Adam Smith’s aesthetics

What is a luxury face?  A London plastic surgeon speaks about the Beautiful Face, a composite of the requests he gets from clients.[1] The chin most desired by his clients belongs to Selina Gomez and the eyes to Keira Knightley: the nose the Duchess of Cambridge. About that famous nose, the surgeon, Dr. Julian Da…

John Paul II’s linguistic turn to non-ego psychology

Tolkien-inspired tattoo design by up-and-coming Baltimore artist: https://www.instagram.com/jaynejezebelle/   ~~~~~~~~~~~   Personalism is the root philosophy of CST.  Applications of CST to fashion, or any other industry, will have personalism in play.   My previous post on the topic (http://www.ethicsoffashion.com/catholic-personalism-and-non-ego-psychology/) argued that Karol Wojtyla’s personalism affirms ego psychology.  Before we point to a turn in his…

Luxury’s most important political role?

Articles abound about the political meaning of clothes worn on certain occasions or the political significance of words on some jackets.  Such reflection is certainly appropriate but reading this excellent piece by Joel Kotkin (https://www.city-journal.org/html/new-demo-pessimism-15991.html) deepens our understanding of the political role luxury fashion might play.   V&R Chapter 1 assesses David Hume’s argument about…

Target’s design logic x Shaftesbury

Much-loved at V&R is this quote from Lord Shaftesbury: “There is a power in numbers, harmony, proportion and beauty of every kind, which naturally captivates the heart and raises the imagination to an opinion or conceit of something majestic and divine.”   Much-loved because, I think, true.  V&R has documented examples of its truth before…