Tea at Trianon: The Rise and Fall of Urban Frump

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, April 10, 2025

The Rise and Fall of Urban Frump

From First Things:

Fashion is a complicated dialectic. Designers don’t just dictate what people wear: They have to be sensitive to psychic or spiritual needs, even if what they ultimately present to us is a chemically pure version of how we’d like to think of ourselves, or what we’re afraid of. They are artists, which means their designs will have as little in common with our daily needs as a Matisse portrait has in common with the human face. Even so, in light of Hu’s assessment, I think we can say that Urban Frump is the external manifestation of a desire to take oneself off the market. To be left alone, to not be a commodified chooser. The 2021 fashion show foretold that the more we become like robots, the more our faces glow like screens, the more we suffer from digital lethargy, then the more we crave the opposite of the sleek, optimized digital world: frumpy, bumpy, and lumpy natural fibers.

I’m going to miss Urban Frump. I found it endearing, but I’m sorry to say that the industry has moved on, as of spring 2025, from Urban Frump to the LARPer (Live Action Role Playing) look. The latest shows feature huge billowing pants, shoulder pads, black on white, leather shoes, bizarre combinations of long and short, and flowing capes. Trinity and Neo are back. It’s time to get over the fact that you have been uploaded into the world of datafication. It’s time to express your inner emoji, and let your inner avatar come billowing forth. And if that seems daunting, don’t worry: The fashion designers will be there to help you. (Read more.)