February 14, 2016

"This year’s idea is distance — in clothing, in manners, in art — a heightened consciousness of irony and effect."

"We seem to be passing from the age of touchies to a time of politesse. The direction in interpersonal behavior in the sixties was toward breaking down the walls between people. Look for people to start building them back up. An important aspect of glamour is invulnerability. Being fashionable demands a certain stylization of one’s inner emotions, the discipline which taste imposes. You can expect to see emotion vented in more traditional ways — through eloquence and wit — as public rage and undue candor become uncool. What we lose by this decision is all that psychologists have said about the relationship between emotional release and health. What we gain by this decision is a heightened sense of style."

From "Entering the Age of Swank," by Richard Goldstein in New York Magazine, on the front page today, but originally published in the September 17, 1973 issue.

6 comments:

rhhardin said...

The enchantment and the most powerful effect of woman is an effect at a distance.

- Nietzsche

Otto said...

ITS all about what and who's emotions. The author is a scared shitless tikkunista.

MacMacConnell said...

"Entering the Age of Swank," by Richard Goldstein, where the fuck did Richard grow up? SWANK as in the magazine? 1973 Disco era polyester everything, nothing like the sophisticated style of a lime green leisure suit with white patent leather shoes & belt, a " full Topeka".

The Summer of Love can't hold a candle to the debauchery going on in 1973, so much for the distance. Of course we've come full circle, Americans are once again dressing like refugees.

Anonymous said...

The return of "politesse" (or the "discipline of taste", reticence, or myriad other related forms of reaction to the '60s aesthetic of uncultivated youth) has been predicted regularly since my adolescence (early '70s).

glenn said...

Well it just about had to get better when the Boomers started aging out.

David said...

The white girl in the photo is mesmerized by Pam Grier's rack. Mammary envy of a high order.