Ideas@TheCentre
Recession Chic
What do women’s skirts have to do with the prevailing economic climate? During boom times ladies turn to thigh skimming minis, but during a downturn hemlines fall faster than the bottom line of a career gal’s share portfolio.
That recession also affects celebrity fashion was evidenced in this week’s Oscars red carpet parade. Where the bold, experimental and outrageous have become de rigueur in recent years, most of this week’s frocks were more understated than unreal. When their fans are losing jobs and defaulting on mortgages, glamming it up is so, like, not a good look, you know.
The desire to share the pain of the common people is so strong that business leaders at the recent Davos meeting made a last-minute switch from champagne to white wine. Of course, no one believes they opted for a few bottles of cheap plonk. It’s just unfashionable to be seen sipping out of a crystal flute when the economies they are supposed to be improving are collapsing. Presumably they wanted to avoid the invective unleashed at the CEOs of Ford, Chrysler and GM who sparked worldwide outrage when the executives flew in separate private jets to Washington, DC to plead for taxpayer assistance.
So did the stars get it right with Monday’s austere ‘recession chic’? Do the public really expect celebs to tone it down in deference to recession? Are people offended by the sight of starlets partying the night away when they are facing a dull dinner of baked beans?
If the stars of the Oscar show or the beaming child actors of best-picture winner Slumdog Millionaire are anything to go by, probably not. Beaming, giggling, dressed to the nines – they were having the time of their lives. It was precisely this sense of celebration, in direct contrast to parade of dutifully muted Hollywooders, that made them the hit of the red carpet.
Americans are right to pour scorn on execs still living the high life while putting their hand out for a taxpayer leg-up, but wanting Hollywood celebs to play poor is a different story. Does anyone believe that by putting on a grey dress, people will forget you are a squillionarie? And more to the point does anyone really care?
Some fear that all this austerity might be counterproductive anyway. As celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, who prepared 3,000 smoked salmon Oscars for the night, claimed ‘we have to spend money. If not, President Obama’s stimulus plan will not work.’
