A fashion world unto himself: Russell Brand
Russell Brand is a true intellectual, I make the case here: https://www.lawliberty.org/2018/10/25/russell-rebrand/
Harmonizing Hume and Pope Francis
Harrods is thriving despite being somewhat aloof from the digital economy (https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/global-currents/in-a-digital-world-harrods-bets-on-tradition?). A business very much about a place, it is developing sales strategies from its traditions, relying on in-shop experiences rather than the rapidifcation and technoscience made possible by the digital. Though a critic of luxury, Pope Francis would have to approve much of…
A fashion forward ancient Roman shoe
The Saalburg is an ancient Roman fortress in Germany and this link (https://mymodernmet.com/womens-shoes-ancient-rome/) takes you to an astonishing ancient artifact: a decorative leather woman’s sandal that is quite up to the minute. The Saalburg is typical of the forts that ran across northern Europe and marked the outer limits of the Roman Empire. …
Gucci explains why undergraduates require the liberal arts
A long and interesting article about Gucci’s chief creative, Alessandro Michele (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/t-magazine/alessandro-michele-gucci-interview), documents the continuing relevance of the liberal arts. As explored in V&R, Chapter 1, Hume argues that the engine of commerce is the refinement of the arts & sciences yet one hears all the time that the liberal arts are moribund. A…
Perfume and hierarchy: the case of Le Labo
V&R is wedded to the idea that a business is most moral when modelled on the estate of Max Scheler (V&R, Chapter 5). A good example of the estate, even within vast industries, is the genba — the solidaristic and innovative worker’s ethos of Japan (“Japan’s Famed Manufacturing Model Is Facing a Crisis” [WSJ:…
Veneration: the origin of African fashion
In an interesting article — https://fashionista.com/2018/10/sustainable-ethical-fashion-clothes-aesthetic-style — Dominique Drakeford explains that African slaves were required to wear drab clothing. However, for liturgies and veneration, they had license to make their own clothes and so favoured cloth of vibrant constellations of colour. She writes: “In order to feel liberated and to make a distinction between their…
The ever-insightful Andy Warhol
“Warhol loved snapping nudes, full on nudes, which he called “Landscapes”” (https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/opinion/op-ed-in-the-universe-of-warhol?) This is an interesting idea: The body as a landscape. It puts me in mind of Leibniz’s beautiful claim that the body of the monad is like a garden. Warhol is the definition of avant-garde and with skincare companies scanning the face…
Risk management and fashion
Over at Law and Liberty I have a new post on geopolitics. It’s a review of the latest book by Robert D. Kaplan: https://www.lawliberty.org/2018/10/01/american-power-in-a-medieval-world/. His books are always excellent and offer “big picture” analysis of major world trends. Kaplan is extremely well-read but also has his “nose to the ground” and so combines understanding…