Raf Simons is one of the most famous and talented people in fashion. Apart from his own original work, he has headed Dior and Calvin Klein. This article (https://www.latimes.com/fashion/la-ig-raf-simons-calvin-klein-breakup-20190204-story.html) draws out reasons why Calvin Klein fired him. The article is written by the excellent veteran fashion journalist, Christina Binkley: I have used many of…
Smith explores the relationship between religion, justice, and the economy. To do so, I show the great moral and economic theorist made use of anthropology. It would be fascinating to tease out his sources and his influence as there is an uncanny similarity between his ideas and twentieth century French anthropology: Contracts and Solemnities in…
https://www.adamsmithworks.org/speakings This link will take you to a 1000 word blogpost I did for the Adam Smith site. It’s about art as a tutor of morals.
Roger Caillois is a Better Guide to the Sacred Foundations of the West than Giorgio Agamben
Over at the new Adam Smith website, I have a 2000 word essay on Smith’s strange paper on language. Smith is a large part of the argument of V&R, but as with some much of his work I see the figure of Lord Shaftesbury at work: https://www.adamsmithworks.org/life_times/the-place-of-language-in-adam-smith-s-economics
The Murderer Comes Home
The mystery of the liturgy coincides totally with the mystery of operativity ~~~ Giorgio Agamben In my opinion, Giorgio Agamben is the most important contemporary European theorist. Political theology in the anarchist tradition, to which Agamben subscribes, has for its goal the exorcism of theology from political economy. Though Agamben is a…
In light of the Met’s 2019 fashion retrospective focusing on the role of camp in fashion, it’s time for V&R to start considering the theme. This post is the first in a series. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ In the classic noir novel, The Big Sleep, private detective Philip Marlow stumbles across a dead man murdered with…
Man, Play and Games is a great book by Roger Caillois. It adds many insights to the already fantastic Huizinga work, Homo Ludens (discussed in many blogposts at V&R, as well as V&R Chapter 6). Philosophical works are fascinating (of course!), and some are surely close to the truth: these two books are examples. …
Scotsman David Hume is probably fashion’s greatest philosophical ally (V&R, Chapter 1). French psychoanalyst, and darling of the Left (though perhaps mistakenly: https://www.lawliberty.org/2018/01/17/jacques-lacan-conservative-icon/), Jacques Lacan is not a critic of fashion, exactly, but he does puncture the “holier than thou” posture of its advocates in today’s industry and media. Fashion combines conformity and self-harm, he…