I've had live TV on, just the gardening channel in the background while I clean. Every commercial break there's an ad for Oscar de la Renta runway dresses and I feel like that's a glaring flashing red sign for the economy when a couture brand is advertising on basic cable good lord they must be desperate for customers.
Discussion
I don't know who Oscar de la Renta is but based on "runway dresses" I'm thinking fashion designer.
When I think about the job of a fashion designer, I think "entirely unrelated to sustenance or survival". For that type of clothing, I'm going with military style gear, cargo pants, fisherman's vest...stuff that's useful for foraging, fishing, hunting, etc.
The rise of the fashion designer profession seems like a Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs thing at a societal level. In a small tribe of 20 people, I don't think there's room for anyone to specialize as a fashion designer. Pretty much everyone needs to do sustenance labor. When society has flourished to a certain point, people can afford to engage in a trade like that.
It makes me think of the Roaring 20s and Weimar and modern clown world in general. They all seem "top heavy" and top heavy things often topple over.
So, I have a bit of a different take but full context I love frills and fluff and modelled when I was a skinny young thing including some runway. I love style, even though I've never invested big bucks in couture I've enjoyed lurking in those communities my entire life.
Even in ancient times there have been artisans who craft how we look. It's easier for folks here to see leather making or wine making or western shirt making as artisanal... Because most of y'all are dudes 🤣 Couture is mostly for women. And while dudes don't appreciate it as much, it is absolutely gorgeous when done well and men would appreciate the woman in it even without understanding the context.
But the biggest profit maker in couture is it's exclusivity. So to have a *gasp* tv advertisment to normies... As if they are JC Penny?!? I was shocked when I first saw it 🤣 it means that absolutely no one is buying at their shows. Typically couture is bought out at the runway show, and maybe ready to wear mockups are made for extremely high price points that are available on request at places like Saks.
To have TV advertising means no one's buying at those levels at all. Which means the upper classes are starting to feel the hurt in the economy. It's a death bell for the brand too because even if their customers recover disposable income, the exclusivity is gone so they'll choose a different brand. So it's not something that would be done lightly at all, and is probably a last resort before bankruptcy.
If the wealthy are starting to pinch their pennies no amount of discontinuing economic reports will hide the recession that's coming. We live in interesting times.
Yes, exactly. Bitcoiners are "hodlers of last resort" meaning the last thing in the portfolio to get sold is the Bitcoin.
In that same sort of light, when economic times are tough, certain discretionary expenditures are more likely than others to be one of the first things that get cut out of budgets along with entertainment and travel and tanning salons...certain things are just extra and when times are tough, it makes sense to me that those sectors would get hit hardest and first.
Typically these customer bases are insulated from traditional business cycles and recessions. That is what makes it interesting.
tbf, men are more likely to wear "couture" than women because it is more common to have suits made. strictly speaking the definition of the meaning behind couture is that it is made specifically to a client's requirements
I love a sharp dressed man 😍👔🤵♂️
Oscar de la Renta is often what Sydney Sweeney wears:
as long as there is a need to clothe oneself, the fashion designer will exist. The desire for humans to fashion themselves to show their tribe, feel "pretty" or express themselves is part of the human creative spirit.
Of course, I'm just looking at the cases where a person doesn't have the discretionary capital, whether money or time, to focus on looking pretty or handsome or well dressed because sustenance does not demand that.
Like, look at those survival challenge reality TV shows. I think one of them is called "Alone". They don't have time to make clothing. They are too busy trying to scrounge up enough food to survive for just 30 days alone out in the wilderness.
At a certain point, the survival group grows large enough to the point where fashion is no longer simply a matter of temperature regulation and armor from bugs and snakes and thorns and whatnot.
On Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, I'm not 100% sure where I would locate the fashion industry but it would probably be somewhere in the middle. I definitely wouldn't put it at the bottom with the survival needs because clothing is a survival need that can have both function and fashion. Functional clothing goes on the bottom so loin cloths, parkas, etc.
Fashion clothing would not go on the bottom because suits and glittery dresses restrict the wearer's movement are not conducive to survival. It boggles my mind that people choose to wear a noose around their neck every day.