Lacan and the point of fashion

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In a recent interview, an important French commentator on Lacan describes him as an enlightened conservative (https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/1600-elisabeth-roudinesco-interviewed-on-the-30th-anniversary-of-jacques-lacan-s-death).  I was happy to read this given my recent post over at Law and Liberty (http://www.libertylawsite.org/2018/01/17/jacques-lacan-conservative-icon/).   Trying to understand Lacan is very hard — no one disputes this! — but if I had to say in a…

Lacanian sneakers?

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Luther, starring Idris Elba and Ruth Wilson, is one of my favourite TV programmes.  In a number of the opening scenes, the ever-brooding Luther is seen looking down a hole or into empty spaces.  When he first visits arch criminal Alice Morgan in her flat they discuss a picture of a blackhole hanging on her…

Pope Francis drives a classic car. Nice

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V&R likes classic cars and I learnt today that Francis drives a modest Renault 4, nearly forty years old. The article looks at the cars of heads of states.  It begins with the utterly beautiful Citroens favoured by the Presidents of France but ends with Francis’s modest number (https://petrolicious.com/articles/govern-tastefully-these-are-the-most-stylish-rides-for-heads-of-states).

Jacques Lacan on beauty. It ain’t pretty.

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Standard fare on fashion pages: we can limit suffering (https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/video/the-gender-revolution-is-here-we-can-limit-suffering?utm_source=Subscribers&utm_campaign=4d7df3cb67-marc-jacobs-to-close-stores-beauty-s-ar-revolution&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d2191372b3-4d7df3cb67-417297929).   Lacan is less sure.  My last few posts have examined what the famed psychoanalyst has to say about clothes and my post on high heels (http://www.ethicsoffashion.com/high-heels-done-jouissance-says-no/) shows that fashion is about intensifying pleasure and suffering at the same time.  This is true about beauty,…