Staff Writer Robin Crotty delves into the world of designers and their brands representatives, to bring a new perspective to our opinions on luxury, curated stylists and what fashion truly represents.
If you follow awards season shows, the Met Gala, fashion week, or if you’re simply chronically online, you have no doubt seen some outfits that have reminded you of the adage ‘money doesn’t equal taste’. Or maybe it was so heinous that you recalled a popular saying in the world of celebrity, ‘no such thing as bad publicity’. Like all art forms, fashion is cultural commentary, both in the everyday and the high end. What is being produced, how we are interacting with it and what we are paying attention to both contributes to, comments on and creates culture.
How you present yourself can be highly impactful in your perception by the wider world. Nothing exemplifies this more than the importance we place upon celebrities and their fashion choices. Celebrity stylists truly are character creators, shaping the way we think of people into a tightly crafted image. Stylist Law Roach has transitioned Zendaya from Disney channel child star to mature actor, and Jared Ellner has honed the public projections of Emma Chamberlain and Sabrina Carpenter, among others; two celebrities who are deeply defined by their aesthetics. Brand partnerships are vital to the creation of these characters as brands like Dior, Chanel, Louis Vuitton associate themselves with different public figures, advertising themselves on celebrity mannequins.
Oftentimes it is our perceptions and associations of class and sophistication that create the value, not the product standing for itself. A marked decrease in the quality of raw materials and the transition to mass production to meet ever-rising demand means the price of new luxury goods, particularly those produced in the last 10-15 years, is increasingly difficult to justify. Yet we continue to buy into the myth, believing that just because it's a name we recognise, and it's in Brown Thomas instead of a fast-fashion shop, it’s far superior, when that is not necessarily true.
This brand obsession is something often embodied by our celebrity and wealth centric culture. However, there appears to be a slow shift in popular culture, as the prestige is increasingly placed on personal style, and more specifically on vintage clothing. This prestige on vintage clothing alongside the continued prevalence of fast fashion removes focus from luxury and high-end marketplaces, rebelling, in both ethical and non-ethical ways, against the concept of taste and style being solely associated with the wealthy.
It’s sometimes difficult to determine whether high end fashion is ‘ugly’ and/or if it’s art. Many high-end labels, runway looks and picks for Vogue covers are not meant to have mass appeal. They are intended to be unreachable, unachievable, wearable art over function or aesthetic. This removal from everyday life is vital to maintain the myth; when luxury brands are worn by the masses as an attempt to signal wealth, they often lose their appeal. Remember the now-despised Gucci belt and t-shirt popularity circa 2016! These wealth indicators invert as they become widespread, meaning it isn't the clothes themselves that we value. It is who is wearing them, what we are told about them, and what power we believe they possess.
“They are intended to be unreachable, unachievable, wearable art over function or aesthetic.”