11.2.11

The matter of taste

What good taste really means? There are so many different theories about good taste and fashion so first I will have a quick look at these ideas then I will write about an essay  - From aesthetic principles to collective sentiments: The logic of everyday judgements of taste written by Ian Woodward and Michael Emmison. This Australian article analyses how people judge taste and what their judgement based on.


Classical sociologist had different ideas about taste and fashion which are still interesting today but a lot of things changed since then. The contours between social classes getting blurry as we all have the same rights and we are equal in theory. But it always worth to see where concepts like taste and fashion come from. Kant’s idea about good taste is that it has to be a universal judgement. If something is beautiful there’s nothing to do with its function – like the sunset – it is a “common sense” based on our feelings instead of concepts. I think it should be this way but I’m afraid nowadays there are quite a lot of effects influence our tastes. Not in terms of the sunset but if we are talking about clothes I’m not sure someone who highly interested in fashion would buy a piece if it’s out of fashion no matter how beautiful it is. Trends are essential today in fashion and beauty doesn’t come first all the time.

Veblen and Simmel had a different theory about fashion. Veblen observed that the wealthy and upper class people demonstrate their status through “wasteful expenditures”. Their clothing is different from popular taste and very difficult to wear – like a birdcage in their hair or their massive dresses – which symbolise that they don’t have to work, they are so leisured as they can spend ages waiting to get their hair done. Veblen thought the elite class shaping and sustaining our sense about what beautiful means. According to Simmel’s observation imitation is a fundamental component of fashion. Lower class people copy upper class people so the elite have to come up with new ideas to set themselves apart from other classes.

‘‘Fashion is the imitation of a given example and satisfy the demand for social adaptation” Simmel

Blumer thought people follow fashion because it is the fashion and not because of the separate prestige of the elite group. Back to nowadays approach I think imitation is still very essential in fashion. Although I don’t think so many people would copy the Queen’s style today but superstars, bands and popular people from the media. We also copy each other; we pick up bits from other people’s style in our environment. Today everybody can dictate fashion like we read in The Tipping Point when downtown kids started to wear Hush Puppies and it became a trend. So who decide what is tasteful? In Bourdieu’s opinion taste is “nediated” which means certain people dictate it. He call these certain people “Gatekeepers” and they could be gallery owners or magazine editors but definitely people who has a huge impact on what reach us as consumers. Bourdieu also said that taste is social so the society we belong to influences our taste. So our taste depends on the Gatekeepers but who they are?

We are working on a Fashion Forecasting project just now and it is very interesting who and how decide it what going to be popular in 18 month. New trends can come from websites or periodical journals, both resources are quite pricy but very essential for designers. These companies have a good understanding of the present by looking at the news, current affairs, economics, cultural and creative happenings and socio-economic trends. Then from the gathered information they second guess consumers future choices based on their emotional connection with the present. They also study the past, how did people react to parallel situations previously which also help to find out the future trends (mudpie.co.uk). So it’s all about social changes around us which affect our choices. But what was first, they try to find out what we want or we buy what they tell us to buy? I guess both because I believe we can’t be manipulated enough to buy whatever they want so the two things has to be in harmony.

Now I’d like to write about what I found out from the Australian article about taste. Their survey involved 619 people from different genders, age groups and background. They tried to find out more about the ideas which different people use to classify objects or behaviours when they judge taste. First they introduced the three abstract classificatory schemes of taste judgment: quantity, composition and quality. Quantity means the correct amount of something considered to be tasteful. Two third of the respondents who used quantity when they talked about taste was female. They said good taste means knowing ‘when enough is enough’. Too much colour, too much accessories, too high heels, too much food on the plate or too many/few words in a situation considered to be tasteless, showy or inappropriate. The next scheme composition is basically about harmony, when things go together or organized in a pleasing way. Again two third of the respondents who used this scheme to judge taste was women. The quality factor refers to definitions like elegance, timelessness and classicism. For an action or an object to be in good taste it must have certain non-functional qualities. Money tastefully spent would mean buying a Jaguar car, Italian woollen trousers or a big boat.

In the next part the authors review two definitions for the references what people use when they talk about good or bad taste: ‘domain of taste’ and ‘basis of taste judgement’. Domain means a social, cultural or consumption sphere to which the respondent refers when talking about taste. The ‘basis’ of taste judgement on the other hand means the reference for a personal or aesthetic judgement. It also can refer to social or collective judgement. According to this survey educated people more likely to use abstract definitions (quantity, composition, quality) when less educated people refer to domains when they talk about taste. There’s a difference between genders as well. Men slightly more likely to use abstract definitions than women but when they do use domains to describe taste females refer to clothing and appearance about twice as much than males. The most significant difference appears between different age groups refer to ‘basis’ of judgement. Older people principally employ collective or social concepts to define good taste when young people mainly use personal or aesthetic concepts for the same.

This survey is an ultimate proof how our environment affects our judgement and what is based on. Basically most of the people try to fit in to the society and their preferences based on what they experience around them. As a summery here is a quote from the article about what good taste means:

‘‘things that are in good taste are generally not upsetting or disgusting to the general public, people who act in good taste care about the people around them and do not want to upset them’’.