In Succession, status is signalled by what characters eat – or don’t eat. When Cousin Greg brings along his arriviste date to Logan’s birthday party – the one with the “ludicrously capacious bag” – Tom Wambsgans quips that she’s “wolfing all the canapés like a famished warthog”. Tom occasionally reveals his own middle-class greed and snobbery through his irrepressible excitement about fine food, as in the scene where he introduces Greg to the pleasures of eating deep-fried ortolan. Later, when he’s threatened with prison time, the first thing he frets about is the “prison food” and the logistics of making “toilet wine”. By contrast, the Roys, the billionaires atop the Waystar Royco media empire, seem to barely eat or drink anything at all.
https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/article/62371/1/why-dont-rich-people-eat-anymore-ozempic-extreme-fasting-supplements
Category Archives: luxury
How the Black Death made the rich richer
Although the death rate from Covid-19 is far lower than that of the Black Death, the economic fallout has been severe due to the globalised, highly-integrated nature of modern economies. Add to this our highly mobile populations today and coronavirus, unlike the plague, has spread across the globe in a matter of months, not years.
While the Black Death resulted in short term economic damage, the longer-term consequences were less obvious. Before the plague erupted, several centuries of population growth had produced a labour surplus, which was abruptly replaced with a labour shortage when many serfs and free peasants died. Historians have argued that this labour shortage allowed those peasants that survived the pandemic to demand better pay or to seek employment elsewhere. Despite government resistance, serfdom and the feudal system itself were ultimately eroded.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200701-how-the-black-death-make-the-rich-richer
THE QIPAO, A CULTURAL REVOLUTIONARY
As the old Chinese saying goes, “If one seeks to identify a true beauty, then one must look at her appearance in a qipao”. This is precisely what Temper is here to do today. Backed by a true pro in the field: Chic Xique.
Chic Xique, founded by Yolanda Luo and based in Hong Kong, is the first 21st Century qipao lifestyle-gram, bringing together anything and everything concerning this historical, cultural and revolutionary classic.
Symbolizing the liberated 1920s New China Woman, this beckons the question… Is the qipao ready for another century of rambunctious revolution?
https://chinatemper.com/fashion-history/a-qipao-tale-ii
Nice View. Shame About All The Tourists.
“Tourism has never been more integral to society — but neither has it ever felt so problematic.”
Age-old observations about the narcissistic tendencies of travel — of tourism as a means of self-actualization and a marker of status — have only been amplified by digital phenomena as more layers of mediation pile on top of those that came before. Each revolution designed to make travel more accessible and convenient seems, in time, to exact lamentable collateral costs. Airbnb-style rentals hollow out the very neighborhoods their users profess to cherish. Google Maps, online translators and internet reviews diminish host-visitor interaction and nullify the process of getting lost that is a non-negotiable precondition of serendipitous discovery.
https://www.noemamag.com/nice-view-shame-about-all-the-tourists/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
How long should brands give a creative director to succeed?
“The creative director’s role is to make the brand prominent in the current zeitgeist, so that it grows faster than competitors. The faster the market growth, the higher the pressure,” says Solca.
https://www.voguebusiness.com/story/fashion/how-long-should-brands-give-a-creative-director-to-succeed?utm_source=linkedIn&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=vogue-bz&utm_social-type=earned
‘We are creating a material monster’: the false logic of faux leather
Faux leather has been popular for decades, since the days of Warm Leatherette, the 1978 single later covered by Grace Jones. It has become a material as fetishised as it is fetishistic. “Warm leatherette / A tear of petrol / Is in your eye / The hand brake / Penetrates your thigh,” sang Jones.
The problem, however, is that most pleather, faux leather and vegan leather is a product of the fossil fuel industry, and there is no system in place to recycle it. We are simply creating a material monster, its production contributing to the climate crisis and its pollution destroying our ecosystems.
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/nov/22/we-are-creating-a-material-monster-the-false-logic-of-faux-leather
Why Didn’t Fashion Show Up for Climate Week?
This week, New York played host to one of the world’s largest climate confabs, but there was little visible presence from fashion’s biggest companies. If the industry doesn’t pull up a seat at the table, it risks getting left behind.
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sustainability/new-york-climate-week-fashion/?lid=64cy7ykuzjz7
In Milan, Independent Labels Are Gaining Ground
“I don’t think being more famous is the same as being more successful, really,” Setchu founder Satoshi Kuwata said Thursday at his showroom on Milan’s Corso Como.
Brands are also getting a boost from a fashion cycle in which shoppers, retailers and even stylists and editors are finding themselves fatigued with the industry’s social media-fuelled focus on image and branding, and are rediscovering the pleasure of product. “People like knowing that there’s a real product, a real business behind these brands,” Capasa said. “Some in the market are tired of getting excited about a brand that knows how to sell the dream but never turns it into something real.”
Call it quiet luxury, call it logo-fatigue–or something else entirely: Milan also stands to benefit from revived interest in Y2K fashion, whose DNA is all about mixing sexed-up styling and buzzy antics with the top-notch production of Italian supply chains, pointed out Mumi Haiati, whose communications agency Reference Studios works with Italian upstarts including Magliano and Marco Rambaldi.
Even as independent fashion gains ground, the industry’s ruling families are rarely out of sight. The Attico has leveraged investment capital from Moncler’s Ruffini family, which purchased a large minority stake in 2018.
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/fashion-week/in-milan-independent-labels-are-gaining-ground/?lid=x89lk7o28b5r
How Telfar Clemens is Redefining Luxury Fashion
Since the inception of his namesake brand Telfar in 2005, the designer has epitomized the slogan, “It’s not for you—it’s for everyone.” Clemens disrupted a gatekept industry with his affordable vegan leather shopping tote, affectionately dubbed the “Bushwick Birkin.” Being Black and queer, the designer hasn’t historically fit the mold of a luxury fashion designer. Clemens’ desire to forge an egalitarian definition of luxury has materialized throughout his brand’s many innovations. In 2021, we tuned into Telfar TV, while last year brought us the beloved Bag Security Program. March 27 was the launch of Telfar Live Price, and it is unequivocally the brand’s most inclusive strategy to date.
https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/telfar-clemens-live-price-redefining-luxury-shopping-fashion
The Challenge Facing Fashion’s Latest Sustainability Buzzword
Big fashion brands and independent labels are embracing regenerative agriculture as a win-win solution that could allow them to source climate-positive materials.
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/sustainability/regenerative-agriculture-fashion-climate-crisis/?lid=arib7xppi84o
Analyzing Trends 