A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “fashion”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott presents and analyzes seven different analogies to understand whether sophisticated artistic taste is truly superior to popular taste, ultimately concluding it's most like a system of arbitrary rules with post-hoc justifications.
Scott Alexander examines his sudden shift towards conservatism, proposing it may be part of a broader trend of intellectuals differentiating themselves from mainstream leftism.
Scott explains Bell's theory that fashion functions as status signaling, where the upper class deliberately adopts outrageous or lower-class styles that the middle class wouldn't dare wear, creating fashion cycles and explaining phenomena like men wearing pink or the 'ghetto look.'