A Wren Says

Last year, I went down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what luxury was. That then took me down a different one to determine what quality was. I previously wrote about seven dimensions of perceived quality. Well, today I watched Bliss Foster go through his own list of possible dimensions. Then he came to the last one: He knows that person or designer actually cares. I can assure you that was not on my list before.

It is interesting, to say that a dish is really good, we add that it was made with love. The food is different because the cook really cared. Why not also clothing?

Yes, it could mean that on a spiritual level, the items are different because the maker feels different about the work. But, if I care about my job, I will go about it in a different way. I pay attention to the details. I do my best to ensure it was done right. Care is a prerequisite to getting to quality.

To the contrary, that is the argument we make about fast fashion companies. Their lack of care is demonstrated through the process. We see it in the treatment of the workers, the theft of other designers’ ideas, down to the environmental waste. Care isn’t built into the chain, and we can feel that.  There are objective measures of quality, but all of them begin with something subjective. How do you feel? Then we get to the why, then the how, and finally the what of the final product.

By the way, you should definitely check out Bliss’s video.