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 her articles in my fashion ethics courses. It includes this nugget from one Amy Leverton.
Observing that Simons’ denim was of cunning design, Leverton makes this point: “However, the stiff heavy fabrics failed to offer enough basic, comfortable options. “The fun stuff sells the basic stuff, but if you don’t have basic, well, you don’t sell many pairs of jeans,” she said.”
Simons should have read Smith’s paragraph on the luxury watch. It’s found in his utterly brilliant and highly readable, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, p. 180 (Liberty Fund edition). What is so great about Smith’s book is that it is packed with examples.
He observes astutely that the person fascinated by the accuracy and beauty of luxury time pieces is by no means especially punctual. The pragmatics of time-keeping is ultimately trumped by fascination with the complex system that is the design of the watch. Nonetheless, the watch must indeed tell the time accurately.
Smith would remind Raf Simons that objects are combinations of differently ranked value tones, the pragmatic and the beautiful.
