Ken Okuyama: fascinating chat about design with Jay Leno

A little primer on the man and his sense of the future (http://www.businessinsider.com/r-in-the-rearview-mirror-car-designer-warns-on-google-game-changer-2015-10), but the real joy is this video where Okuyama discuses design with Jay Leno. It’s about the recent car he has built but his comments transcend just cars.  Super interesting comments from a man with a design legacy second to few.

Max Scheler and Dior

So very Max Scheler: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/video/les-petites-mains?utm_source=Subscribers&utm_campaign=5b93d65fac-the-trouble-with-topshop-nike-launches-flyleather-&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d2191372b3-5b93d65fac-417297929 A lovely video about the seamstresses who make Dior haute couture.

Beretta and David Hume

V&R Chapter 1 discusses Hume’s theory of business.  Boiling things down: it is not money that makes the world go around but beauty.  The economy’s dynamism is a function of fantasies about luxury.  Luxuries are refinements of the arts and sciences and those who want to afford them must themselves become combinations of the arts…

Weddings and trusts

Lately, I have been writing about the moral nature of the money that supports the high end of the fashion industry.  This is the money of the hyper wealthy held in trusts, typically offshore.  Here is a most interesting article on the money-no-object weddings of the hyper rich (https://www.racked.com/2017/6/7/15740564/luxury-weddings).   The hyper wealthy, like most…

Etro: paisley fabrics and Max Scheler

Etro is a quirky family run business that matches well Max Scheler’s model of the estate, a requirement for being a contender for the Best Dressed Company Award. Here is a charming article about the company and some of the family (https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-colorful-world-of-etro-1502805602)(apologies if this article is behind the paywall at WSJ). The company makes clothing…

Darwin and adornment

There is massive contemporary interest in Darwin and ethics.   I have finished the book I mentioned a few posts back (http://www.ethicsoffashion.com/courting-birds-huizinga-right/).  The author’s argument is that evolution develops along two fronts, and one of these is aesthetic. Though Darwin himself argued this, contemporary Darwinism does not agree.   It is scientific orthodoxy that biological…

Is fashion moral because global?

Anyone who follows the fashion pages knows that since Brexit it has become axiomatic that fashion is global and that means fashion is on the side of the angels.  For this axiom fully on display, see: https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/wjjjay/an-interview-with-maria-grazia-chiuri-dior.   Of course, I have seen no fashion page defending this idea philosophically.  In an earlier post, I point…