear being one of the more commonly cited points), what we have to realize is that sometimes the money simply does not exist for some people to purchase a $300 sweater or a $200 pair of pants.

To people in that situation, no amount of talking is going to change their financial situation.

So this is what we’ve done here: we’ve assembled a list of brands that create sustainable fashion for under $100.

Some of these brands even have offerings for under $50. These brands originate from various parts of the global fashion scene.

Find out what those brands are in our latest article, linked in our bio.

03/26/2024

“Did you know that creating a green dye for clothing used to be virtually impossible centuries ago – and that at one point in history, there was a version of the color’s dye that was so toxic that it caused skin blistering, vomiting, and death?

We’re referring to Paris green, to be exact.

And you’ll find this out – along with other fascinating historical information on the history of color dyeing – if you visit “BOLD: Color from Test Tube to Textile”, currently on display at Phiadelphia’s Science History Institute.”

Or, you could read our review and learn many of the fascinating tidbits that the exhibit included.

Read it on our website at the link in our bio.

03/20/2024

It was about time for us to redo our About page to better reflect what Manic Metallic stands for as a fashion media company.

A couple of important points listed in this carousel:

- “We do not want to participate in a fashion culture in which the conversation becomes the solution – we seek to kickstart conversations that lead to solutions, and our eternal goal is for Manic Metallic to take part in those solutions as beneficially to all involved as we can.”

- “We both stand with – and support – fashion workers at ALL levels of the industry, their rights to unionize, and their rights to perform their duties in safe working conditions.”

- “We believe that workers at ALL levels of fashion deserve a living wage. And in our definition of “living”, that includes the ability to thrive, not simply get by.”

If our mission is one that you can get behind, we’d love for you to grab a subscription to Manic Metallic! Check our bio for the link, or we can DM you the link to sign up.

03/19/2024

Manic Metallic has officially moved to a paid subscription model, and we’re excited about the move because it answers a frequent question from our audience about how they can best support us!

Our audience members can now purchase either a monthly subscription or an annual subscription from Manic Metallic.

Read this post, click our bio link, or DM us if you’d like to further understand the reason that we made this move.

You can purchase subscriptions at our bio link, or we can DM you the link to sign up.

06/14/2023

“One couldn’t help but to think during the [2023 Drexel Fashion] show, however, that the majority of these extraordinarily talented students – of which there were 34 that showed the final collections of their respective academic careers – were likely going to leave the city of Philadelphia and take their well-honed fashion skill sets with them. And that is truly unfortunate.

But why are they leaving? Well, what else would anyone have them do, considering that there is almost nowhere for them to go to continue building their professional skills in Philadelphia?”

We take a deeper dive into why the city of Philadelphia’s fashion industry loses much of its top-tier fashion talent once those students finish their studies — and what can be done to remedy this issue — in our latest article.

Click our bio link to read it in full, or simply head to manicmetallic.com.

FOLLOW Manic Metallic to see fashion as it should be seen: artful, respectful to the discipline, and aiming for societal positive impact!

05/09/2023

We had the chance this evening to attend the “Breaking The Mold”: Unusual Journeys In Fashion Entrepreneurship conversation hosted by Dr. Kimberly McGlonn ( ) at Drexel University.

We got to hear from two excellent Philadelphia creative forces - and . Both had fascinating stories and inspired everyone in attendance.

Drexel University’s fashion program is truly a treasure to the fashion community in Philadelphia and to the national & global scene as well.

04/27/2023

Episode 48 of The Manic Metallic Podcast is a masterclass in branding and visibility, courtesy of multifaceted St. Louis-based fashionpreneur AK Brown ( ).

We discuss such topics as:

- Why we are stronger together in fashion rather than constantly working against each other - AKA, why we need to set our egos aside to achieve positive results for fashion

- The concept of a “fraudscape” - and how it has made its way into both the fashion and media landscape

- Why we really, REALLY need to double down on creating websites and newsletters for our businesses - and how to get newsletter subscribers

- An argument for counterfeiting and dupes that you would not expect

- Meta/Facebook’s blue check mark monetization initiative

- How to get media visibility - and why it isn’t always necessary to have a large audience in order to build partnerships

- And more!

The podcast is available currently on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and RadioPublic, and wherever else that you get your podcasts.

FOLLOW and to see fashion as it should be seen: artful, respectful towards the discipline, and aiming for positive societal impact!

04/19/2023

In Episode 47, we speak with Leslie Gallin, past president of footwear for Informa Markets and current consultant in the fashion industry.

Among the topics that we discuss are:

- Her time working with the inimitable Alber Elbaz at Geoffrey Beene

- The traits that you need to make it in the fashion industry

- Why fashion creatives need to enhance their business knowledge of the business side of the industry

- Why asking for help in fashion is beneficial

- How to tell a story with your brand for the market without selling your soul

- Why it is so hard to get standardized clothing sizes in fashion

- And more!

The podcast is available currently on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and RadioPublic, and wherever else that you get your podcasts.

FOLLOW and to see fashion as it should be seen: artful, respectful towards the discipline, and aiming for positive societal impact!

04/06/2023

Every two weeks in Manic Metallic's biweekly newsletter, we give our newsletter subscribers our takes on fashion industry news and internal company updates as well as fashion cultural recommendations and spotlights of fashion artisans doing interesting things in the industry.

In the latest edition of The Manic Metallic Newsletter, we zeroed in on topics like these:

- The UN Fashion Charter Progress Report
- Gucci's collab with Bored Ape
- A sustainable fashion journalist that is doing important work
- A fashion event happening in June in Jacksonville, Florida
- A fashion sustainability forum happening this month
- A breakdown of Manic Metallic's three most recent podcast episodes
- Manic Metallic's company goals for the month of April, by the numbers

If this all sounds like it makes for an interesting newsletter, it does.

And we would love for you to be one of those that joins our biweekly newsletter community this month!

You can join by clicking our bio link.

FOLLOW to see fashion as it should be seen: artful, respectful towards the discipline, and aiming for positive societal impact!

Address

Philadelphia, PA

Website

https://www.manicmetallic.com/

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