--- Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
> Casual dress, on the other hand send a message "I do
> not give shit how
> others perceive me, I wear what is most convenient
> to me." It as uniquely
> American phenomenon that cuts across social classes
> - both the "trailer
> trash" and the "middle class" express the same
> attitude
I dont see all poor people dressing well and I dont see all middle-class people dressing poorly. It may be true that some poor people dress well because they want to look like they have money, just as some of them will buy a nice car for the same reason. However, believe it or not, some poor people just like to look nice, some dont give a shit. I suspect that the same is true of other classes.
My point is that your theory may be true in certain instances but completely false in others.
Another point is that everything is not a reaction to capital...it's often the reverse. A new fashion was created in the 60s, not by marketing depts, but by hippies, african americans, etc...at first, the status quo hated it but then capital had to co-opt it. That fashion insisted upon comfort but also colors and designs which the status quo found tasteless and, well, gauche.
<<We are at such a point in mankind's evolution where changed conditions invalidate all our policies that have been so successful even in the recent past, and that presumably have constituted the ideal response to a presumably unchanging and unchangeable human condition. No wonder we are stupefied and confused-but our mistake is the same which many cultures have made before us, namely to force a rigid model upon a fluid reality.
Erich Jantsch - "Design for Evolution: Self-Organization and Planning in the Life of Human Systems"
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