Out with the Bling Bling. Over the weekend, the New York Times published an article, “In the lap of luxury, Paris squirms,” noticing France’s seeming paradoxical response to the profound drop in demand for luxury items (given the country’s position at the center of the luxury goods industry). Emerging, is “an underlying satisfaction . . . that an era of sometimes vulgar high living is over and that a more bedrock French way of life will emerge. Only in France is the recession lauded for posing a crisis in values.”
“’Since the ancient Greeks, luxury goods have always been stamped with the seal of immorality,’ said Gilles Lipovetsky, a sociologist who has written several books about consumerism. ‘They represent waste, the superficial, the inequality of wealth. They have no need to exist.’”
I like Karl Lagerfeld’s (of Chanel) attitude that a return to French modesty, which does not necessarily involve a distaste for fine food, wine, and other products, is a welcome revolution — a balanced return to comfortable, well-dressed (but not “bling bling”) quality.
The Simple Life. As a sort of follow up on the possible evolution of our definitions of luxury, I’ve been googling variations on ‘living the simple life,’ and the most popular search results point to Paris Hilton’s TV show. Nice. I’m a little surprised that there aren’t more readily-available sites out there (that aren’t reality TV show based, or commercially based) relating to the principles of simple living. Think Simple Now is one of these rare sites worth looking at.
The Simple Dollar encourages readers to do the “One Hour Project” and simplify finances in a small, but meaningful way (for instance, the writers culled their DVD collection for forgotten favorites and subsequently nixed their movie/entertainment budget for a few months). The larger idea is not just to find ways to save money, but to find more ways to enjoy, and feel satisfied with, what you already have.
