Tuesday, November 25, 2008

dance party usa.



The Pipeline has a feature on 25 perfect party dresses today, and I am so so so in love with the first one (available at Acne for 969 bones). The Kate Moss one is more...I wanna say realistic ($135 at TopShop if it hasn't sold out). Other faves:


{Andrea Buzyn ruffled collar dress, $318 at Oak}


{ArynK strapless dress, $80 at Pixie Market}


{Bensoni Flapper Wing Layered Dress, $586 at La Garconne}

See the rest here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

These dressese are expensive, but not nearly expensive as these government bailouts.

What's your opinion on these public policies?

allison said...

Anon - Haha, nice segue.

I am not an economics expert by any means. I think it's absolutely vile that these selfish corporate assholes get to screw people over and then successfully go to the government for rescue. There is video footage of AIG employees partying at a luxury hotel a day after they asked the government for another 40 billion. (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStreet/Story?id=6223972&page=1)

There are two great stories on This American Life about the economic crisis and the bailout. You can find them here:

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1263

My general opinion on spending is this: we live in a consumer culture where we are indoctrinated by advertising. Everywhere we look, we see ads for products that are attached to feelings that signify some vague notion of happiness. There's a word for a brand that simply evokes an emotion: lovemarks. The emotion has nothing to do with the product. Like Downy. It's a FABRIC softener. Yet we think, "Oh! Family! Love! Tenderness!" or whatever. I took an advertising class before I realized I couldn't bring myself to convince people they needed crap they really didn't.

So what I'm alluding to is that, yes, many people spend beyond their means. But this culture has ingrained in them a sense of satisfaction through buying that is also insatiable. My grandfather compares it to cigarette companies (or any harmful product) spending billions of dollars on advertising and then blaming customers because, welp, they bought the product.

So while I wish people who got loans and mortgages they knew they probably could not afford had not, I place more blame on the people who made the process so easy and inviting. One of the This American Life stories really touches on this. One of these corporate guys involved in the economic crisis said he felt wretched about the fact that so many people had been swindled.

All that being said, I think the bailout was a necessary evil. Everything I read compared it to a situation in Japan where the government basically said "Screw you guys. This is your fault and we're not gonna help you." And their economy tanked because of it.

That's pretty much all I have to say about it.

Anonymous said...

oh cool thanks