[wordup] The death of bling?

[Adam Shand]

I want to laugh and I want to cry, oh and raise my hands to the  
heavens and scream "why?".

<sigh> I'm all for anything that discourages rampant consumerism and  
fugly, but since when has modesty equalled "taste"?

I'm sorry to post this, really I am.  On the plus side I'm complaining  
about fashion, that's a step up right?  At least nobody is fucking us  
today ... oh never mind.

Adam.

Via: http://twitter.com/bruces/status/1142694731
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/4325162/Karl-Lagerfeld-is-right-about-the-death-of-bling.html

Karl Lagerfeld is right about the death of 'bling'In tough times,  
celebrities are embracing what the head of Chanel has christened 'The  
New Modesty'

By Celia Walden
Last Updated: 5:19PM GMT 23 Jan 2009

Not since bustles and smelling salts has modesty been considered a  
virtue. But last week Karl Lagerfeld breathed new life into a long  
outmoded word: "Bling is over," he declared. "I call it 'the New  
Modesty'." Quite how seriously we can take this sentiment from a man  
who wears diamond knuckledusters, bathes in Evian and still keeps  
close the comfort cushion he had as a 10-year-old is up for  
discussion, but the notion is as timely as it is wide reaching.

"This whole crisis is like a big spring housecleaning - both moral and  
physical," the German-born Chanel designer told The New York Times.  
"There is no creative evolution if you don't have dramatic moments  
like this. Red carpets covered with rhinestones are out." Cutting back  
his own spending may not be a part of Lagerfeld's strategy, but the  
implication for the rest of us is clear: where luxury was an attitude  
as much as a style of dress, we are to find a replacement in modesty.

Evidence of that shift in tone is everywhere. In politics, a new  
temperance reigns, as demonstrated by Barack Obama's sober  
inauguration rhetoric. In the art world, the age of conceit,  
epitomised by Brit artists like Damien Hirst, the Chapman Brothers and  
Tracey Emin, is over: gratuitous vulgarity, even of the "satirical"  
kind, is wincingly off-message. Broadcasting and its culture of  
linguistic bling - as propagated by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand -  
has been affected, too, with radio and television bosses hurriedly  
executing "humility makeovers". Then there is the penitent financial  
sector, with all the New Modesty regulation that the Government is  
attempting to force upon it. But it is in the world of fashion that  
this new ethos will be seen most clearly.

At this month's Golden Globes the looks were pared down in the  
extreme, with actresses including Demi Moore, Penélope Cruz, Kate  
Winslet and Angelina Jolie opting for monochrome gowns in black, nude  
or white, keeping make-up and jewellery to a minimum. Similarly, the  
male contingent, Tom Cruise, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Brad Pitt, stuck  
to understated classics. Both in dress and demeanour, you could all  
but hear American humorist Oliver Herford's words ringing in the  
stars' ears: "Modesty is the gentle art of enhancing your charm by  
pretending not to be aware of it." As I write, stylists are busy  
seeking conspicuously inconspicous red carpet looks for next month's  
Academy Awards – already being dubbed "the Recession Oscars".

"Over the past two decades, fashion and society have descended to  
levels of vulgarity previously undreamed of," says fashion historian  
Brenda Polan, a professor at the London College of Fashion. "We have  
seen wanton, exhibitionistic clothes, flashy, over-decorated  
accessories and ugly shoes, straight out of a fetishist's most lurid  
fantasy. Now penitence, in the shape of the New Modesty, moderation  
and, dare we say it, fiscal prudence, is a natural reaction. It's a  
bit like taking the veil after a life of self-indulgence in the hope  
that you can squeeze into Heaven after all."

Lofty ambitions are all very well, but how easy is it to put the New  
Modesty into practice? In adopting it, will we, like Mary Magdalene,  
be forced to wander the recession desert in rags. Blessedly not, says  
Telegraph magazine columnist and retail expert Mary Portas. "This is  
actually a great opportunity for us. It's rather nice not to be  
dictated to by fashion and retail any more. I picked up a Louis  
Vuitton scarf yesterday as I left the house, remembered it was from  
last year's collection, and thought how blissful it was that it just  
didn't matter any more."

"We're veering towards a more considered, 'discreet consumerism' that  
favours quality, value for money and even investment pieces over  
obvious status symbol one-season wonders," believes Harper's Bazaar  
editor Lucy Yeomans. "This will no doubt usher in the death of the  
'It' bag, bling and the £500 plus designer T-shirt. But it doesn't  
mean we're all going to start dressing like nuns."

The New Modesty is as much about survival as aesthetics. In the coming  
months, most of us are likely to have more meetings with our bank  
managers, accountants and mortgage advisers than ever before. With  
hundreds of thousands of people back on the job market or teetering on  
the brink of redundancy, anonymity is preferable to ostentation. "This  
year, no man will be wanting to walk around with a logo on his clothes  
the size of a football sponsor," explains GQ editor Dylan Jones. "The  
downturn will be good for the menswear industry because it will force  
designers to be more creative in a narrower band." And when even David  
Cameron breaks with anti-tradition and starts wearing a tie again,  
it's a sure sign that gimmickry and empty posturing are embarrassingly  
last season.

"During the Thirties' depression," says Polan, "there was such  
competition for jobs that people dressed to be taken seriously in the  
uniforms of lawyers, bankers, captains of industry. The same thing is  
starting to happen now." Sara Curran, the award-winning founder of  
MyWardrobe.com, confirms that neutral lines and tailored staples are  
now selling better than ever. "Shoppers are opting for more classic,  
understated, timeless pieces like black trousers and fitted white  
shirts, instead of frivolous one-wear purchases."

As a result of this restraint, says Portas, we are likely to see a  
return to a greater appreciation of the clothes we have and an end of  
the throwaway culture – the use of cobblers, for example, and even  
darning. "New Modesty is about a slow wardrobe as opposed to fast  
fashion," she insists.

Zoe Benyon, creative director at jeweller Robinson Pelham, a favourite  
of Dame Judi Dench, can attest to this. "We've seen a 65-70 per cent  
rise in people having stones reset or pieces remodelled," she tells  
me. "And people are going for less of a 'bling' polish on the golds  
and silvers. Diamonds are still just as popular but a greater number  
of people are opting for brown diamonds, which are far less in-your- 
face."

"Lagerfeld is not saying we should stop consuming," surmises celebrity  
stylist Hannah Bhuiya, "just that we should adjust our attitudes. It  
is about inconspicuous consumption now: wear couture if you can afford  
it, but don't brag about it."

So who are the New Modesty icons? Barack Obama's clean-cut suits and  
ascetic demeanour have made him an instant role model for men, just as  
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's demure Christian Dior suits (based on the  
virtuous New Look ear of the late Forties and Fifties) and flat  
footwear have done for women. Only while Obama's fashion sense stems  
from the same place as his meritocratic beliefs, Carla's assumed style  
is a self-imposed corset, a way of emphasising the recent assertion  
that her "man-eating days are over". "Iconic women such as Jane  
Birkin, the late Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and Cate Blanchett, who have  
always caught our attention with their understated glamour and  
discreet style, are the ones the fashion world are now clamouring to  
replicate," says Calgary Avansino, executive fashion director of Vogue.

In Britain, New Modesty propagators include Sarah Brown, the Duchess  
of Cornwall, Thandie Newton and Rachel Weisz, their US counterparts  
being Anne Hathaway, Kirsten Dunst and Angelina Jolie. Beware of the  
"faux-modests": Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin and Kate Winslet. Guy  
Ritchie, too, falls into the "faux-modest" category – it is not enough  
to sit in the corner of a pub wearing a flat cap, especially when you  
own the pub. These fraudsters are enough to make those who will remain  
defiantly opposed to Lagerfeld's concept – Victoria Beckham, Madonna  
and, of course, Lagerfeld himself – laudable in comparison.

It would surely be taking our theme too far to suggest that, as was  
made clear in its original, biblical context, modesty should be about  
looking beyond the clothes at the person inside. If last year's  
bonfire of the vanities has taught us anything at all, it is that  
what's inside really isn't that pretty. Perhaps, after all, Mark Twain  
was right when he said that: "Modesty died when clothes were born."