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A weekly upload decrypting four codes that program our world: barcodes (consumerism), dress codes (fashion), coding (tech) and codifiers (cultural norms).

Hello and welcome to amy_coded, a weekly upload decrypting four codes that program our world: barcodes (consumerism), dress codes (fashion), coding (tech) and codifiers (cultural norms).

Here I’ll be unpacking what’s circulating across these fields. The trends gaining traction. Round ups of the conversations shaping the web. Headlines that deserve a deeper look into. What I’ve been reading. What other sharp minds are reading. Maybe a bit of gossip. The content will shift week to week depending on real-time inputs. It’s a moving target by design.

I started writing about fashion because it was the fastest shortcut into topics I’m most interested in. Things like: why we desire things, who taught us to want it (and who profits from that wanting), how we signal status to one another, what our clothes actually say about us and, yes, where to find the perfect pair of leather trousers.

Really, fashion is a prism through which nearly any subject can come into focus – a way to refract the personal, the political and the cultural. That subject might be macro, like analysing how luxury conglomerates have reshaped creativity and commerce. Or it might be something as ordinary and intimate as getting dressed — which, in itself, can reveal the invisible forces of class, gender and power that shape our everyday lives.

My other beat is tech. These two worlds constantly collide because so much of how fashion is made, consumed and mythologised now happens online. Really, it’s hard not to write about tech in some form because, for better or worse, it saturates so much of our lives.

Blend all this together and you get amy_coded – a weekly upload decrypting four codes that program our world:

• Barcodes — the logic of consumption, capitalism and commodified desire.

• Dress codes — what we wear and what it says about our values, identities and roles.

• Coding — the digital systems that shape how we interact, transact and behave.

• Codifiers — the cultural norms, narratives and power structures that define what’s acceptable.

I'm currently a Contributing Editor at Vogue Business, but I’ve worked across the spectrum of publishing — from a daily broadsheet (The Evening Standard), to relaunching a ’90s style bible (The Face), to helping kickstart a youth-first publication that launched in Dover Street Market and now lives in its own namesake newsagent in the heart of Soho (The Basement).

Outside of these roles I’ve written about Silicon Valley’s macho makeover for Wired, why some believe we’re living in a simulation for i-D and the ever-shifting conundrum of personal style for Elle. At Vogue Business I’ve investigated why so many creative directors are white men, how fashion should engage with womanhood and why consumers are questioning luxury’s mark ups.

My DMs, email (amycoded@substack), comments, etc, are always open if there’s anything you think I should cover.