Doug Henwood, fashion maven

Heer, Jeet JHeer at nationalpost.com
Wed Feb 6 09:32:40 PST 2002


Here's an article I did on "trailer trash fashion" which quotes from DH....

Page URL: http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20020206/1353232.ht ml&qs=jeet

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."

jheer at nationalpost.com

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