On Fashion: In Defence of Expensive Clothing

Austerity being the theme of the day – one might even argue for the year – let’s put on our Vogue goggles and look further at fashion.

Clothing has long been an indicator of status and identity. We drape ourselves in raiment like a curtain-wall covers the nakedness of a Modernist building – an illusion covering the mysterious reality of an interior unlikely to ever be seen. Despite facades having superficial connotations (what lies beneath?), they nevertheless make a first impression and, superficially, express values. However unlike buildings, which at their cheapest are still often commissioned and attempt to offer some novelty of design, the aesthetic values of clothing are usually given second thought by most - from fashionistas to the materially dismissive. This is presumably because taste is dictated not from a set of prevailing aesthetic values or norms, but from a consumer culture that exalts kitsch and excess and, in the process, is entangled with the corporate need for constant renewal. Creative destruction? Such a system of taste is symptomatic of society’s dysfunctional relationship with objects. Expensive clothing has the potential to offer an escape from this valueless cycle of casual disposal.

Expensive clothing must be divided into two categories independent of design: the expense of quality, in terms of design construction, and the expense of novelty. Turnbull & Asser and Jil Sander fall into the former, while Dolce & Gabbana T-shirts and Fendi sunglasses epitomise the latter. The former have a timeless sensibility regardless of their design aesthetic, much the way the Pantheon and the Bauhaus do with architecture. Expensive novelty is a gauche expression of money for its own sake that will have no lasting importance, such as the ‘Wedding Cake’ in Rome or many of Michael Graves’ buildings. Expensive clothing of the quality variety is what should be encouraged.

“Why”, might one ask, “would you be defending expensive clothes in times of economic turmoil? Aren’t conspicuous displays of wealth passé?” Conspicuous displays of wealth conjures, in my eyes, those lewd D&G t-shirts, crystal encrusted mobile phones, or garish multicoloured Louis Vuiton bags. Kitsch and passing novelty are the mot justes for these items, and these are the items that should avoided like the plague, regardless of economic conditions. Expensive clothing of quality, properly acquired and owned, can actually represent an about-turn of the values that led to our credit-binge and associated hangover.

For much of history, people held on to items for many years, rather than disposing them at a rate that overwhelms charity shops and landfills alike. Attachment and value were associated with possessions with the corresponding attention to repair or alteration being preferred to disposal. Expensive clothing should provoke two thoughts upon purchase: this is expensive and I will want to hold on to it for a long time; because it is expensive, I want to make sure the garment is well constructed and the design something representative of my values. The very cost and beauty of such items force a strange kind of austerity. The vast majority of individuals would buy fewer clothes, but they would be more thoughtful purchases resulting in a divorce from rabid consumerism. In an ideal world, there would a relationship with the ideas of the designer and craft-persons involved. The result would be a more sustainable – indeed healthier – approach to consumption. Environmental degradation demands less consumption, not more.

I realise that not everyone may share my passion for aesthetics, which has a potentially debilitating effect on this defence. I would argue, however, that the spirit of consuming less may well resonate with many now examining the mounting debt on their books and the overflowing junk in their closets sure to be peddled on E-Bay. For those with an extreme paucity of funds at their disposal, the answer lies in another change in consumption, something that will explored in the next entry: in defence of recycled objects.