Latest news with #ByungChulHan
Irish Times
21-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
We're familiar with the evils of fast fashion. But is high fashion so much better?
When I was 22 all I wanted was a Chanel 2.55 bag. My desire was spawned in part by the TV show The OC, where teenagers paraded the halls of their high school with quilted bags draped over their bony shoulders. The other influence was Vogue; women quizzed on their essentials often name-checked the clutch for its timeless elegance. Back then, the bag retailed for about €1,500 – already aspirational. Today, the same bag costs €11,000. Why is the Chanel 2.55 so expensive? Is it because a) it takes time and skill to make? b) because it's rare?, or c) because the materials are so costly? Each quilted bag uses several metres of premium leather. It takes 18 hours for a skilled artisan to produce. Although the direct cost of production (materials and labour) is not made public, luxury analysts estimate a gross margin of 80-85 per cent for luxury bags. This doesn't include factory overheads, logistics, marketing and above all, the branding that makes the 2.55 not just a bag, but a cultural object. Western culture places a hefty premium on authenticity, and consumers are willing to pay a lot for 'the real thing', especially when it's exclusive. Not all cultures have the same baggage. In China, philosopher Byung-Chul Han argues, a good copy can rival – or even surpass – the original. So why is this bag so expensive? I'd wager the answer is d): the Chanel 2.55 isn't expensive because it's valuable; it's valuable because it's so expensive. Luxury handbags such as the 2.55 and the Hermès Birkin are the ultimate Veblen goods: as prices rise, so does demand. Some fashion houses (ahem – Burberry) have been known to destroy their stock rather than sell at a discount. READ MORE [ Jane Birkin's original Hermès handbag sells for record €8.6m at Paris auction Opens in new window ] But maybe we've hit the limit of this fiscal mindmelt. About five years ago, I stopped wanting a Chanel 2.55. I still think the bag is beautiful. But everything it once represented for me – timeless, long-lasting artistry – began to feel like a pale imitation. As Chanel bags have grown more expensive, craft hasn't kept pace. While pre-2008 the bag had 24-karat gold-plated hardware, the newer models have brass finishings that tarnish. Vintage editions had sturdier handles, thicker lambskin and higher stitch counts. Around the time Chanel prices began to soar, production also went through the roof. The result is a more expensive and, to my mind, poorer product. A Chanel bag on the runway at Paris Fashion Week: as Chanel bags have grown more expensive, craft hasn't kept pace. Photograph: PascalThe fate of the Chanel 2.55 is emblematic of what has happened to the fashion industry in the past decade. If luxury once meant a quality, ethically produced object, today it may just mean stupidly expensive. We're all familiar by now with the evils of fast fashion – ecologically devastating practices, quick churn, poor quality and exploitative labour costs. But is high fashion really so much better? A slew of recent news stories about alleged labour abuses by high-end Italian brands suggests not. 'People think 'Made in Italy' means you're getting a long-lasting craft item,' says Caoimhe Grant, a Dublin-based designer and founder of the handbag line, August Night. 'But real artisans can't produce at the speed luxury brands demand. If it's mass produced, how luxury is it?' Last week the luxury cashmere brand Loro Piana (a subsidiary of the LVMH group) was placed under court administration in Italy . The company is accused of exploitative labour in its production line. In Loro Piana's case, its main contractor outsourced to a Chinese subcontractor called Evergreen. A police search of the factory premises uncovered 10 Chinese migrant workers. These workers put in 90-hour weeks for €4 an hour, housed in illegal dorms on the premises. A Loro Piana wool coat can retail for €5,000. One factory owner claims the contractor was charged €118 per unit. Loro Piana is the fifth luxury brand – and the second LVMH-owned one, after Dior – to be investigated for alleged violation of Italian labour laws. How did this happen? In the past decade, Chinese workers emigrated en masse to Prato, a textile manufacturing hub in Tuscany. While most worked in fast fashion, some now work in the luxury manufacturing business. Chinese-owned workshops offered fast, flexible garment production that was still legally 'Made in Italy'. Today the practice has spread to Milan and Lombardy, the heart of Italian luxury. Companies such as Evergreen are Chinese-owned and staffed by Chinese immigrants, a shadow supply chain the consumer doesn't see. The internet only accelerated this demand for speed. Luxury brands, once operating on two collections a year, now produce up to six. The churn of novelty, the pressure to deliver product faster and cheaper – all while maintaining the illusion of Italian craftsmanship – has hollowed out the old idea of luxury. In 1955, a designer bag would have been a once-in-a-lifetime purchase, made to last a lifetime. Today, influencers say they're 'no longer reaching for' a bag bought last month. The recession trained customers to expect discounts; ecommerce platforms such as Net-a-Porter and Mytheresa squeezed brands with exclusives and RTS deals (where designers eat the loss when stock doesn't sell). [ Handbags at dawn: It was obvious I was not the typical Chanel customer Opens in new window ] It's not surprising then that many people are leaning towards circular fashion and resale. I've been devoted to eBay for 20 years. Some of my best buys: The Row trousers (€80) and a Margiela coat (€45). Others are leaning into luxury 'dupes' – counterfeit goods produced in China for a fraction of the cost. While the factory still has to pay for materials and labour, they get the brand for free. In the new world of mass luxury, a good copy might be just as 'good' – even better – than the cheaply made original. Reddit purse forums are hopping with details on where to find the best-made Chanel replicas. (187 Factory in Guangzhou is popular.) Maybe this is our sign to reject the logo game altogether and look for real luxury elsewhere — small, local, upcycled or direct-to-consumer brands that aren't caught in the hamster wheel of mass production. 'It's thoughtful, clever design, quality fabric, high-end, ethical production,' says Grant, who makes sculptural bags from fabrics such as silk, velvet and Irish linen. 'You can see the ideas, the work, and the story behind it. That's real luxury for me.'
The Guardian
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Everyone knows how it feels to be lonely': images for anxious times
With a background in architecture, Klein creates immersive installations combining cinematic photography, video and murals to examine identity, solitude and performative behaviour in a hyper-connected world. 'My work explores topics of disconnection in everyday life, both within ourselves and with others. I also investigate the different scenarios or social practices that lead to the emotions created by this disconnection. I think in general my work has more questions than answers' Klein began examining modern anxieties following her graduation from London's University of the Arts MA program in 2016. After London, she became restless, moving between Madrid, Israel, California and Mexico for one to two months at a time. Unmoored, her anxiety and depression began to grow. It wasn't just her, she realised – many of her friends, living all over the world, were experiencing the same extreme unease over the future 'For my projects, I try to draw inspiration from different backgrounds. I have a very strong academic influence thanks to thinkers such as Byung-Chul Han and Marc Augé. This gives me a strong structure to think about my projects in universal ways and to dig deeper into topics' 'I also come from a very political background in my family. My mom is a philosopher. We're always discussing philosophy and psychology. It's something that is very much part of my personality. I realised that, for the first time, I could try and mesh all my different interests together into one thing: photography. I started to explore different theories about contemporary society and human behaviour, working in my own theories and then finding a way to portray them in a psychological way. In the end, I realised that I'm really dealing with emotions' 'I would say there is always something ambiguous and absurd about the components of my visual language, not only for the stand-alone images, but the way the narrative between them is composed through fragments' 'My main character is always emotion. Emotion is universal and everyone understands emotions. It doesn't matter where you're from. You know how it feels to be anxious, you know how it feels to feel lonely' In her Mercado de Sonora series, Klein turns her lens toward her native Mexico, exploring inherited beliefs and mystical rituals through the lens of her mother and grandmother. Against the backdrop of a chaotic market filled with esoteric remedies and trafficked animals, she stages intimate domestic scenes that expose the fraught interplay between faith, exploitation and the fragile hope for transcendence Rich in colour and shadows, Klein's photographs grapple with isolation and melancholy in everyday life. In all of her work, Klein shows an interest in ambiguous spaces, characters and time 'In my work I bring a lot of influence from photographers such as Harry Gruyaert, Larry Sultan, William Eggleston, Jimmy De Sana, Stephen Shore, Nan Goldin and Jo Ann Callis' 'I also have a strong connection to multimedia – video artists whose work deeply inspired me, such as Tony Oursler, Bill Viola and Pipilotti Rist'
