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Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

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Re: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

#181

Post by chrisco255 »

coldtea wrote: post #169
chrisco255 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people chasing "this season's fashion" are rather niche. People care less and less about this stuff as they get older. We also work in an industry where free conference t-shirts and khaki shorts are perfectly acceptable work attire. It's been over 100 years since blue jeans were invented and they're still quite popular. And if some people get enjoyment out of trying out new fashion styles, who am I to judge? No d…

> The people chasing "this season's fashion" are rather niche. The people who consciously chace "this season's fashion" are niche [1]. But even more so, people who are bombarded with messages to buy new clothes, and that this style is now obsolete, get this instead, are pretty much everybody though. [1] Though not that small of a niche: a big percentage of women do it quite a lot (as evident by the success of that si…

You could say that of rock and roll too couldn't you? Or disco? Or 80s rap? Or hipster coffee shops? Or Atari video games?

Like, of course we have waves and trends of various things that take hold of popular imagination for some time. Trends start as some niche then people see it taking off and jump on the bandwagon. Sometimes it sweeps the whole country or an entire culture. But it's fun and people get enjoyment from it. And it gives us a common cultural framework to relate to each other with even across vast distances.

Was there no trend you ever participated in that you look back on today and smile about?

Re: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

#182

Post by Rerarom »

blablabla123 wrote: post #26
captainmuon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: What do you think "fashion" is? I used to think there were some very cool, fashion-adept people, who have the ability to predict what will considered modern next year. The reality is, the clothing industry decides what to produce at least 6-12 months in advance. It's not like they produce everything and public opinion decides in the end what is "cool". Granted, the industry tries to predict what will be…

More subtly a smaller but far more interested proportion of the population tries more experimental things and the big shops just copy that. That's both cheaper for the buyer and the producer. It's the same for tech, various gadgets or technologies that are hyped right now have been gathering traction since years but have been picked up by the big brands only very recently. Best example is the trend of using non-x86 C…

But who produces that experimental clothing in the first place?

Re: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

#183

Post by KozmoNau7 »

Invictus0 wrote: post #34

I am a man and I own 13 pairs of shoes. They're mostly specialized--water shoes, snow boots, steel toe, fancy shoes, flip flops, running shoes, and several pairs of dress shoes. But when I was backpacking in Europe, I only carried one pair of black Timberland boots with me, which took me from the nightclub to the top of the Tatras to the catacombs of Paris. It's amazing how effortlessly I accumulate junk and how ever…

I've found that moving house can really make you take an extra look at all the stuff you have, and is a great opportunity to get rid of some of the accumulated junk. I've been living in this apartment for 13 years now, so I feel it's about time :-)

One thing that I think everyone should do once a year is take out all of their clothes, sort it into types and then go through it piece by piece. Identify everything that doesn't fit anymore, anything you haven't worn in a long time or maybe ever, anything you just don't like/love. Give it away to charity, or if it's something really nice, put it up for sale.

Clothes you never wear are of absolutely no use.

Re: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

#184

Post by ABCLAW »

crazygringo wrote: post #168
ABCLAW wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've gone through probably 300 slide decks from various industries that explicitly state that 'consumers in x demographic sector will need to be re-educated about the value of [something they didn't want]'. I've seen it in regards to premium breads, in-app purchases, crude oil solvent levels, public infrastructure features, clothing, etc. This isn't a new thing. Sometimes you just spend money to fabricate culture whe…

Well sure every company is trying to convince customers their thing is best. That's just marketing. But different companies can be trying to convince things that are totally opposed to each other too. It's still not monolithic. (Regardless of whether it's "one person" or not, it was just an illustration.) At the end of the day it's still customers buying what they like from a range of companies that are all competing…

Not really. All companies that make bags may be pulling consumers in different directions with respect to which style of bags they should purchase, but all will pull in the direction of "purchase bags".

You can zoom out from bags to fashion, and the same idea repeats itself.

Consumer consumption itself is the unified cultural zeitgeist. That's the issue - in some areas it'll spur innovation, but in others it is an obviously wasteful use of limited resources and time.

Re: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

#185

Post by closeparen »

sdumi wrote: post #3

I liked the post and I'm afraid that the author is right on so many points. Lots of persons seem to be "uninterested in serious personal development", is this by some design or just natural evolution of modern society? I guess it was always like this, but I can also imagine that there are entities (ie, companies, governments, people) that are doing some thing or the other trying to keep the status quo: keep the peopl…

It's a consequence of our unprecedented prosperity that we can fret about such things as "personal development." See how much you worry about personal development when you're trying to bring in enough of a harvest to meet your caloric needs.

Re: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

#186

Post by SavantIdiot »

criddell wrote: post #159
SavantIdiot wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're proving my point: that same film is $100 in the cinema. $100!! But the Overton window pushed you into thinking $30 is a bargain . You think that wasn't intentional?

How isn't it a bargain?

Because you've been tricked into thinking $30 isn't so bad compared to $100, when you should be demanding $20 for the cinema for all four of your family, instead of rolling over and saying, "Jeez, I sure got a deal." That's what the Overton Window is all about: making one option artificially bad so that you don't negotiate and take whatever other option they give you. But if everyone just shuffles along and opens their wallets to whatever the studios ask for, they will absolutely charge more.

Re: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

#187

Post by cehrlich »

Bayart wrote: post #96
captainmuon wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: What do you think "fashion" is? I used to think there were some very cool, fashion-adept people, who have the ability to predict what will considered modern next year. The reality is, the clothing industry decides what to produce at least 6-12 months in advance. It's not like they produce everything and public opinion decides in the end what is "cool". Granted, the industry tries to predict what will be…

>The reality is, the clothing industry decides what to produce at least 6-12 months in advance. That's fast fashion. It's neither elegant not particularly valued by people who are into fashion .

No, it's the companies who show at PFW and places like that which need 6-12 months. Zara can do it in 14 days.

Re: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

#188

Post by Fricken »

grumblenum wrote: post #69
goodpoint wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you're not forced to do anything You are forced to choose between working to pay rent and health insurance or go hungry, homeless and ill or in prison. In various developed societies there is free healthcare, social safety nets, or some forms of UBI or other help. > but you're seduced out of your mind, I guess it's fair Fair? Consumerism is threatening all ife on the planet. Humanity can do so much better.

A Malthusian crisis has been “imminent” since the 19th century. I think that you should try writing down what facts you think support the a priori assumption that our sinful ways are leading us to a future, sudden disaster. I don’t think you will find much evidence that isn’t traceable to popular opinion. Sorry, fam, it’s just Puritanism for the modern age.

Some guy in the 19th century made a bad prediction and that's your rationale for dismissing climate change?

Re: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

#189

Post by crazygringo »

ABCLAW wrote: post #184
crazygringo wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well sure every company is trying to convince customers their thing is best. That's just marketing. But different companies can be trying to convince things that are totally opposed to each other too. It's still not monolithic. (Regardless of whether it's "one person" or not, it was just an illustration.) At the end of the day it's still customers buying what they like from a range of companies that are all competing…

Not really. All companies that make bags may be pulling consumers in different directions with respect to which style of bags they should purchase, but all will pull in the direction of "purchase bags". You can zoom out from bags to fashion, and the same idea repeats itself. Consumer consumption itself is the unified cultural zeitgeist. That's the issue - in some areas it'll spur innovation, but in others it is an ob…

I think you're having a different conversation?

I was arguing that fashion trends are ultimately driven by consumers, not by companies (as GP was arguing). Consumers aren't blindly buying whatever's for sale.

Whether people are purchasing more than they need, or whether that's wasteful, is a totally orthogonal conversation.

But pretty sure most women need bags. And a lot of guys use backpacks too. They're not some artificial need invented by companies.

Re: Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (2010)

#190

Post by jl6 »

quesera wrote: post #167
hermannj314 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, amazingly, in the year 2000, the color they chose was cerulean blue.

That is exactly why I chose that example. It was the last one I remembered. Pantone sells color chips. They are not designers, and they do not make or sell fashion. The color of the year is just a marketing stunt which the media laps up, but the fashion industry completely ignores .

Is the cerulean scene from The Devil Wears Prada based somewhere in reality then?
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