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5:00Am I'm up with a crisp Celsius energy drink running 12 miles today. Grab a green juice, quick change and head to work. Meetings, workshops. One more Celsius. No slowing down. Working late, but obviously still meeting the girls for a little dancing. Celsius live fit. Go grab a cold refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now@celsius.com jump scare everyone. I never really look like this, but anyway. Hello from New York and New York Fashion Week. I am here in New York City this week. I'm going to Evie magazine's first ever live event that they are hosting, or I guess in person event. I'm gonna be on Fox a couple of times and I am going to my very first ever New York Fashion Week fashion show, which is very crazy and very cool. I am going to Elena Velez's show. That is what we're doing. So come along with me. You'll see some fun faces, including Alex. Let's do. Well, last night was wild. Hi, guys. Good to catch up. Hello from New York. Last night, you might have seen on X, I went to Elena Velez's fashion show for New York Fashion Week. And when I was planning out this entire week because I have a bunch of events here this week and I'm doing Fox and all that stuff, I specifically intended and planned to do today's episode, Saturday's episode on that experience. My first ever fashion show and why I think Elena Velez is such a unique designer that often faces so much backlash in the mainstream industry. But the show itself and. And the attendees and the models are getting a lot of traction online. So I thought we should start out by discussing that because, yes, you might have seen Clavicular walked in the show. He actually closed the show. He was the last model to walk on the Runway. And yes, I got to meet him. Cue the screeching online from Angry Men. You might have seen it if you've been on X. So sorry to have ruined your day. But yes, I did meet Clavicular. I don't give a fuck. Cause Twitter's not a real place now. The whole thing was just crazy to experience. But honestly, in my opinion, I think it was really smart of Elena because she brought Clavicular in. He's obviously having this hu moment online. She basically let him stream everything from the fitting to hair and makeup to actually walking on the show. Like, we were sitting front row watching and like his camera guys were walking, like with him and filming the crowds like they were completely involved. And so all of this Exposed Clavicular's fans, the tens of thousands of people watching him on kick, the people clipping his videos on X, they exposed them to Elena and to Fashion Week in general. Just opened them up to a whole new world. And I will say this is not the first time that a streamer has walked in a fashion show, but she really gave him free reign and gave him free access, which was very, very cool to see. Now, in addition to Clavicular, she also had my friend Liv Schmidt walk in the show. She is the girl. I talked about her on comment section a couple of years ago, but she was literally kicked off of TikTok. She was banned on TikTok because she has this thing called skinny society and she's like a fitness and health influencer and she was telling girls how to portion control and calorie count, and apparently that was triggering and harmful for people in the body positivity community. So, yes, she was literally banned off of TikTok. She was dropped by her modeling agency. So it was like a cool full circle moment. She got to walk in her first fashion week show. She was like, covered in Vogue by being in Elena's show. Elena also had some, like, controversial musicians walking. I think that she also had a detransitioner in the show. I didn't catch that individual's name, but I was at the show with Brittany Hugo Boom, who is the founder and editor in chief of EV Magazine. They also just did a profile on me being at the show, but Brittany apparently knew who this was and pointed her out. But needless to say, amidst all of that, that interesting cast of characters, Clavicular was very much the most viral moment of the night. And so because he was there and because I was in attendance, there is now all of this discord course on X, I would say about me being there and watching while he walked and meeting him and God forbid, this is the worst. God forbid. I'm so sorry that I did this, but I smiled at him. Oh, my God. Cue the meltdowns, guys. They are freaking out over on X. And what I need to say to that is, oh, my God, people go touch grass. Like, seriously, kick rocks, touch grass. Log off. Go speak to a woman in real life. Go outside and stare at the sunshine. Like, I cannot believe that this is something that is being debated and argued about. Now, first of all, for those individuals, if you want the full story, I did not even know the Clavicular was going to be walking in the show. When I was first invited and agreed to go, I. I Didn't think that he was gonna make it after all because he was literally just in jail in Arizona. But, yes, he ended up walking. And obviously I was going to take the opportunity to meet him. After making content about him, and after weeks of mocking him and saying that I thought he was just like a shell of a person who had no values, I thought the respectful. The good thing to do would obviously be to go say hi in person and meet him and not be an actual asshole in real life, because I am not an asshole. But unfortunately, because every part of his life is streamed to people online, smiling and being nice means that you are a ho who hates her husband and hates her family. So that's the discourse online. Again, I will say go touch grass. I don't give a cause. Twitter's not a real place. Like, are you people crazy? We do not live in Saudi Arabia. Sometimes two women go out without their husbands, and sometimes women, oh, my God. Interact with the male species. Again, touch grass, log off. It will be better for you, I guarantee it. Anyway, moving on from that whole scandal online, needless to say, like, the show itself, again, it was a very cool but wild experience. It was wild to actually be at New York Fashion Week. That was never a place that I thought I would end up, and I really had no idea what to expect. But, guys, I learned so much. You guys might know this. You might be more educated than I am, but I am a normie, and I didn't. But the way that it goes is that there are shows all week long, and it's basically how it was described to me, is that it's the same group of fashion buyers and editors and influencers who go to these, like, 15 shows a day. And obviously, you have the influencers and the celebrities there that are posting about it. But the reason for Fashion Week is for these magazine editors and these fashion buyers to go and see the clothing being put out in this season by these designers. And what was so cool to me, I guess funny to me, was that you could so clearly see who was a buyer and who was an influencer. Sitting across from Brittany and me was this girl who so clearly, clearly was in the industry. Like, she was not dressed in the tone of the show. She did not look grunge. She was not dressed in black. She was just in, like, a normal outfit. She looked exhausted. Like, she was sitting across from us. She, like, had her head in her hand. She was, like, making notes on her phone. She was actively watching the show, but, like, she was not bought in. And then all next to her were the influencers. And they were, like, dressed to the nines, sunglasses on, like, there was this girl that was kind of, like, adjacent to us. She had this white blazer on. And guys, to, like, use a clavicular term. Cause we're talking about him. She mogged the entire time. Like, literally looks like that for the entire show. She did not put her phone down for one second. She was clearly there just for content. She got up. She was taking selfies with all of her friends. People were tiktoking was a whole thing. But it was just so funny to me that you could see the different people and why they were there. Again, it was just hilarious. I could not believe I was there. And it was just such a fun people watching experience. And then, oh, my God, guys, do you know who else was there? Because, yes, she had controversial people walking in the show, but she also had controversial people in attendance. Me, George Santos. I turned around as we were leaving, and I basically bumped into George Santos. And guys, I was starstruck. I don't really get starstruck very often, but I turned to Brittany and I was like, my God, I can't talk to him. Like, I don't. I don't need to meet him. I don't need to, like, take a picture. But it was so funny because, like, George Santos, yes, he's this Republican politician. Yes, he was, like, kicked out of Congress. He went to jail. He was pardoned. That's his whole story. Kind of a crazy individual. He has this, like, massive fan base now. Like, people were swarming him. All of these girls were taking photos with him. He was, like, throwing his jacket over his shoulder and saying, let's mog, baby. And like, he was smizing in every photo. Anyway, after standing and watching him take photos with, like, millions of fans, I finally got up the courage. We took a photo together. He is very sweet. He's very funny. But it just reminded me why I should basically never leave the house. Because I'm always running into people that I talk about on the show, like, sometimes not in a positive light. And I'm like, oh, my God. Sorry. But I promise I'm nice and I actually don't hate you at all. I did it twice in one night with clavicular and George Santos. Cause I remember ripping into him on comment section when he was still in Congress. Anyway, needless to say, all that aside, they were both very nice and water under the ridge. The whole show, the whole evening just felt like a fever dream. And I will have a Whole, like New York Fashion Week, the events that we're doing, vlog up on Cooper Confidential, if you guys wanna watch that. But I wanted to do a separate video for YouTube talking about this and the reaction online, because it's not very often the conservatives, me or George Santos, whoever, get invited to major fashion shows. And this is why I chose to go. Really, the only other time I can think of was when Kanye and Candace did the whole White Lives Matter shirt. But, like, even that was very much for political reasons. It was less about the fashion and more about the political statement. But that is why this designer, Elena Velez, is so interesting to me and why I decided to come to the show, even though I'm definitely not like a fashion person. I don't know a lot about designers, but she interested me because she's brave, she is authentic, and she, most importantly, refuses to be put in political boxes, even while day in and day out, the mainstream press is circling her and labeling her as alt right and problematic and post woke in all of these terms. And you're probably wondering, like, oh my gosh, like, what did this girl do? Did she go to a MAGA rally? Did she shake Trump's hand? Did she not post the Blacksmith Square in 2020? Like, what did she do? Guys, I hate to break it to you. It was as simple as in 2024, she threw a Gone with the Wind inspired literary ball during Fashion Week, which the Washington Post literally called pointedly hostile, her doing a Gone with the Wind fashion show. And why, you might ask? Well, obviously because Gone with the Wind is racist and we cannot be celebrating that. On top of that, she also had one of the Red Scare podcasters who was right wing help host the event. And that was just the cherry on top in 2024. But more importantly and more offensively, they found it hostile, even D because Elena and her co hosts didn't seem to care about these racial and political tensions. No, they actually openly poked fun at them, which obviously is not allowed in our society. WaPo wrote the dare of focusing on the novel and film, which have been debated since their releases in the 1930s for their racist stereotypes and framed with trigger warning since 2020, hung over the evening, giving it a nefarious rather than nostalgic mood going on. They also wrote the specter of the work's bad reputation, especially its treatment of race, clung to the talk which was going on during the fashion show, like a bad handbag, mostly by the host's design. And one of the hosts referred repeatedly to the topic, we're not allowed to touch on which was race. And this author had a big problem with that of poking fun at racism. And then the article concluded with this you can say what you mean and feel and think is wrong with the world through cloth and stitch and stages and music and mood. That is what a great designer does. Velez is clearly capable of that. He writes, but also seems obsessed with promoting this dated worldview to the point of self destruction. It was, to quote Chester Cheetah, another cartoonish ant hero who pushes junk dangerously cheesy. Dangerously cheesy. That is how far he went. He's saying that she is going to destroy herself by pushing back against his politics. So he believes that she is destroying herself because she's pushing back on what he perceives as political correctness and that it is dangerously cheesy. Well, sorry to inform you, not as cheesy as my ad transitions which brings me to Helix. Now that it's colder outside and I spend more time indoors, especially in my bedroom, comfort and quality sleep are simply non negotiable. 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Go to helixsleep.com Brett for their President's Day sale and get 27% off again. That is helixsleep.com Brett for Their President's Day sale and get 27 percent off and make sure you enter our show name after checkout so that they know we set you. Now speaking of improved sleep, you guys need to check out Jevity because if you are as tired as I am of going to the doctor once or twice a year, having them run like 12 basic blood work tests and telling you that everything looks normal and then just sending you home with no solutions while you're still feeling meh. Then you need jevity jevot over 100 biomarkers, not 12100 and a licensed phlebotomist literally comes to your house to do the blood work. No waiting rooms or rushed doctor's appointments. And the best part is Jevady doesn't just hand you your data, those hundred biomarkers and say good luck. You actually get a full care team that helps you understand what it means and what you can do about it. Custom supplements and a lifestyle plan based on your blood work, not some generic one size fits all thing. So if you are done accepting normal when you feel anything but go to gojevity.com BrettCooper and use code Brett for 20 again that is G-O-G-E-V-I-T-I.com BrettCooper take your health back today. Now back to the point. The reason why I pulled out that Washington Post article and I'm talking to you about Elena is because this right here is why so many artists have walked away from the left because of this holier than thou mocking disdain for anyone who pushes boundaries or steps out of line. Instead of Elena's work being seen as creative and innovative or unique and it being celebrated, it is seen as problematic and something too snuffed. And all of this brings me to my next point about Elena now. Another reason on top of the awful Gone with the Wind party, another reason why she has become so controversial is because she is linked to a group of New York City creatives who do routinely step out of line, who are anti woke. And that ideological movement and community is often referred to as Dime Square, which is actually the name of a square or neighborhood in New York where they often hang out and throw parties. One article writing about this community from the Christian Science Monitor said, in many ways Dime Square scene began when young New Yorkers, skaters and creative types became sick and tired of pandemic restrictions and they began to revel. So this is like a New age community. Shouldn't say New age. I don't mean New age in terms of witches. I just mean this is not like a long running thing. This really started in 2020. The author goes on and says maskless party started up. A playwright and conservative magazine contributor began sharing his work in living rooms. A new local newspaper, Neighborhood Bulletin, called the Drunken Canal, began documenting the punk like disregard among youths for Dr. Anthony Fauci's rules. He went on and said a general vibe in Times Square is that no ideas are off limits. A reaction to what many artists see as the stifling censorship of left wing cancel culture. Now, throughout this article, the author is speaking to these different characters and artists. And one of the artists that he spoke to is actually a friend and a model for Elena. And she said, quote, people accuse me of being fascist or a cultural conservative. She said in an interview, quote, I actually feel more like a degenerate artistically. I'm a free speech absolutist. Like, just reading all of this about Times Square, like, these are my people. I feel so seen by this and in our very politically polarizing society, where now both sides are becoming increasingly extreme in how they demand that you tell party line. And they seem to enjoy outrage for outrage sake. Like, I feel like these are a lot of people's people. Like, I feel like we could relate to a lot of this. And so to bring this back to Elena, this is the crowd that she runs in. It is controversial, it is problematic. And so that has left a stain on her work in a lot of ways. And even though she is constantly battling this discourse, she's constantly battling the press, she has chosen to play into it, to lean into it rather than conform. But obviously that comes at a cost. And sometimes she struggles to get at sponsors for her shows. And like, already people in the industry are slamming last night's show. For example, one person on X said, elena Velez is a disgusting freak for constantly offering her throat to the Nazi right wing so that they can stick their boots in it. We need to shame people who attend her shows and shame the stylists who put their talent in her garments. Thank you, random person on X. Another person said, yeah, it's Elena Velez. She is a retard. She does make good clothes, though. Well, at least you're giving her a compliment. And then the last one I'll read is this person who said, send the Elena Velez casting director and the PR team to the guillotine. I mean, that is so tolerant, so loving and inclusive, per usual, so creative, artistic and interesting. I mean, like, please, it is so predictable. Like, God forbid an artist does something creative and rebellious and steps outside of the traditional party line. I don't give a fuck. Because Twitter's not a real place. And ironically, in an industry full of people that prides themselves on inclusivity, I think Elena is one of the only people who actually practices it. Who knows, maybe we will even see Melania in one of her dresses at some point. Because bas every other fashion designer and house and magazine has ignored her for the past 10 years, even though out of the other side of their mouth, they're claiming to uplift women and they love immigrants, but they certainly don't love Melania. Whatever. Moving on. That was just a side point because I am still bitter over them ignoring Melania. Regardless, back to Elena. None of that criticism has stopped her. And I think that all of this just makes her work more interesting. It's more authentic. It is more real. And no matter what the online discourse is or what the mainstream media is saying, the cool thing is huge names still love her work. She has dressed people like Ariana Grande and Charli XCX and Grimes. She's even dressed Taylor Swift. She literally designed that iconic black skirt that Taylor wore in the Fortnite music video with Post Malone, which was just, like, so amazing. But, yeah, that is an Elena Velez skirt. And so I say all of that to say that I'm glad that even amidst all of this noise, she still gets her flowers and that people still love her work. And now the last thing that I will say about Elena and this event is that I don't think, or I should say, I know that she is not a quote unquote, traditional conservative, but she does understand something that most people don't, both people on the left and the right. And that is that when you shrink the boundaries around acceptable speech or discourse or art, you do not create a better society. You do not create a more moral society. You actually are just creating a more boring, soulless, commercial society. And last night's show certainly was not boring, and it certainly was not soulless. Regardless. Don't play dumb with me, Fessy. We ran your tags. I know you're not from America. You know what that means? That means you're a job thief. Moo. 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