Fashion and False Conciousness

One of the topics discussed in class this week was the idea of false consciousness. When taking into consideration the definition of this concept I thought about the way the fashion business promote themselves to the public. Through many mediums, the media emphasizes the benefits that come with designer and brand purchases. Models and celebrities, in TV or in their real lives, who consider it a sin to be seen in nothing less than designer clothing, enforce them. The false consciousness comes to play because first of all, the designer clothes that are advertised in all the major magazines are financially unreachable for most part of the population. This is obviously not beneficial for the average customer because splurging that much money in clothes with the economy in recession is not a good idea right in this moment. This is all linked to the image the media is trying to give the customer of what is a ‘’must-have’’ and what you should wear. The amount of money spent on these articles is not beneficial to the public. Also, many people use their credit cards to do these purchases which makes them incur in expenses they are probably not going to be able to pay and will therefore make them fall in credit card debt.

The way that editors and producers of fashion magazines and TV shows lead consumers to have a false consciousness about the possession of designer goods can be linked to the idea of commodity fetishism. The false consciousness that is created by the fashion world makes the consumer forget the use value of a product and makes him think more about the price and about what it means for his identity that he has products that are featured in magazines like Vogue and W. These items are associated with an idea of luxury, money, and the social status the common consumer achieves if you possess these items. This also does not benefit the customer because it creates a pressure to spend money that is mostly not available in these rough economic times.