April 10, 2007 22:41 | Culture

"It's all about taste"

New friend Patrick went on a fantastic tear about how fascinating Karl Lagerfeld is after I showed him The Sartorialist and we scrolled over his picture.

The above video was a 2 minute promotional made to announce Lagerfeld's line for H&M afew years ago, which apparently many regarded as a sellout move of sorts. The piece fiercely parodies the fashion world, and much of Lagerfeld's own clientèle...

... his retort to being called "cheap" at the end is golden:

"It's all about taste. If you are cheap, nothing helps."

A few years ago, Mike said something similar to me: "Taste is all you have. Without it, who cares?" (something along those lines ;)

Comments
Wed, Apr 11, 2007, @ 0:35
1- Mike

Yeah, I tend to equate taste with individuality... or rather individuality is who we are internally, and our taste is one of the ways it's expressed externally or something...

Meh... Let's see if I can do better.

"Taste" is a word we use to encompass our many biases. All things being equal, one prefers blue to pink, fit to baggy, Truffault to Godard (or for that matter, Truffault AND Godard to Rohmer, etc).

"Taste", by necessity, acknowledges the many possible options in stating a preference for one or more over the others.

If "experience" is what we've done, "taste" is how we've been shaped as individuals as a result. It's an artefact of experience.

To not have taste is to be somewhat oblivious or indifferent to variety in the world or to refuse to question it... and, well, we all know how HOT ignorance and apathy are... just a second... that kinda describes a few models i've met... haha... maybe ignorance and apathy ARE hot afterall...

Anyway, some people talk about taste like it's hierarchical or as if it were defined by consensus. I find the concept funny as it requires substituting one's own preference to that of a ideology. In many ways, this is more dangerous than being indifferent. It's being "cheap"!

M