Is Fashion in Total Creative Collapse? Greedflation, $140K Dresses & the Death of Criticism

*SUBSCRIBE to the Back Row newsletter for more coverage like this: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe. Go Premium and save three months on an annual subscription.* Is fashion in the throes of a total creative collapse? Critic Eugene Rabkin — founder of StyleZeitgeist and author of the new book Torn: Fashion and Postmodernism (https://amzn.to/4hkJJEh) — joins Amy to make the case. He argues luxury has "devolved into a consumerist spectacle," its lack of ideas papered over by relentless marketing. They get into the greedflation behind a $140,000 Dior dress, why "craftsmanship" is the industry's greatest con, the Italian sweatshop scandals that never seem to stick, how Bernard Arnault turned the fashion world into the fashion industry — and the death of criticism, and why nobody seems to care. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 02:00 Meet Eugene Rabkin & the thesis of Torn 02:30 How fashion "devolved into a consumerist spectacle" 06:30 Fashion trails the art world (and the $6.2M duct-taped banana) 08:30 Greedflation & the $140,000 Dior "rage bait" dress 11:30 Price as a signifier: fashion's simulacrum 13:00 The craftsmanship con 15:00 Sweatshop scandals: Dior, Loro Piana & $9,000 vicuña sweaters 20:30 Kim Kardashian, the perfect simulacrum 21:30 Commodified feminism & performative politics 23:30 The death of fashion criticism (remembering when reviews had teeth) 29:00 The costs & rewards of being a critic 32:00 Bernard Arnault & the Le Monde exposé 37:00 Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs & the birth of "buzz" 📺 SUBSCRIBE to the Back Row Newsletter: https://www.backrow.net/subscribe 🎙️ Follow the Back Row Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-row-with-amy-odell/id1843400835 🎙️ Follow the Back Row Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0wpDOgcuWKjpH9WxklNqI4 📷 Follow Back Row on Instagram: @backrow 📷 Follow Amy on Instagram: @instamyodell Follow Eugene Rabkin 📷 Follow Eugene on Instagram: @eugenerabkin 📚 Buy the book: Torn: Fashion and Pos