DHis protests are boiling in many places. Under the hashtag #IchbinHanna, scientists complained on Twitter about fixed-term employment contracts, persistent insecurity and career dead ends.In an open letter Acute respiratory disease Approximately 250 radio writers complained about their precarious situation. ZDF interns wrote that the 350 euros they receive per month will help divide society: because of course you can only do such an internship if you can afford it.
Those who want to work scientifically or creatively are often poor. Because the career goals of writers, scientists, artists, architects or designers are still very popular. Young talents are in short supply. Many students want to do “media-related things” or “fashion-related things”. But the cruel rule applies: “The more creative you are, the less you earn.” This is what one of the protagonists in the book “The Most Beautiful Trade in the World” by Giulia Mensitieri said-you guessed it, It can be ugly.
The Law of Unreachable
The public may be surprised that the fashion industry is flooded with low-paying ideas.You can’t see those in the shadows: when you are in front of the catwalk Gigi Hadid To celebrate, there was a low-paid intern behind the stage helping her get dressed. When the billionaire Bernard Arnault opened his court in the first row of Dior, a stylist for a small fashion magazine was sitting in the back two rows. He was already in a 20-square-meter furnished room. It was sublet for ten years.
Fashion is a practical art, but it is also grainless, although at least big companies generate huge profits through it. The career prospects of a model, designer, stylist, or photographer are small. But small opportunities seem to fuel ambition. To break this unattainable law-this is the goal of the ethnologist Mensitieri. She devoted herself to research and obtained a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the Ecole des Social Sciences in Paris, aiming to reveal “the instability behind the gleaming appearance of capitalism.” This sounds tacky-and it is shocking indeed.
Otherwise no one will do this job
The higher the goal, the greater the ability to suffer. Mensitieri exemplifies this point. The stylists make a luxurious series of photos for fashion magazines, but they can provide food for the eight people who participated in the photo shoot for only 20 euros. Or take the example of design assistants who work in well-known fashion companies. Their total income is only 2,000 euros, but they must work for free on all nights and weekends in the weeks leading up to the fashion show.
However, this balance sheet does not include the symbolic “cool” capital accumulated by creative minds. After all, the “charm” that this job brings is also a reward. To use synonymous repetition: otherwise no one would do this work. More importantly: Mensitieri himself wrote that after such an assistant slimming period, people can hope to get a high-paying position in a lesser-known fashion brand. She also admitted that no one is forced to do such a degrading job-unlike India or Bangladesh, where poverty makes the job of textile factories difficult.
Through participatory observation
When it comes to criticism of capitalism à la Mensitieri, the cat bit its tail: the author criticizes the “neo-liberal cult of personal freedom”, which underestimates power relations and hides inequality. But aren’t these inequalities stimulating productivity? Isn’t this freedom inspiring everyone? What is the bitter meaning of the word “freedom worship”? Are we so far away from the age of bondage that we no longer see the blessings of freedom?
You can also discuss “continuously mobilizing one’s own subjectivity in the production process.” Of course, the permeable relationship between life and work is a stressor, especially when the disguised hierarchical system of the fashion industry takes advantage of the emotional enthusiasm of future generations—Mensitieri vividly describes it through participatory observations based on many cases. at this point. But it is worth taking action against. Numerous complaints about how models are handled have led to the fact that the two largest luxury goods companies, LVMH and Kering, signed a charter in 2017, which stipulates that models must not be too young and must be at least 16 years old.
In order to view creative job profiles in a timely manner, Mensitieri provides better help than any career counselor in the employment office. This book should be a must-read in fashion school. For this reason, this will not happen, and now we are starting to criticize capitalism, because these training centers also hope to provide sometimes terrible tuition for this industry.
Giulia Mensitieri: “The most beautiful trade in the world”. Behind the scenes of the fashion industry. Translated from French by Lena Müller. Matthes & Seitz Verlag, Berlin 2021, 335 pages, hardcover, 28 euros.
