Who are you, Mr. Alain Dominique Perrin, to say what is luxury?

True, Mr. Perrin owns the company that owns Cartier, but really, we all know that the Fashion and Luxury businesses are not the dictatorships they once were. The internet has allowed people like yours truly to become educated in all things fashion and luxury-- even if I can't afford to shop at Chanel and Cartier, I can afford to read all the critique on their lines and to see them for myself on their websites and on the runway (thank you style.com, nymag.com, wwd.com, etc).

The following is an excerpt from today's New York Times Business section, Luxury Brands and the Case for $4000 Sunglasses, By ERIC PFANNER (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/business/global/19lux.html?ref=business)
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Not everyone in the luxury goods business sees technology as a revolutionary — or even recent — influence.

Alain Dominique Perrin, executive director of Richemont, which owns jewelry and watch brands like Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Piaget, said Swiss watchmakers had always embraced advanced technology in manufacturing.

But he questioned the durability of any change in cultural perceptions of luxury. While the company’s brands have integrated technology in some unusual ways — a new watch from Jaeger LeCoultre, for example, doubles as a car key fob — Mr. Perrin said he saw little similarity between a fine Swiss watch and some arriviste icons of the technology world.

“To me, these products are worlds apart,” he said. “Who would consider handing down an iPhone, or even a Swatch, to their child or grandchild?”
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Reading the end of this article made me a little mad at the snobbery of Mr. Alain Dominique Perrin. Who is he to say what a luxury good is?

Luxury goods are the goods that people most want but don't need. In the past when the population at large was forced to look to the sky for the time of day, or to the church bells, it was a luxury to have a timepiece on one’s body. One didn't need it, but it made things much easier. Thus, the watch became a luxury item. This tradition has carried over into the new millennium; however, as technology brings about new products, that which is considered luxury will change. In a time when the timepiece was the luxury, they were made extremely durable, and handed down from fathers to sons. Once they had perfected keeping time there wasn’t a need to improve upon them. Thus one timepiece could be handed down through generations.

In today’s world, luxury is still that which most people want. Information is the biggest commodity, and so to have internet on one's cell phone, to have perfect connectivity, lightning speed, and a user friendly interface is a luxury. To know in advance where the pile-up is, so one can avoid the traffic and get home in time for dinner-- this is a luxury. Who is Mr. Perrin to say it is not? True, an iPhone cannot be handed down generations, but why would your grandchildren want your iPhone? In sixty years there will be something that is better, and so the iPhone will become obsolete.

Now this is not to say that technology is incapable of creating something that lasts. Take the example of Oakley’s $4000 sunglasses. Ninety-six hours of labor are put into making a single pair. They are specially designed, and made from the same materials that make up race cars. Now, please tell me that you think that given the same care that you give your grandfather's pocket watch, these won’t last to be handed down to your grandchildren.

watching quarterlife inspired me to blog

the girl with the black hair = worst actor ever

I am taking a class this year that combines two things that I have completely opposite feelings about: Harry Potter and Christian Theology. It is amazing. Currently I am supposed to be writing a midterm paper that is due tomorrow-- I have three paragraphs.

My new favorite thing is watching the fashion show videos. You get so much more from the models walking down the catwalk than from still images.

blogging about one's friends is stupid

Things to do:

• become more creative with the clothes i have
  
• make my back better
• get out of my head
• finish my paper
• write another paper
• study for a midterm

Things i am excited about:

• this weekend
• seeing m
• getting back on the water
• spring break
• friday
  
• not wearing pants
  

Christmas in October

Heading to Boston tomorrow for what is quite possibly the greatest weekend of the year... the Head of the Charles.

The HOCR is the empitome of the pearls and a baseball hat lifestyle. A social gathering focused on athletic achievement. Pearls and baseball hats will be out in full force. The sun will be shing (hopefully), the banks of the winding Charles will be filled with preppy Bostonians, glorying in the awesomeness which is rowing and head racing.

Too filled with excitement to say anything meaningful. Boston, tomorrow!

also, Boston is the ulitmate PBH city. Followed by London and Madrid.

In Memoriam

Last night a pivotal member of the PBH team was lost. That is to say, I am no longer in possession of one of my pearl earrings. Distressed and distraught as I am, I have borrowed some silver hoops for the time being. A search party is on the look-out for the wayward pearl, and hopefully a replacement will be found soon, though you can never truly replace such a valuable and loyal friend.

Farewell pearl earing. You served us well. May you live on forever more in our hearts and memories. We know you have gone to that happier place in the sky where all lost earrings must someday go.

Rest in Peace, right pearl earring.
January 2002-October 10, 2007

ksw is not allowed to blog in class or post 5ks

unicorns, ksw? in the words of the show i no-longer watch because the office is three million times better than weepy hospital dramas gone to pot, "seriously?".

a brief post from the library... rather than repping unicorn colors in the midst of the fall. i have chosen to dress appropriately in fall tones: brown jeans, gold loafers, orange swingy blouse (my favorite), grey blazer, and saffron scarf.

In other important news, party planning has begun for the event of the fall. a certain unicorn-crazy's birthday extravaganza. Color theme has been chosen. The appropriately stylish: electric blue and black, with a few bronze accents

Things I am super pumped for:

• the office
• more planning for ksw's b-day
• 9 days till the HOCR
• researching papers
• chilling in the bow with a fellow blogger
  

rainbows, unicorns and rain

rainbows and unicorns really get a bad rap from today's disenchanted populace. what is more happy than a unicorn jumping/leaping/flying over a rainbow? Nothing i say. which is why, on this grey* day i choose to wear an orange sweater and a purple hat with a unicorn on it.

i would say today is the first truly grey day. at home this would be the limit for me. i would curl up in my down comforter with Tamora Pierce and not budge until it got back into the 70s. but that cannot be done here in new england; in new england this is just the beginning... it hasn't even started getting cold yet. this is the time we say goodbye to sunshine for five long months. it is therefore extra important to keep a girls spirits up today. we cannot be curling up quite yet-- not until there is at least some snow on the ground and tights must be worn under jeans when venturing outside. so i wear unicorns-- well unicorn, my hat isn't quite sweet enough to have multiple unicorns. every time i look in a mirror i smile. i also like to think that i brighten the day for people who see my hat. perhaps tomorrow i will wear tie-dye (it tends to have the same effect).

now i am sure that l is thinking that this girl from california is getting a bit too hippy for PBH, so i feel a need to state: i am indeed wearing my pearl earrings with my unicorn hat, and my umbrella is a jCrew.

ok back to tie-dye. it is another under-appreciated decoration. now i am not talking about rainbow-spiraled shirts you see guys with grosey dreds and bob marley bags wearing, but rather home-made tie-dye done on the stylish white tank top you were wearing while making shirts with your team but accidentally spilled some of the yellow dye on. that particular tank is now one of my favorites. the color has definitely added something.

SO! to review: to brighten a grey day

• bright colors are a must, on clothes but particularly on umbrellas-- nothing is more depressing than a sea of black, navy, and gray umbrellas
  
• hot drinks with friends
• long lunches
• unicorns
• don't be afraid to rainbow
• play with the dinning hall silverware that for some reason gets magnetized on rainy days
  
• blog while in class
  

*yes i spell it with an "e" -- it is onamonapiac** that way
**yes i also spelt that word wrong, i can't get it close enough for spell check to get it

another weekend

Can't believe the week is over. Once Monday and Tuesday are over the week just flies by, I feel like its because there is the possibility of being able to go out on wed. or thurs., even though I almost never do.
Any way, this weekend I am looking forward to dressing up. I don't care whats going on. I am dressing as though there is something amazing, this means a dress, maybe straightened hair, and defiantly the red lip stick. The red lip stick has something of a streak going. I won't mention what that streak is, though I am sure you can infer. Also, I will knock on wood so as not to jinx said lipstick. The knocking of wood also leads me to another topic close to this PBHers heart: superstitions.

As Michael Scott once said, " I'm not superstitious, I'm just stitious". This is true of me, as well. I am very apt to become attached to material objects as signs of good luck. The pearls and a baseball hat in question refer to the pearl earrings I wear every day. I've had them since I was 16 and started rowing, and they have become both a style staple and a charm. Sure, I have had bad results in these earrings, but I have had enough good fortune in them to believe in their power. Also, wearing them makes me feel better. The act of not wearing them conjures up too many concerns, ie. What if they are good luck and I loose because I am not wearing them? The mere act of asking this question is unsettling, and could potentially lead to a poor performance based solely on hyped up nerves. I also am highly attached to a worn yellow red sox hat, which I like to bring in the boat with me. It too has a history which dates back to my earliest rowing years. I am also generally superstitious, believing in karma, bad and good omens, and jinxes. This superstition stems from being a control freak, as long as I remember the good luck item I have control of my destiny.

Anyway, enough philosophizing. Now for my list:

Things I am excited for this weekend:

• racing
• trees changing color
• a nice dinner on sat. night
• dancing in a dress
• red lip stick
• being braver than last time.

Historical figures I admire:

• Otto Von Bismarck (uniting Germany, managing those tricky alliances)
  
• Livia (sick hair style)
• Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel, crazy architecture)...Bernini, too.
  
• all the Puritans (braving New England, believing in predestination)
• Eleanor of Aquitaine (went along on a crusade, married a younger man, Henry IV of England.
• Napoleon and Robert E. Lee (so sick, but for their mistakes in the North. Russia and Gettysburg, respectively).
• the Lost Generation
  
• the Dutch, rocked capitalism before anyone else. Plus, Vermeer and Rembrandt.
• Louis XIV, for Versailles. Henry (IV??) of Navarre because Paris was worth a mass.
• Peter the Great, because he made them all shave their beards and toured Europe "in cognito".
  
• Catherine the Great, because enlightened despotism is super clever.

more to follow, later I am sure.