#whatisfashion? SHOPenauer campaign meets Walter Benjamin

Christian Dior by John Galliano Gold Jacquard Corset Lace Top

THE BERLIN PHILOSOPHER REPLIES TO THE SHOPenauer CAMPAIGN

#whatisfashion? «Fashion is nothing but the eternal return of the new.» This is the clear and simple way that Walter Benjamin answers the question. What is fashion and what are its prospects is the matter of the project launched by Wait! SHOPenauer. The first episode was hosted by the philosopher who inspired the SHOP project, namely Arthur Schopenhauer, while the latter sees the thought – short and clear – of the author of the I passaggi di Parigi (Einaudi).

Going back to Benjamin’s statement and trying to interpret it carefully, we see how it is perfectly adaptable to our time, despite the fact that he died in 1940 in Portbou, Spain. So he couldn’t live fashion like us: Zara and Versace didn’t exist; Prada was not the aesthetic-intellectual empire of today and the glossy newspapers were drawn up by illustrious pens. Today everything has changed, as we all know. But the great thinkers are such because they see beyond their present. And here the words eternal return of the new, are installed coherently in the 2000s and are able to trigger a discussion.

Yves Saint Laurent smoking, via Pinterest

THE NEW THAT RETURNS? A QUESTION ALWAYS DEBATED

Is the novelty that cyclically manifests itself? Or is it the old stuff, the already seen that, season after season, is visible on the catwalk and then sold in stores? Indeed, if the German philosopher had lived today to the question #whatisfashion? he would have replied: «Fashion is nothing but the eternal return of the past.» How many times have we read online and off, phrases like: “the return of tartan, of the buffalo sneakers” or, as in the case of last winter, the animalier? Sometimes we see again corset on the catwalk, others the tuxedos. All inventions born decades ago. In this regard it is Yves Saint Laurent who says: «A great model can be proposed in fashion even for ten years.» It would also be worth saying even more.

The debate is more open than ever.