Supermarket chic: is Chanel laughing at the working class?

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When Chanel created a fully-stocked supermarket for the Fall 2014 Paris show, it was Instagram catnip for the smartphone-wielding fashion pack. Chanel eggs! Chanel coffee! Rihanna in a shopping trolley! Meanwhile, in Milan, Jeremy Scott’s collection for Moschino had drawn attention, too. Models wearing designer interpretations of McDonald’s uniforms scurried down the runway balancing fast food trays carrying red leather handbags – appliqued with some familiar-looking golden arches. M for ‘Moschino’. 

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High fashion has a history of borrowing from those least able to afford it: from Vivienne Westwood models accessorising with dirty sleeping bags, to John Galliano’s appreciation of rough sleepers. “These people are like impresarios,” said Galliano, of the homeless hoards along the Seine in Paris. “Their coats worn over their shoulders, and their hats worn at a certain angle. It’s fantastic.” But there’s something pointed about two major fashion houses bringing out such deliberate consumer culture pastiches so close together. 

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Fashion has been used as a distinction between classes for centuries, but it was in the 1800s that sociologist Georg Simmel first articulated it: a rapid invention and abandonment of styles used to mark the haves from the have nots. And this fashion hierarchy remained largely intact until the internet came along and gleefully democratised everything in sight. Globalised street style is the new authority, accessible to everyone. You still need money for quality, but wits and a decent broadband connection are all that’s required to be on the cutting edge. 

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So how do you differentiate luxury when everyone’s a fashion maven? Creating a McDonald’s uniform that would take an employee 120 hours on the job to pay for is a start – especially when the bag alone would set you back $1,265. Luxury is wearing a uniform for amusement, rather than necessity, finding novelty in supermarket shelves. This is satire as branding, and it’s working: Jeremy Scott’s collection is flying off the shelves. But the masses have a way of reclaiming the good stuff for themselves, and knock-offs of the fries phone case abound online. Moschino price: $85. eBay price: $1.99

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