"Recessionista": Tartuffe of crisis times?

Résumé du document

As coined by Recesssionista: Trends on a budget, University Daily Kansan, November 20th 2008, ?With the economy in the gutter, fashionistas have been forced to reform their ways, because spending a fortune on clothes is out, and discount is in.' This sentence rings as a recessionista's manifesto, since ?fashionistas' are out, and the world is welcoming ?recessionistas.' ?Recessionistas' are ?ex-fashionistas' reconverted to non-ostentation consumption in a context wherein almost everyone suffers from the economic slump. Indeed, the word ?recessionista' is created through a contraction of English words i.e. ?recession' and ?fashionista.' However, as this first quotation depicts a change which is not really spontaneous (a forced change) and its moral connotation (?to reform' belongs to the religious lexicon). These two terms can mean that ?recessionistas' are the Tartuffe of the crisis times. Do ?recessionistas' trigger of a long-term change in the consumption habits of fashionable and wealthy women? Or is it just a temporary and hypocritical trend that will vanish with the demise of the economic crisis?

Extraits

[...] But Tartuffe comes on the stage when the “recessionista” trend praises a Modesty” or a Humility” allowed by this new clothing norm, a moral purpose that sounds wrong. Karl Lagerfeld is a good example of this paradoxical through. Stating in February 2009 that “‘bling-bling' is over, the red carpets are covered with rhinestones out, I call it the 'new modesty' is a situation that has a certain piquancy in the mouth of a man wearing mittens covered with diamonds and taking baths in Evian, notices ironically The Telegraph. The marketing strategies of the luxury brands are as much paradoxical as Karl Lagerfeld. [...]

[...] It is no surprising that the countries touched by this “recessionista” trend correspond to the more affected by the financial crisis. This trend appears as an Anglo-Saxon phenomenon CAN, UK) that the linguistic construction of “recessionista” and the US origin of the crisis can explain. This trend also can be analyze mainly as an urban phenomenon that is focus on city well-known for their fashion addiction (Los Angeles) of their position of financial pole in America (Toronto) or both (New York). [...]

[...] You can be a fashion addict but also fundraise a lot for charity actions as the charitable auctions of the Cannes festival leaded by Sharon Stones showed us. The excellent former Schweppes advertisement warned us about this type of easy prejudices: yes a woman who looks like a “fashionista” can have created an orphanage! Actions matters more than clothes and the “recessionista” trend have not to perfidiously impose us the contrary! But what it is the more striking is the tendency that the “recessionista” trend allowed: on the behalf of Modesty, you can judge people but mainly shape fashion! [...]

[...] “Recessionista”: Tartuffe of crisis times? “With the economy in the gutter, fashionistas have been forced to reform their ways, because spending a fortune on clothes is out, and discount is (“Recesssionista: Trends on a budget”, University Daily Kansan, Nov 20 2008). This sentence rings as a recessionista's manifesto: since “fashionistas” are out, welcome “recessionistas”! “Recessionistas” are “ex-fashionistas” reconverted to non-ostentation consumption in a context where almost everyone suffers from the economic crisis. Indeed, the word “recessionista” is made of contraction of English words “recession” and “fashionista”. [...]

[...] Yet, fashion is an area of freedom, where “political correctness” does not generate a “clothing correctness” that the “recessionista” trend delivers. The exuberance and creativity are the best anti-gloom-of-crisis patches could be found! Finally, we should remember the precept of Gandhi: “humble person is not himself conscious of his humility”. [...]