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February 6, 2002
The high price of cheap
A US$2,000 Christian Dior purse is the latest accessory for the rich who wish to purloin
the authenticity of the poor. It's something Marie Antoinette used to do
Jeet Heer
National Post
If you want to look like "trailer park trash," Christian Dior is willing to help you for only a
few thousand dollars. For US$2,000, Dior is selling a "trailer purse," which Valli
Herman-Cohen, senior fashion writer for the Los Angles Times, recently celebrated for
capturing "the trappings of lower-class America." In France, La Presse noted Dior's daring use
of "La culture trailer park trash," but the recent introduction of the line to North America has
evoked criticism from those who believe the fashion company is mocking the poor.
Rejecting the utility of most handbags, the gaudy red and black trailer purse calls attention to
itself by mixing together incongruous elements taken from expensive cars, including a
personalized licence plate and upholstery. By being so colourful, the bag seems to caricature a
poor person's idea of luxury.
The fact that dressing down carries such a high price is no surprise to social observers who
note that the wealthy often mimic the poor, just as the middle class has tried to imitate the
rich.
"This has many antecedents -- all dishonourable," says Joseph Epstein, author of the
forthcoming Snobbery: The American Version. "This has been going on for a long time. For a
time there was guerrilla chic, when people tried to dress as if they were revolutionary street
fighters."
The historical roots of trailer trash fashion can be found in the 18th century, when
aristocrats such as French queen Marie Antoinette would occasionally dress as poor peasants.
As British historian Emily Brooks notes, Antoinette set up a small farm where she could
pretend to be a milkmaid. After the queen draped her cows "with fine scarves and doused them
with perfume, she would use their milk to make butter and cream -- in the finest Sevres
bowls," Brooks observes. "It all left a nasty taste in the mouth of her detractors. There were
too many French villages that did not need to fantasize about poverty, after all." Eventually,
Marie Antoinette and many members of her family were executed in the French Revolution.
Another example of the wealthy aping the fashions of the poor was in late-19th-century New
York, when members of high society would dress like tramps and go "slumming" in the poor
sections of the city.
More recently, everything from torn blue jeans to grunge outfits have moved from the bottom
of the social ladder to the top.
During the 1970s, designer Zandra Rhodes borrowed from London punk rockers to create a line
of torn dresses and leather jackets with jewelled safety pins. In Zoolander, a satirical film
starring Ben Stiller, an evil fashion mogul creates a "Derelicte" fashion line based on the
clothes of the homeless.
Doug Henwood, an economist who edits the Left Business Observer newsletter, believes the
wealthy dress down as a way of appropriating the "authenticity" they believe the poor
possess.
"There has often been a suspicion among the rich that they really are just effete and alienated
while the only people who really know how to get down, have fun and be authentic are the poor
folks," says Henwood.
Historian Peter Brears says the wealthy sometimes associate poverty with sexual glamour.
"As far as aristocrats were concerned, dairymaids were the sexiest things on God's Earth,"
Brears says, hence Marie Antoinette and many in her court wanted to look like milkmaids.
Epstein agrees that the search for authenticity can motivate wearing clothing associated with
the poor, but he also believes that "sometimes it's just a contemptuous joke, and a rather
cruel one." For this reason, he believes dressing down "should be scoffed at every chance we
get."
Henwood says there seems to be an element of mockery in trailer trash fashion. "The trailer
trash thing is interesting because you can say things about poor white people that you couldn't
say about a racial minority," he notes. "You can be just as patronizing and snotty as you want
and not get persecuted for it. You can even sort of get credit for being anti-racist or
something stupid."
Herman-Cohen says critics of trailer trash fashion are ignoring the real appeal of the
Christian Dior purse, which is based on glamour. Designer John Galliano, Herman-Cohen
believes, "created the purse from the look of Cadillacs, once the pinnacle of American
success. He gave the bags perforated tuck-and-roll upholstery, sleek car door handles,
reflectors, a mini-Cadillac steering wheel, a metallic finish and a licence plate that reads
"Chris 1947," for the year Dior opened his Avenue Montaigne boutique."
"It is trailer trash," argues Epstein, who notes that purses are not even very expensive
compared to comparable products. "I gather you can buy purses for five, seven or US$15,000.
It's middle-low line if you are playing this goofy game. If you are not, it is of course a
completely insane price to pay. Even most people who are doing well are not playing this
game."
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