“Fashion” is merely a way of saying
"Fashion" is merely a way of saying: "I belong to your world, I'm wearing the same uniform as your army, so don't shoot."
— Paulo Coelho, The Winner Stands Alone
Ever since groups of men and women first started living together in caves, fashion has been the only language everyone understand, even complete strangers. "We dress in the same way. I belong to your tribe. Let's gang up on the weaklings as a way of surviving."
But some people believe that "fashion" is everything. Every six months, they spend a fortune changing some tiny detail in order to keep up their membership in the very exclusive tribe of the rich. If they were to visit Silicon Valley, where the billionaires of the IT industry wear plastic watches and beat-up jeans, they would understand that the world has changed; everyone now seems to belong to the same social class; no one cares anymore about the size of a diamond or the make of a tie or a leather briefcase. In fact, ties and leather briefcases don't even exist in that part of the world; nearby, however, is Hollywood, a relatively more powerful machine-- albeit in decline-- which still manages to convince the innocent to believe in haute- couture dresses, emerald necklace, and stretch limos. And since this is what still appears in all the magazines, who would dare destroy a billion- dollar industry involving advertisements, the sale of useless objects, the invention of entirely unnecessary new trends, and the creation of identical face creams all bearing different labels?