There is nothing more human than good taste. That’s how Amy Odell opens her recent New York Times essay, “The Rise of Fashion Slop” – and it’s the line I can’t stop thinking about.
Odell traces how brands like Edikted now design by algorithm: monitoring your searches, tracking Hailey Bieber’s outfits, and spitting out 300 styles a month. Private equity has hollowed out once-distinctive labels like Everlane and A.P.C., trading creative vision for scale. The result is clothing that’s optimized, but not chosen. Efficient, but not you.
Here’s the thing algorithms can’t replicate: taste is an art. It’s a gift. Some people have it, some people don’t, and no amount of data can manufacture it. It’s not a trend prediction, it’s a point of view. The designers Odell writes about (Halston, Lagerfeld, McQueen, Kawakubo) weren’t chasing data. They were expressing something. And the people who wore their clothes weren’t wearing an aggregate of what everyone else searched for… they were wearing a decision.
This is exactly why I created my Original Customized Capsule Style Portfolio by Victoria Hitchcock. We work with clients all over the world, and every portfolio starts with a one-on-one process built entirely around you – your life, your coloring, your proportions, your actual calendar, not your browsing history. We pair the pieces you already own with thoughtfully chosen new ones, and the result is a refined, elevated wardrobe that feels unmistakably yours. A Victoria Hitchcock-inspired personal brand, tailored from the ground up rather than generated from a data set.
A capsule isn’t 300 styles a month. It’s the pieces that actually work, chosen with intention, taste, and an eye trained over a lifetime.
Good taste doesn’t scale. That’s exactly why it’s worth investing in.
If you’re tired of shopping in circles and want a wardrobe built around a point of view instead of an algorithm, let’s talk about what an Original Customized Capsule Style Portfolio could look like for you.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/opinion/fashion-slop-boring.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
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