re: "The Imminent Death of Luxury"
preface: I enjoy art and fashion. I think fashion IS art, just instead of a canvas, it's wearable items. It's taking the base fact of our life that is clothing and assigning a greater artistic take because that's what us humans do. We do it to food as well, you could just make basic sustenance, but making art out of it is cool:
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But obviously, its garnered a reputation these days where it's looked down upon, definitely not artful. The reputation now is that it's a folly for hyper-rich people, met gala ridiculousness, posturing to other rich people, often also made in factories and to be thrown away after being worn once. It is purely for rich people to flaunt the money they stole from our wages back in our face and manufacture a desire from us, who they can't exist without, to wish to be them and therefore to let them continue living without a guillotine happening. But, the same feelings exist towards food and art, now, too: luxury cuisine is for rich people to try more ridiculous bullshit, art is just for laundering money and bananas taped to walls. At least, this is what most people think. It seems manufactured or at least self-perpetuating.
it's really sad and I wish it wasn't this way. I really hate how art- the fundamental uniting thread between all people- was transformed into something for the rich to tug themselves off with. I blame this in part for how artless western society is, now, and how actively adversarial people are to it now, and why AI blew up as some sort of great equalizer when it just harms regular people the most. I wish I knew knew how to fight this hate.
so I watched this interesting video "The Imminent Death of Luxury", about the intersection of class and art regarding fashion and quality, and how hyperconsumerism has destroyed what luxury traditionally was.
it's kinda fascinating to see in this day and age, a fashion commentator who is stylish but also seems to be ...normal? who likes fashion because it's interesting. I wish it were like this all the time. Watching this made me feel like some alternate world where fashion was just like anything else artful.
I can't forget how about a year ago now COACH was found to have stolen designs from random little designers on etsy, and the quality of their bags/coats was so crap that people were pulling threads out of it, the bags themselves shoddily sewn together- these expensive items were cheap massed produced garbage. I understand that coach isn't "high luxury", but I think people assume it is- because why the hell would you buy a COACH bag but the brand??
what's the point of luxury when the only solid, foundational justification for buying it- the exceptional quality for your dollar, and that the creators of it are getting their dues as art pieces- isn't even true anymore? Why would I ever bother?
I want to see the future of luxury become items that are as ethically progressive as possible- sewn by extremely well-treated artisans who don't live in rat-infested factories, who don't have to spray down bales of clothes with pesticides to deter them being eaten, made of materials grown without water waste or land-destroying construction, natural things like hemp(known for its extreme softness, durability, and very little water footprint), that sort of thing. I would shelf out premium prices for these items and feel good doing it.
as of right now, the majority of clothing I buy is almost exclusively thrifted. I use Poshmark all the time, and try to get vintage stuff, stuff that's been through the washer more than once. It isn't just to be thrifty- it's because clothing quality today is dogshit. So much is pumped out with the assumption that it goes right into a landfill, that things that wind up in closets are almost an afterthought. I wish I had the disposable funds to buy the high quality ethically created pieces of clothing because they are often really durable and worth your money.
another anecdote: After the heat dome in Vancouver and getting heatstroke during it, I lost my ability to regulate heat very well. I often dress 'colder' than I need to because I overheat like a fluffy dog in florida. It's embarrassing sometimes wearing anything more than a t-shirt and sweating through it when it's 15C/60F outside. But then I realized something... a lot of these things I was wearing while sweating, were the acrylic polyster type shitty sweatshirts or whatever. So I began buying more cotton or linen things and I can't tell you how different it is: I don't sweat like I'm wearing a plastic bag anymore. It seems like a no-brainer in retrospect I guess, but it's really been transformative.
I think the situation with art and class is dire. I have lots of thoughts but I know there's more context out there. I just wanted to share my thoughts I guess.