THE MEANING OF OBJECTS...

Or, objects with meaning:  Why do some objects have greater meaning than others?

Example: My mother's Betsey Johnson cloud and star print blouse which I write about in Spent.

My mother used to wear this blouse back in the mid 70's.  She wore it with her extra-wide, black satin palazzo pants. I was entranced by my mother when she wore this outfit. I was also in awe of the designer Betsey Johnson.

While still a teenager I modeled in Johnson's runway shows and later, while a fashion journalist, was privileged to review her collections.And when my mother died, it was her clothing, including the  Betsey Johnson, which I inherited.

It's this strange confluence of events that swirl around this object, this blouse. And over the years it seems to gain menaing rather than lose any. 

But that's the fascinating thing about objects; they very often outlive us. They go on to have other lives without us. Still, the memory of my mother is imbued in this blouse, and that's what elevates its sentimental value.

I don't think my mother could have imagined her clothing would end up on a blog. She had never even heard of a blog, having passed away many years before they even existed.

Maybe, one day, this blouse will end up in other strange places, perhaps even somewhere past the clouds and the stars. For right now, it's here on my website on the Internet in Cyberspace... continuing.

OH, ONE TWO!

Happy New Year!

NOTICED: "RECOMMERCE"

I’ve never been keen on total buying blackouts, but have been an advocate of mindful consuming.  I’ve recently read about a trend called “recommerce” which sounds a lot like mindful consumption.  Recommerce is about buying things with knowledge of the value of ownership as well as resale value. While things like cars and houses have always been purchased with resale value in mind, today anything from electronics to clothing can hold resale potential. 

Recommerce savvy consumers are investing in “upgradeable” products rather than stocking up on piles of junkaholic style possessions. Buying well-made, well-crafted and durable is looking increasingly smarter than purchasing poorly constructed. Retailers, surprisingly, are also embracing this consuming paradigm.  French fashion label A.P.C., for example, has a Better Worn-Out program offering half-price on jeans when you bring in your used pair. Patagonia recently launched a "buy less, buy used" initiative in collaboration with eBay, encouraging the purchase of the label's used items. The continued popularity of "vintage" can also be considered part of the trend.

Recommerce is neither earth shaking nor unprecedented, but it is a sign that the age of conspicuous over consumption, entirely supported and encouraged by retailers, is waning. Maybe it's also a sign of the beginning of the end of “disposable” style purchasing which has been glamorized in hoarding videos and embraced by zombie-like consumers (one of which I used to be) around the globe.

 thanks to trendwatching.com

WINDOW SHOPPING- England’s Riots, Consumer Culture, and Guy Debord

 

London, England:  To my knowledge, these are the first ever shopping riots made up of marauding crowds whose primary goal seems to be smash and grab, get their hands on more “stuff.” They migrate from shopping center to shopping center where they break in, and then skitter away with arm loads of sneakers, mobile phones, T-shirts, and other meaningless objects.

It’s fascinating for both its depravity and its singularity. It’s fascinating because it was largely predicted.

It was Guy Debord who wrote in The Society of the Spectacle, a critique of contemporary consumer culture and commodity fetishism, about what happens in a society of advanced capitalism when we reach the historical moment “at which the commodity completes its colonization of social life"; a time where consumer culture and mass media collide and the spectacle takes over.   The Society of the Spectacle, was published  in 1967, in France.

Today, this “spectacle” is what we have been witnessing throughout England,

In short, Debord's theory helps to explain how the spectacle takes over. It occurs at the point where society becomes so deeply disconnected from reality and where images have supplanted genuine human interaction.

So it’s not surprising when today I read in The International Herald Tribune an interview with a 17-year old rioter who says that his life consists of little more than receiving government benefit checks that barely keep him, “fed and watching TV.” It’s not surprising to hear reports that rioters communicate in TV talk, like characters on The Wire, referring to the police as “Feds.” It’s not surprising to see cheap, meaningless consumer goods being wielded as trophies of the rioting experience.

As Debord pointed out, in a consumer society, social life is not about living but about having; the spectacle uses the image to convey what people need and must have.

Maybe leaders would be well-served to read some Debord and begin to gather a deeper understanding of what is occurring on England’s streets right now.

BECAUSE YOU CAN'T YOU WON'T AND YOU DON'T STOP

What's it going to take for you to stop shopping?

Perhaps Lucy Siegle's new book. To Die For: Is Fashion Weaing Out The World?, will help you find the stop button.  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Die-Fashion-Wearing-Out-World/dp/0007264097