Interim Post: what? And: how? And: why?

Posted by Tania Kindersley.

I was just thinking: maybe I was a bit mean about fashion. Some of the frocks are lovely, after all, and people have their jobs to do. Just because I do not get a thing does not mean it has no validity. (I do not understand Wagner, or Joyce, and they are both geniuses.) One must not fall down the subjective rabbit hole and start confusing opinion with fact.

And actually, it turns out Alberta Ferreti is doing some lovely coats this year.

Then I saw this:

It is a leather miniskirt by Balmain. BALMAIN. One of the great, enduring names of fashion, a name that at once makes me think of elegant Faubourgs and Grace Kelly and women who never went out to lunch without a hat.

It’s not the item so much, although I do think it is quite silly. I suppose it has some kind of post-punk, post-modern, deconstructed appeal. If you were eighteen with very long legs, you might look fabulous in it.

It’s the fact that it costs NINE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY POUNDS. That’s: £9430. (I really do try and avoid excessive and excitable capital letters, but there are times when italics are just not enough.)

Has no one told the people at Balmain that the world economy is teetering on the brink? Are they channelling the Emperor Nero? Shall they get out their fiddles and play as the Euro burns? Or are they just taking the piss?

Thank you for letting me get that off my chest. Proper blog later.