How Things Change

Came across a Time magazine Style & Design issue from 2008. In it was a Global Luxury Survey of 2,500 affluent adults from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. With the Euro Zone debt crisis in full bloom, it serves as yet another example of the value of socionomics when parsing news. Here's the lead:

Old masters of the game of luxury, Europeans enjoy a heightened consumer culture that dates from the silver and jewels of the late 17th century to Hermes bags and Ferraris of today. Now with the euro soaring, affluent Spaniards, Italians, French, British and Germans find themselves among the world's wealthiest consumers.

Then it labels Spain as home to "the next big spenders."

Affluent Spaniards are poised to become the Western world's next high-end superconsumers.

Sadly today, Spain is home to Europe's highest level of unemployment.

My intention is not to poke fun at Europeans. I am poking fun at the media who always seem to get it so wrong at the wrong time. That is why it is so important to be an active participant whenever we come in contact with media.

Another example: likely written just before the Lehman event in the fall of 2008 when the markets were in crash mode, one of the fashion spreads in the Time issue was titled SHOCK OF CHIC. Just below the word SHOCK was "The big surprise for fall?" and "unexpected turns in texture." Humorous only with the luxury of hindsight, perhaps. But strangely prophetic at the time.

So it is in this spirit that I like to read Franca Sozzani's blog once in a while. She is the editor of Vogue Italia, and has a great sense of what is of the moment. Today I found a few things that interested my socionomic side, so I bolded them.

Respect for talent

. . . And Fendi – with the typical creativity and extravagance of Karl Lagerfeld, proposing accessories in clashing colors, like the fake garters or the bags or even fur coats, with colors ranging from deep yellow to pink with inserts in contrasting shades - was a cheerful and imaginative show.

Art, fashion and imagination

Blumarine presented a very different woman. She’s joyful, very colorful and sensual. A mix between a street-style girl and a fashionista. A woman who loves being noticed and fashionable. Colorful sequins, leather in the nuances of old cars from the 50s, biker boots in any color and material, Mongolian fur in watercolors. And more: leopard prints, pants, shorts and metallic hues everywhere, silver, gold and colorful garments. A fun and eccentric collection.

Milan's fashion week

Giorgio Armani’s show was definitely new. Proposing an extremely colorful and modern collection, young and glamorous. The dominating color was orange, a sunny shade in itself. Almost as a reaction to all the negativity that surrounds us, his woman is cheerful and easygoing.

Does this sound like a region in the midst of a financial crisis, or just short of a dreamworld? Would their markets be closer to a top or a bottom?

With investor sentiment at near record levels of optimism, these fashion designers represent a kind of feedback loop that signals why. Their joyful cheer explains the relative ebullience of the markets . . . until the light switch deep in the collective medulla gets turned off for whatever reason, and things change.