Does class ever go out of style?
Will the nouveau modern decorating style last -or is it just another trend for now? Here is a Sunday morning rant.
I now sort of get it more and more, regarding these modern decorations/style, which are in style.
Interior decorators, just like fashion people, have to keep re-inventing themselves continuously, just so doing justify/marketing their new styles & tastes to the affluent. As if not far fewer would need them and if styles stayed the way they are, nobody would want them. It so would make it to be a more boring world.
Just now its in vogue to do and be "modern" or at least contemporary as they call it when it comes to interior decorating. And whom does no want to be up du jour? Because this way at least the new modern self acclaimed connoisseurs can claim to fame. Modern decorating very often is a bit like nouveau cuisine: expensive even while in small portions., i.e. minimalist. Tastes great and is less filling. Never mind value for the money.
Where they always claim, that less is more, so to sell you new fewer, but far more expensive "must have's", which are different then the past. Example are beds, which now I am told must lay low and so use less wood, evewhile it can be uncomfortable for most to get out of these. Yet, these beds are considered "modern" and so cost more. White color is simple and with less effort, minimalist art work, is well: minimalist. Where sometimes you pay for far less, because its in. Less is more. Its the new way which often means slick but also works all too well for the decorators, as he/she now can charge as its new and in...and yes "more". As to the old's, they just don't know how to do the new.
Somebody once wrote me that I had class but no style, well if they say so. What if I turned these words around? Mon Amie, I answered, class does not go out of style! Anything new and shinny looking -will look old in 7-10 years. Does class ever go out of style? "That depends" is their answer.
Decorators with and all the nouveau stuff, taught me this has its benefits -but also works wonders marketing for the newly invented decorating industry. Maybe just like the brokerage industry here which claims they best serve all their investor clients by just giving faster and better platforms for trading.
I remember years ago when we were young, mini skirts came into style. Where they charged far more expensive just so to sell 1/4 the fabric. In vogue fashion often sells to people with money and desires, but less brains? Then, I remember in Zurich some years ago, they were told that green wild weeds along the public gardens, are "in". So they let all the grass and weeds just grow wild by/near all the tram stations and greenery spots in the city. As un-orderly gardens was nature, and so the new way which was in. That fad faded quickly but I don't know what triggered its demise, as maybe one day Nouveau/Modern will? Nahh, not likely as many of us feel we got hooked, which was the whole raison to begin with.
I guess the opposite example is also true, to make my point. Years ago when small & light electric coffee bean grinders became a bit stale -and too cheap from China. So, in the US they "invented" a new brand, which cost more and was bigger and heavier... it had the new trendy feature that you had to physically turn the handle by hand, so to make it grind the coffee. The old fashion way came back, as nouveau..yes at a price premium. It sold like hot cookies.
Is there a point of all this? Well trends in investments are always nebulous: Trading is what is pushed. Nobody holds for the long term as the world is too uncertain. Graphs are noble, stop losses are essential, momentum investing is in, all at least according the brokers. But I keep on pushing the old fashion way: trying to find responsible value investments over time as seen from the individual investor point of view.
Best Regards,
Paul A. Renaud.
