About this episode

Eugene Rabkin joins Amy Odell to discuss the perceived creative collapse in the fashion industry and its implications.

*SUBSCRIBE to the Back Row newsletter for more coverage like this: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe. Go Premium and save three months on an annual subscription.* 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 — 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 02:30 Fashion's creative collapse: the thesis 08:30 Greedflation & the $140,000 Dior dress 13:00 The craftsmanship con 15:00 Sweatshop scandals: Dior & Loro Piana's vicuña 23:30 The death of fashion criticism 32:00 Bernard Arnault & how he industrialized fashion 📺 SUBSCRIBE to the Back Row Newsletter: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe 📷 Follow Back Row on Instagram: @backrow 📷 Follow Amy…

People in this episode

Host: Amy Odell

Guest: Eugene Rabkin

Topics covered

• fashion
• creative collapse
• luxury consumerism
• greedflation
• craftsmanship
• sweatshop scandals
• fashion criticism

Keywords

• fashion
• creative collapse
• luxury
• greedflation
• craftsmanship
• sweatshops
• Bernard Arnault

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: StyleZeitgeist, Dior, Loro Piana

Books & works: Torn: Fashion and Postmodernism

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