the pop cultural: sights, sounds and pages

Last year, I watched this mini series called ‘Blood, Sweat and T-shirts’ (I blogged about it on my personal blog so I’ll repost here) and it was eye-opening to clothing manufacturing. While I have major concerns about the quality of conditions for workers and how under paid they are, I understood how complex the problem was. First off, there are almost no brands/labels that only manufacture in the US and even then, you don’t know how they are getting the cotton or other materials.

I had started ‘Deluxe’ by Dana Thomas earlier this year (paused reading to let my friend who was reading it with me catch up) and I raved about the book in an old post. I’ve picked it back up to finish it and am reading about globalization from a manufacturing standpoint. Even the most extreme luxury brands have pieces of the clothes, fabrics, etc. made in China, Hong Kong and other places, shipped to them in Italy and then the finishing touches are done there. This is enough for them to be able to mark it as ‘Made in Italy.’ It’s all an illusion of the quality of materials. We as consumers are definitely being manipulated. For anyone into fashion, I said it before, but will again…this book is a must read.

I’m obsessed with this book, Deluxe by Dana Thomas. I’m half way through and I’ve deemed it as an all time favorite read. Recommended by my friend Todd, the short of it is about how the luxury, couture fashion industry has changed to sell to mass consumers, versus just a high-end clientele, and how that adaption has devalued luxury goods.

That’s how the book is positioned, but it’s true, but but I’m getting so much out of it and see it differently. I thought going in it would make me not want to be sucked into the mass consumermism that is going on, but instead it’s made me so much more aware of which companies (Chanel and Hermes, Piaget and Cartier, and others in certain areas) are still serving the very best in luxury goods and haven’t “sold out.” OR where I can still get quality, inspired fashion at affordable prices that are more my choices, versus what the brand wants me to pick (I’m already more there but this has helped educate me how to avoid the “it handbag” for example.)

The book is full of brilliant marketing and business moves that are now standards - like Henry Racamier of Louis Vuitton’s vertical integration - told through the story behind the business. I’ve learned through Dana’s brilliant storytelling how each of the main fashion houses were inspired, born, and changing today.

LVMH is a MONSTER - I knew they owned a lot, but didn’t know the back story or the extent of it. That said, I’m still loyal to Veuve and Sephora and think they aren’t the most evil. Arnault, the guy who’s been running it is ruthless and can’t say I agree with his business tactics, but crazy to see how the company is run and become the power luxury conglomerate it is today.

It’s entertaining, funny, interesting, and reminded me why I LOVE fashion. LOVE marketing. And especially LOVE perfume. A whole chapter on perfumes! It’s inspired me to find a tour of LVM, one for the perfume houses, when I go to Europe again. It’s reminded me why I DON’T buy celeb branded perfumes. It’s raised the sleaze factor for celeb endorsement of brands more than I already had it sleazed up.

I could go on - the book is all marked up with my thoughts and comments, but I won’t. Instead I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite quotes.

• “The luxury industry has changed the way people dress. It has realigned our economic class system. It has changed the way we interact with others. It has become part of our social fabric. To achieve this, it has sacrificed its integrity, undermined its products, tarnished its history and hoodwinked its consumers. In order to make luxury ‘accessible’ tycoons have stripped away all that has made it special.”
• “‘What counts with critiques (fashion show critiques) is not whether they’re good or bad,’ (Bernard) Arnault (chairman of LVMH) told me, quoting Christian Dior. ‘It’s whether they’re on the front page.’”
• “‘If you control your factories, you control your quality.’ Arnault explained. If you control your distribution, you control your image.”
• “‘To fake luxury today is easy. You put some details from the brand’s past, you put a little bit of gold, and that’s it. I can’t bear that…Real luxurious people hate status.’” Miuccia Prada
• “At the same time in Japan, conformity is prized. By wearing and carrying luxury goods covered with logos, the Japanese are able to identify themselves in socioeconomic terms as well as conform to social mores. It’s as if they are branding themselves.” 
• “‘Their attention to detail and demand for quality is unmatched and unyielding,’ says Chanel Japan’s president Richard Collasse. ‘The Japanese have zero tolerance for flaws.’”
• ‘“Luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence if vulgarity.’ Coco Chanel”
• ‘“If I ever got a tattoo it would be “Tom Ford Lives Forever”.’ she (Rachel Zoe) gushed to Harper’s Bazaar in 2005.
• “‘A woman enveloped in luxury has special radiance.’ Coco Chanel”
• “French poet Paul Valery said, ‘A woman who does not perfume herself has no future.”