Veblen vs. The Swans, Part III: Useless, Expensive, and Consequently Valuable

Prompt No. 26: Gotta Lotta Hermès on Me, Ann Lowe, Kelela, and the Power of Perforation

Let’s cut to the chase. I believe I can breakdown Thorstein Veblen’s incredibly dense “Theory of the Leisure Class” through FX’s limited series Capote vs. The Swans. Is this an ambitious, possibly ludicrous undertaking? Absolutely. What do we stand to gain from the exercise? A great deal. Features of the leisure class have long dictated the consumptive habits of all Americans. In this penultimate edition, we finally discuss fashion outright; however, as we near the end I want to explain where we will end up in order for you to read this edition with context. Fashion is part of our social structure, a tool used to measure and restrain; inform and impair. According to Veblen, “The situation of today shapes the institutions of tomorrow through a selective, coercive process, by acting upon men’s habitual view of things, and so altering or fortifying a point of view or mental attitude banded down from the past.” While many clamor and question whether an era of the swan could re-emerge, I argue we cannot afford to revive it in any way. If the swans embodied a patriarchal, exclusionary class that required exploitation to survive, I question and mistrust the motivations of such a return, sartorially or otherwise.

Today, Babe would have to do an LV unboxing!

Everything you need to know about dress as an expression of pecuniary culture [1] can be summed up in an Hermès scarf. Babe Paley wears several throughout the series, but I am not referring to the one she wore tied over her coiffure whilst stepping out of her chauffeured town car, or the one that casually hung from the handle of her box leather bag. Although the scarf across her shoulders at her daughter’s birthday party saw ruin in spectacular fashion, I do not mean that one either. It was the green one splayed across her therapist’s throw pillow; her head resting dead center of the design, the hand-rolled edge protecting borders her hair could not reach. I audibly gasped and made an entertaining mental note:

Should I ever need to lie down in public (with the exception of a doctor’s office where there is medical exam table paper) I must rest my head on an Hermès scarf. In order to execute, I would need more Hermès scarves, one for every ensemble so I am always prepared. I could have an alert bracelet made that read, “Allergic to inferior surfaces. In case of reaction, please administer Hermès scarf to head. NOTE: Hermès only.”