No wonder luxury brands embrace the metaverse

While I enjoyed the cheekiness of the article on the blouson jacket (HTSI, December 30), it missed a few things.

First, while readers might contrast Tom Ford suede jackets with “top hats and cigars” and see it as “quiet luxury”, the latter term is derived almost entirely from TikTok commenters. Today’s critics have only been in virtual rooms — whether on HBO or otherwise — with wealthy people. Not the easiest place to pick up subtle signalling.

No wonder luxury brands were so eager to head into the metaverse. Where else could virtual experience be so readily monetised?

Second, the article fails to make the key distinction between blouson types, primarily the high-necked variety favoured by Kendall Roy (who himself dresses in conspicuous luxury out of insecurity, wearing ill-fitting Tom Ford suits, for example, something I suppose that is missed by most viewers) and the bomber jacket.

Quite a conspicuous class difference between the two — although you can find nearly the same jacket from $500 to $5,000-plus price points, usually manufactured by the same Italian shop across last year’s collections.

You have to take it from an original aspirant, a 20th century late modernist or proto-postmodernist such as Ralph Lauren, who knows well enough that such a style is derived from skeet or clay pigeon-shooting jackets — which Tom Ford and all of the other so-called luxury peddlers fail to take note of.

Michael Grotell
New York, NY, US