Justify My Love (Of Clothes)
A User’s Guide to Clothes
I’m starting to get bored of wearing sweaters with my arms in the correct sleeves and with the “front” actually facing forward. It just feels, I don’t know…dull.
But before you get the idea that I’m the kind of envelope-pushing, creative-thinking, boundary-breaking mind that casually overturns social norms, I’d like to make one thing clear: If I have you fooled, I am a great poseur. Allow me to explain from the beginning.
Artful Advertising
Last October, LVMH allocated $143 million to found a private museum of contemporary art for its Louis Vuitton Foundation, and commissioned architect Frank Gehry to design and construct it in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne. Even for the multinational conglomerate that runs Louis Vuitton, Moët, Hennessy, and 66 other luxury goods companies—all of which you’ve definitely heard of—this is a considerable investment worth investigating.
What merits a price tag of $143 million? In part, social capital. When prompted to explain why he wished to open the Louis Vuitton Foundation, Bernard Arnault, the CEO of LVMH, said, “We wanted to present Paris with an extraordinary space for art and culture, and demonstrate daring and emotion by entrusting Frank Gehry with the construction of an iconic building for the 21st century.” Indeed, Arnault was able to successfully build his museum on a plot of land that had previously been denied to several other land developers. While these competitors wished to construct office buildings and business centers, Arnault was granted control of the land because his proposition was deemed to be a noble endeavor to create a public work.
Street Style
The 20s had flapper dresses that hung instead of clung—the better to celebrate female liberation, my dear.
The 30s had glamorous getups of gold, gaudy glitter—the better to escape the Great Depression woes, my dear.
Rebellion
This past Sunday, when temperatures descended below 40 and the “real-feel” was colder than freezing, I refused to wear my winter coat. In protest of Cambridge’s weather system, which fails to segue from fall to winter with any finesse, I sported a leather jacket and acted as if the cold front wasn’t an affront to my happiness.
I accessorized with an iced tea.
In Denim, Indebted
Would you pay $790 for a pair of jeans? Dior believes that you might.
You’re on a budget? How about a pair of “sun bleached, destroyed” jeans from AG? For just $255, they’re yours!