"Fashion is made to become unfashionable"
About this Quote
Fashion, in Chanel's telling, is a machine engineered to betray you. "Fashion is made to become unfashionable" sounds like a shrug, but it's a business model exposed in a single sentence: the industry doesn't just tolerate obsolescence, it manufactures it. The line works because it turns the glamour of novelty into something faintly predatory. What looks like taste is often timing; what feels like personal expression is frequently scheduled replacement.
Chanel knew this from the inside. She rose in a period when couture houses and later mass production depended on seasonal churn, and she built an empire by selling a different promise: restraint, mobility, the clean authority of the little black dress. Her subtext is a flex. If fashion's job is to expire, then the real power lies with the designer (and the wearer) who can step outside the cycle and claim "style" as a kind of immunity.
There's also an implicit moral critique here, delivered in Chanel's characteristically unsentimental way. The quote treats trendiness as a form of social coercion: today's must-have is tomorrow's embarrassment, and the fear of being "behind" keeps consumers obedient. It's not anti-fashion so much as anti-suckering. Chanel is reminding you that the runway isn't a temple; it's a clock. If you understand that, you can enjoy the spectacle without letting it own you - or at least know when you're being sold the pleasure of becoming outdated.
Chanel knew this from the inside. She rose in a period when couture houses and later mass production depended on seasonal churn, and she built an empire by selling a different promise: restraint, mobility, the clean authority of the little black dress. Her subtext is a flex. If fashion's job is to expire, then the real power lies with the designer (and the wearer) who can step outside the cycle and claim "style" as a kind of immunity.
There's also an implicit moral critique here, delivered in Chanel's characteristically unsentimental way. The quote treats trendiness as a form of social coercion: today's must-have is tomorrow's embarrassment, and the fear of being "behind" keeps consumers obedient. It's not anti-fashion so much as anti-suckering. Chanel is reminding you that the runway isn't a temple; it's a clock. If you understand that, you can enjoy the spectacle without letting it own you - or at least know when you're being sold the pleasure of becoming outdated.
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