People strive for authenticity in forms of self-expression to connect with an experience that is not personal and present themselves as ‘in the loop’.
When looking at someone’s clothes, the condition of the pieces directly correlates to your new understanding of them—dirty, raggedy, unkempt, unclean, expensive, cheap, loose, form-fitting, etc. Looking at any individual items in a state like that will, without a forced attempt, make a connection to ‘social status’. Many people’s struggles in life can come from their place in society whether it’s ethnic, or monetary; in the art industry, there is a strong link to authenticity, struggle, and success.
The industry pushes so much more than just the want for authenticity. The selling point of all pieces is the exclusion, who can afford it, who has access to it, and the baseline is who can understand it. This is where the struggle comes in.
Many people battle with the fear of missing out, so when something new is exclusive they go to great lengths to get their hands on it. This is the selling point. Achieving that feeling is so much harder for nonmaterial pieces, music or lifestyles are hard to replicate without the connecting experience which is why people gravitate to physical items.
Although this all seems as if it could be traced back to the industry’s need to sell, the drive comes from the consumer’s want to be included. The industry just profits from understanding this. The constant push to induce the feeling of being part of something exclusive appeals to a certain community that can not experience these specific struggles, thus leading to the exploitation of those who do experience them.
Profiting off of the look and not the struggle is the rooted problem. It is turning something that wasn’t positive in the first place into just a “look”. One of the most overlooked examples is just regular ripped jeans, originally ripped as a product of excess strained work during the Gold Rush. Some others are golden goose shoes and Balenciaga’s ‘dirtied’ catalog. Both these examples are products purposefully dirtied and broken to give an authentic feel,
The value of struggle is often overlooked in the culture of surface-level art. It is immoral to ask individuals to limit their self-expression even if it is misinterpreting the real experience of others. Awareness and understanding are the most important parts of taking from other cultures, communities, or struggles that you may not be connected to.
