NET GAINS

in a microcosmic scale. Our modding reference points were primarily anchored in the local shows and meets we attended, with the glossy splendour of magazines showing us how these trends were playing out in a broader sense across the country. Any awareness of what people were doing in other countries was generally gleaned from the odd borrowed mag from a mate who’d been on holiday, or a late-night segment on some random documentary series. Not today, though. Social media has changed everything. That little device in your pocket opens you up to a whole world of modifying trends – as soon as you’ve seen a new idea in America or Japan or Sweden or Australia, so have countless other people and everyone’s racing to try it out with their own unique twists.