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Is Fashion in Total Creative Collapse? Greedflation, $140K Dresses & the Death of Criticism

Back Row with Amy Odell

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Is fashion in the throes of a total creative collapse? Critic Eugene Rabkin — founder of StyleZeitgeist and author of the new book Torn: Fashion and Postmodernism (https://amzn.to/4hkJJEh) — joins Amy to make the case. He argues luxury has "devolved into a consumerist spectacle," its lack of ideas papered over by relentless marketing.

They get into the greedflation behind a $140,000 Dior dress, why "craftsmanship" is the industry's greatest con, the Italian sweatshop scandals that never seem to stick, how Bernard Arnault turned the fashion world into the fashion industry — and the death of criticism, and why nobody seems to care.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:00 Meet Eugene Rabkin & the thesis of Torn
02:30 How fashion "devolved into a consumerist spectacle"
06:30 Fashion trails the art world (and the $6.2M duct-taped banana)
08:30 Greedflation & the $140,000 Dior "rage bait" dress
11:30 Price as a signifier: fashion's simulacrum
13:00 The craftsmanship con
15:00 Sweatshop scandals: Dior, Loro Piana & $9,000 vicuña sweaters
20:30 Kim Kardashian, the perfect simulacrum
21:30 Commodified feminism & performative politics
23:30 The death of fashion criticism (remembering when reviews had teeth)
29:00 The costs & rewards of being a critic
32:00 Bernard Arnault & the Le Monde exposé
37:00 Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs & the birth of "buzz"

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Follow Eugene Rabkin
📷 Follow Eugene on Instagram: @eugenerabkin
📚 Buy the book: Torn: Fashion and Postmodernism: https://amzn.to/4hkJJEh

This episode was edited by Chrissi Harris.

20 Comments

@DG.CREATIVE 1 month ago

Can’t wait to get the book! I completely agree with his point of view. I believe real fashion is dead after working in fashion my whole career. Every thing about it now feels fake no real creativity. Creatives have been stifled by greed. And the worst are “influencers” who had a huge part in ruining the real world of fashion. Great podcast!

@mystuff8579 1 month ago

Nigerian fashion is at it's zenith currently! Incredible craftsmanship and creativity

@rhino5100 1 month ago

Ordinary people DO care. When people go thrifting, look for vintage, or use services like Thread UP, they know that they can get things made with better materials at a good price if they are careful about the search, and read labels and descriptions. That's true whether it is a designer item or not. There is a DIY culture to flip and alter things that don't fit if the materials are good and you like the color or print. If you think about used items as raw materials and not clothing that is necessarily ready-to-wear, you can apply your own creativity and your own skills or someone else's skills (tailor, seamstress) and get some great stuff. If you don't give people what they want, they will still figure out how to get it without you.

@Dearest_Sofia 1 month ago

I love this podcast and I reference it all the time in my videos because I've been talking about this for a f ew years!!

I refuse to take part in this so I just buy the bag without paying for the scam marketing. Reps are all over the place and getting more and more popular especially among wealthier people because the industry no longer represents luxury and so people are adverse to pay it

Thank you for having all these conversations!

@carolyna.869 1 month ago

I've made some of my own clothes since I was about 12. As an adult, I have had several people make dresses for me after I gave them the old pattern and fabric I purchased. These items fit me perfectly and are basically completely original. Years ago Helen Mirren wors my aunt's old mother of the bride dress (that she designed & had made for her) to an awards show. I assume her stylist picked it up at the Housing Works Thrift Shop in Soho where my aunt frequently dumped her old clothes. It was a smart move of Helen to wear something original, but you have to wonder why rich and famous people don't simply have their clothes made and designed for them? Are they that unoriginal and status insecure?

@traumaqueeen 1 month ago

I was looking for some new books to read, will definitely read Eugene's book

@freedomupon 1 month ago

2 of my Goats!
Amy, pardon the unsolicited but you need to put Eugenes name in the Title or the Thumbnail.

@marywintourable 1 month ago

Pre-ordering this book just based on the comprehensive intro!

@DNW-r9o 2 weeks ago

Terrific, thought-provoking conversation. Thank you.

@sarahpassell226 1 month ago (edited)

I don’t necessarily understand meta topics like the topic of this, but questions of luxury and craftsmanship get me going. I can’t afford exquisite clothes exquisitely made in the ateliers of world-famous designers. But I know this much: I’ve never forked over a dime for anything with a Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren or Chloe label that I come across in non-luxury shops in my town, which have the same frayed, unmatched seams and awkward proportions and are made as cheaply from cheap fabrics as everything else on the sales rack.The fact that most couture labels make clothes for the runway not in hope of tempting women to imagine themselves in new shapes and unfamiliar fabrics but to sell the label’s perfume and underwear, makes it obvious to me that fashion isn't, anymore, self-expression with an eye to what looks good on the human body. I don't know that it ever was, but I feel as if it was— at some point in the distant past and right through my childhood, anyway.

@sarahpassell226 1 month ago (edited)

From your conversation I glean that fashion then is like medical care and veterinary care, all professions founded and until this century run by people impassioned to practice them as forms of self-expression, but which have lately been subsumed into raw capitalism by investors motivated only by profit. Venture capital is so rapacious, it’s eating these professions alive rather than put effort into sustaining them as sources of human achievement and joy.

@FenceOnFire 1 month ago

This is such a high-quality discussion! Thank you for all the analysis and insights.

@Anoppinion 1 month ago

The vintage pre loved market has flooded the market. Why buy ikea paper cupboards when you can get handmade carved walnut with hidden drawers at the same price….

@jekker17 1 month ago

Immediate pre-order.

@Monique-rn9lg 1 month ago

Excellent conversation. "Greedflation".... everyone is a victim. I'm looking forward to reading Torn: Fashion and Postmodernism.

@evelyncampos3311 1 month ago

i do love this channel ! ❤

@AberrantRhythm 1 month ago

Amazing conversation!

@RomerMillinery-bl3uz 1 month ago

this is a great one!!!

@leoleo6692 1 month ago (edited)

17:34 I think he mentioned Thorstein Veblen here, of ‘Veblen goods’ fame. A short version is price rises actually increase demand for a ‘Veblen’ goods. The opposite of what our basic economics assumptions are.