In case you missed it…

• The state of Dirt, an update from our headquarters

• A new book about the rivalry between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

• Clone is publishing scoops! Reach us at [email protected] or on Signal with the username "clone.25" 🐑

Last week’s Tasteland podcast guest was Ben Dietz. Ben is a consultant to brands, publishers, and agencies and founder of the weekly Breakfast Club series. Previously, he spent 16 years at VICE. He authors the newsletter [SIC]: A Digest of Developments, which has prompted many open tabs.

Below is an excerpt of our interview, keep scrolling to listen to the full episode.

Ben Dietz: I’ve worked closely with Ruba Abu-Nimah who is a very senior art director, creative director, and creative advisor to luxury brands. And we had a big fight one time about whether a luxury brand could be less than 100 years old. 

Francis Zierer: I think you could maybe bring it down to like 10 years or something like that, but there has to be some demonstrated history of who's buying it and how they're using it. But it doesn't have to be a hundred.

BD: I don't want to mischaracterize what she said, but it had to do effectively with the idea that you can't have luxury without demonstrated history of craft and demonstrated heritage. Like the history of craft has to unfold over time. You can't invent it, you can't buy it. It has to develop over the course of that long period of time.

Daisy Alioto: Yeah, I think luxury is like cars. It's not based on what the first buyer is willing to pay for it, because I 100% believe that you can have a new watch brand and sell it to the first buyer at luxury prices. It's what is the destiny of that thing once you drive it off the lot.

And you could even have a really good secondary market for, say, a Tesla. But if you conjure in your mind's eye what is an antique Tesla, a heritage Tesla, you can only come to understand that once you see what the third or fourth person to encounter it is willing to value it at.

BD: It's interesting you should say that Daisy, because one of the big conversations that came out of the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance last year was what in today's auto market would be viewed in the future as a classic.

The consensus was the Cybertruck is the only thing in the current market that can be viewed as a future classic. I thought it was really fascinating that this thing that is so in my mind, like objectively ugly and ridiculous, satisfies the qualities that people identify as being a new classic. 🚗

Newsletter continues below

SPONSORED BY LIMOUSINE

“I went home and I was just like, ‘Everything they say about Iowa is true. It’s just going to be me against them for the next two years.’” — Tony Tulathimutte

“Women’s stories matter. They just do.” — Jamie Hood

“And that little girl grew up to be J.K. Rowling.” — Stephanie Wambugu

Dying to hear more from these literary legends? Listen to Limousine, a literary podcast from Heather Akumiah and Leah Abrams, interviewing today’s best writers on their work, their process, and how they make their lives as writers. New episodes every other week, plus bonus episodes on Patreon. Or, if you live in New York, stop by one of Limousine’s bi-monthly readings.

WHAT WE’RE READING

• How anime took over America (The New York Times Magazine) 

• Mulberry Street Radio is the sound of Little Italy (Mulberry Street Radio) 

• The number of unemployed people in the US surpassed job openings in July (Quartz)

• “The charge of being consumerist piggies at the trough now only sticks to the rich. Good. The rest of us are free.” (Mike Pearl) 

• Bad Bunny’s residency gives Puerto Rico’s economy an estimated $196 million boost (WSJ) 

• The zinesters of San Francisco (Gazetteer) 

• Pope declares 'God's influencer' first millennial saint (Le Monde)

• Is Mary Oliver Embarrassing? (The Yale Review)

Visit CLONE.FYI for hourly updates on culture and technology.