Luxury Fashioning 

By: Jack Couser

11 / 11 / 23

What is the real role of the craftsman in high fashion?

The way I see it, Prada Spring Summer 2024 references the worker as a muse. Models strapped in belts, regardless of how dainty or strong their silhouettes, with hair pulled back, secured to look as though they are ready to put in the work. Duck-jackets worn throughout the wear and tear of the day, as much at work as wherever else after. Rings and rivets repurposed as design elements to celebrate; it is hard work getting those to stay fastened in fringe skirts after all.

Still in Milan, Bottega Veneta recently revealed (or rather, reminded us about) the need luxury fashion has for those at the core of what makes it happen: not their customers, but their craftspeople.

With crafted $7,000 faded blue jeans (made entirely out of leather) and t-shirts too; chore jackets for a customer base who may or may not actually be getting their hands dirty doing chores. It’s interesting to see the popularization of a normal-person aesthetic shown on display as buyers and editors throughout the world talk of commentary on industrialism and what deeper meanings collections may indicate, isn’t it? Yet, what makes the investment into a Prada duck jacket better than a comparable one from Carhartt? Do they not both share the same, if not exact same, look? Are the materials also not the same, rooted in durability and wear? Both are meant for work after all, but is Prada taking a moment of gratitude, giving some thanks to those who build their Prada world and make it happen? Prada is telling the world that it’s cool again to work hard.

Is not the purpose of luxury fashion the inability of replication? These houses create things for people with time and money available to get them. It is just as easy for someone to pluck that t-shirt from an H&M down the street, but feeling the sense of investment into a piece makes it seem all the more worthy. It’s time that is the real luxury in luxury fashion; what gets created is painstakingly styled and paired with other items of equal craft and investment; uniqueness is the beauty that levels the playing field. 

Will people actually end up buying the Carhartt-but-not-Carhartt jacket? Not if they don’t see Prada say that it actually can look cute with a shirt-skirt combo or a little black dress. The style may change, but fashion is forever; fashioning, though, is something fleeting, and the labor needed to keep this system and that world afloat is in high demand. Maybe the Prada show was a job offer, their attempt to draw in young craftspeople to keep their brand going. Almost saying: Look! You can work and have your life underneath too! Under the fringe, under that sheer scarf thing…

If you have to invest time into developing the means to buy that jacket, that pair of jeans, or that leather t-shirt, you have the time to appreciate its beauty past its function. If you have more time to spare though, Prada asks you to help build their world with them, suggesting that there may be even more beauty that lies behind the seams.

Does the notion of a pair of blue jeans cast in leather, or a $1000+ chore jacket seem ironic? Yes, but it also stands as a testament to the work put into it. And I guess these houses showing on the runway are their explanations to potential new hires that their work can go somewhere, that they can make an impact felt around the world. 

Am I running to buy a Carhartt jacket to replicate one of the looks from the runway? Not yet, my style isn’t there yet.  Maybe in the spring we’ll see everyone sporting different styles of the coat… until it turns into an elevated workwear trend, up until that turns into a reworked vintage utilitarian-wear trend, and so on. The ripple effect: I can see it now, and Prada hopes that you can too so that you can come work for them, so then they don’t have to worry too much about their own craftsmanship challenge.

The people making the product may never be able to afford the actual high-end end product, but certainly they put in the real work, and as Prada indirectly puts it, that’s what really sets the trends; besides, the real luxury is time.