This article wonders what powers the avidity of young Bitcoin millionaries for streetwear (https://www.gq.com/story/bitcoin-streetwear-overlap). The early eighteenth century Francis Hutcheson can explain. Hutcheson was Adam Smith’s teacher at Glasgow University. Here’s one of the youth millionaires: “They’re like nerdy rappers,” Finman says of his peers. “Just the way that people flex in the crypto community,…
For non-American readers the Super Bowl is the culmination of the American football season and a showcase event when companies spend vast sums to have their ads played during the very many breaks in play American football provides. There is fascination with who comes up with the best ads and the most imaginative ad companies…
Handbags sit at the heart of the business of fashion, accounting for about 90% of total revenue at some brands. Why? In a recent post (http://www.ethicsoffashion.com/fashion-marketing-unconscious/) I discussed a Jungian marketing strategy proposed by the dean of the Italian fashion school Polimoda, Danilo Venturi. Venturi argues that the unconscious is populated by archetypes and…
Here is a very interesting, short video lecture by Danilo Venturi of the Italian fashion school Polimoda (https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/education/polimoda-lecture-three-branding-the-subconscious?utm_source=Subscribers&utm_campaign=68d172373f-what-makes-a-great-fashion-ceo-anne-chapelle-reboo&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d2191372b3-68d172373f-417297929). Contrary to H&M’s move to tribalism, niche, and fragmentation (see my previous post), Venturi argues that there are eight archetypes lodged in the unconscious to which fashion should appeal. Not only will this make for good…
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…
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…
Hi all, my latest effort to understand the significance of Lacan’s ideas is posted here: http://www.libertylawsite.org/2018/01/17/jacques-lacan-conservative-icon/ Hope you like.
The new Churchill film tracks the hesitancy inside the British establishment on whether to wage all out war with Hitler or to cede to a pact with him. The film is certainly correct that many wished to make a deal with Hitler. Churchill was one of the few who saw the threat clearly. V&R…
A recent post addressed the Barcadi bat and the challenge it offers to Smith’s ethics (http://www.ethicsoffashion.com/bacardi-bat-adam-smith-stumped/). The puzzle: How can a brand succeed when the logo is an animal that provokes fear (in most Westeners certainly, and likely many others, too)? Smith will be much happier learning that the military have an interest in…
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,…