On clothes, class, anxiety, and the many lies of minimalism

As someone who knows absolutely nothing about fashion and can’t spend more than 30 seconds thinking about “an outfit” before expiring, I still found this Sarah Nicole Prickett-moderated roundtable at Adult to be a good, long read. They discuss minimalism for the rich (“sparse luxe = Minimal, while sparse cheap = Plain. Minimalism as it’s commonly known can only exist in airtight upper-class vacuum”) and minimalism for the not-rich (normcore, a concept full of holes, still ultimately reaching for a “blank check, white cube, vague, reflective, ‘valueless’ ideology… Any meaning. No stakes”) and tackiness:

Tacky is the most disgusting word in the style vocabulary. It’s fascinating and gross. Tacky like glue. Like you’ll catch poor [ed note: or like poor sticks to you, no matter what you do?]. Tacky like you’re trying to climb up to somewhere you “don’t belong.” Tacky is the opposite of rich solitude and desire for exclusion.

Clothes here are theoretical expressions, deliberated to the point of being joyless; it’s quite a counterpart to the language of “Try This Fun Trend!! Yes!! 49 Ways To Do It!!!” [Adult Mag]