Page 114 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

98 Consumer Culture and Fashion Studies

Today ’ s consumers, regardless of age or income, aspire to style and prestige
like never before. The L Report is the leading global source for style and
®
prestige insight, with more than a decade of experience in uncovering
emerging cultural movements. Data is sourced from Lambesis ’ exclusive
network of Urban Pioneers ™ , style and prestige experts in cities across the
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globe, as well as an online panel of style and prestige infl uencers.

Web sites and blogs such as http://www.thecoolhunter.net/ and http://
www.complex.com/blogs/2009/01/06/street-detail-canadas-cool-hunter/
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also track changes in cool style.
Fashion is thus a complex nexus of self - identity, social infl uence, cul-
tural ideal, and commercial industry. To the degree that we all belong to
a social or ethnic group or to an economic class, our shopping tastes will
be shaped by the particular social world in which we grow up and live. Our
tastes will correspond to our class location, and our ability to buy certain
kind of clothing, for example, will be shaped as well by that economic
context. Poor people, for example, have much less money to spend on
clothes, and they must think of clothes in more practical terms than wealthy
people, who can afford to change fashions each season. Functionality or
practicality is an important consideration for the poor in buying clothes.
The wealthy can afford to focus more on impractical considerations such
as aesthetics and status display. Indeed, their clothes – when worn at “ gala ”
events such as philanthropy dinners – have meanings that have little to do
with their practical usefulness as garments that cover one ’ s body. They
symbolize wealth and “ taste, ” an awareness of what is most “ fashionable ”
in dress.
The wealthy also shop in different locations than poor people. While
the poor may go to Walmart in search of cheap imitations of high - end

designer clothes, which use poor - quality artificial materials made with
inexpensive and hasty stitching, the wealthy will shop at Neiman - Marcus
and do not mind paying three to ten times as much for certain things that
might be gotten more cheaply elsewhere. Imitation and aspiration play a
large role in shopping. We aspire to be considered part of a higher status
group, even though our income may not justify membership, and we
execute those aspirations by purchasing cheaper versions of more expen-
sive goods. Those goods have status value for us largely for intangible
reasons – the aura a designer name inspires, for example, in the eyes
of others in our social universe. But the things themselves are easily imi-
tated with exactly the same materials and quality of workmanship, as the