How the recession will affect your hemline
Photo: One of the two falling models from the Herve Leger show.
Skirts will get longer. Here’s a piece of Wall Street folk wisdom: There is a rough correlation between bull markets and bare knees. During boom times, skirts get shorter. In these bearish times, prepare for hemlines to head south. Somewhat in relation, we’ll see something else go north: the age and weight of Playboy centerfolds. Evolutionary biology encourages people to seek “more mature†mates during times of economic insecurity, argue Terry F. Pettijohn and Brian J. Jungeberg in one of the more interesting studies published recently in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. To support their claim, the researchers showed that during recessions, centerfolds get older and, well, rounder. Similar studies have confirmed an identical trend in movie comedies—male and female leads get older during recessions.
In Foreign Policy: The Long Legs of the Crash: 13 Unexpected Consequences of the Financial Crisis by Daniel W. Drezner
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 25th, 2009 at 03:22
Maybe there’s also a correlation between the amount of fabric in bikinis and recession times. One piece swimsuits for women are making a come back. I think they’re calling one-piece swimsuits “monokinis” now. What, no more t-backs/thongs during bear markets?
February 28th, 2009 at 01:26
Is fashion relevant in this age of global financial chaos? Does it make sense to spend $30,000.00 on a Balenciaga dress when many people could barely afford to keep their own houses and jobs in the US? I have a tip to Pres. Obama. You want to help your fellow Americans? Go after the Hollywood high spenders. The supermodels. Bratty young actors. And overpaid NFL and NBA athletes. ($20,000,000 per season contract for an average NBA cager?!) Tax them to death, bleed them dry of their excesses, sequester their Murcielagos, make them learn the value of a dollar to a laid-off GM auto worker. Crackdown on Paris Hilton. Send her to the moon or something. Abolish all parties. (social gatherings,not political groups).