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A Clockwork Orange and RuPaul's Drag Race meet Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in this fabulous dystopian fable about fashion, family and feckless billionaires.Simone is one of the Glitterati, the elite living lives of luxury and leisure. Slave to the ever-changing tides – and brutal judgements - of fashion, he is immaculate. To be anything else is to be unfashionable, and no one wants to be unfashionable, or even worse, ugly… When Simone accidentally starts a new fashion with a nosebleed at a party, another Glitterati takes the credit. Soon their rivalry threatens to raze their opulent utopia to the ground, as no one knows how to be vicious like the beautiful ones. Enter a world of the most fantastic costumes, grand palaces in the sky, the grandest parties known to mankind and the unbreakable rules of how to eat ice cream. A fabulous dystopian fable about fashion, family and the feckless billionaire class.

Ever bought that one book that utterly changed your spiritual life, made it deeper, quicker, and 23% more efficient? Neither has anyone else, but that has not stopped the relentless manufacture of fad products and programs that promise a'better way.'Fads, which have led to havoc in the wider culture, have also found their way into Christendom. Now we have specifically Christian examples of invented problems, with churches struggling over musical choices, carpet colors, and various techniques. Christians are frequently following the world, blissfully unaware in their thinking that'the new thing'must be better merely because it is new. 23% More Spiritual! examines some of the most well-known fads of the past century, provides a history of how we got here, outlines the problems in pursuing'the fad,'and offers a solution, one seeking goodness and perfection.

To be civilized involves, among other things, making, using, and buying objects. Although speculation on the significance of objects often tends to be casual, there are professionals--anthropologists, historians, semioticians, Marxists, sociologists, and psychologists--who analyze material culture in a systematic way and attempt to elicit from it reliable information about people, societies, and cultures. One reason that analyzing objects has been problematical for scholars is the lack of a sound methodology governing multidisciplinary research. Reading Matter addresses this problem by defining a comprehensive set of methodological approaches that can be used to analyze and interpret material culture and relate it to personality and society.Berger offers discussions of the main concepts found in semiotic, historical, anthropological, psychoanalytic, Marxist, and sociological analysis. He provides practical descriptions of the working methods of each discipline and demarcates their special areas of investigation. Berger's lively discussions include a wealth of illustrative examples that help to clarify the complex and often difficult theories that underlie interpretations of material culture. In the second part of his analysis, Berger uses these disciplines to investigate one subject--fashion and an important aspect of fashion, blue jeans, and what the author calls the denimization phenomenon. Here he shows how different methods of reading material culture end up with different perspectives on things--even when they are dealing with the same topic.The author's focus is on the material culture of post-literate societies and cultures, both contemporary and historical. This comparative approach enables the reader to trace the evolution of objects from past to present or to see how American artifacts spread to different cultures, acquiring a wholly new meaning in the process. Reading Matter is an important contribution to the study of popula

Back to the roots'... la crise a modifié les priorités les entreprises où l'on prêche maintenant un retour aux fondamentaux: saisir, capter les tendances et les signaux faibles qui émaillent le quotidien et font sens aujourd'hui.Ce livre généraliste propose une méthode imaginée comme un permis de conduire l'avenir:- nettoyer le pare-brise, la seule façon de regarder en avant;- jeter un oeil dans le rétroviseur, pour ne pas oublier le passé ;- appuyer sur l'accélérateur, pour gagner des mètres sur ses concurrents.Du bon usage des tendances et de la prospective, tel est le fil rouge de ce livre émaillé d'exemples concrets et extraits de tous les secteurs d'activité destinés à tous les décideurs de l'entreprise.L'auteur propose une grille d'analyse pour permettre aux décideurs d'étudier le potentiel d'une tendance en fonction de l'entreprise et des signaux faibles.'

Times change. People move on. Plunging a hand into a pot of boiling oil is no longer considered an accurate way of determining the guilt of an adulterous woman. We tend not to casually vomit at the dinner table, do the Macarena, or fly around in airships inflated with highly flammable gas. We live our lives amid a complex web of rapidly changing ideas, desires and ethics; we pick the ones that seem like a good idea, and jettison the ones that don't. The Next Big Thing points, laughs and winces at all those things that were suddenly deemed not that great after all. The guide is a tribute to the fad, the dead-end trend, the ephemeral nature of our beliefs, needs and aspirations. Choose your fad by era - Prehistory, Ancient Civilizations, The Middle Ages, Renaissance & Elizabethan, Georgian & Victorian, World Wars, The Post-War Years, The 1960s & 70s, The 1980s & 90s right through to today. Think about it: In the 1930s, men who played the clarinet were considered incredibly sexually attractive by young women. This is no longer the case. The Next Big Thing will tell you why.A Rough Guide to things that seemed like a good idea at the time.

Why do millions of people end up wearing the same style of clothing? What makes people change their tastes in food, music, and cars? It's because of trends-the powerful process of change that affects every industry across the globe. Drawing on his groundbreaking research, trend sociologist Henrik Vejlgaard unearths essential clues about how trends emerge and go mainstream and examines the influential individuals who make this happen. Throughout are real-life stories of both famous and anonymous movers and shakers who have had worldwide influence in changing our styles of living, including business leaders, designers, and artists, while also conveying the fascinating development of little-known trends that perfectly illustrate the trend's life cycle. Anatomy of a Trend explores every level of this remarkable process-making it easy for you to benefit from the powerful social dynamic that causes trends to take off and spread. Vejlgaard delivers the tools and knowledge you need to capitalize on every stage of the trend process. As you gain insight into this aspect of human behavior, you will better understand trends and how they affect society, and ultimately learn how you can predict future needs.

From the former trendmaster of Target—how the power of contradictory trends can help reframe your business strategy Contradictions are everywhere! These days we wear Old Navy with new Gucci, Hanes T-shirts with Armani suits, couture Chanel with vintage denim. Suburban mansions are filled with flea market finds, and we show off our Michael Graves teakettle from Target on Viking stoves in our gourmet kitchens that might even include cabinets purchased from IKEA.When Robyn Waters began her career in the late 1970s, a trend was defined as something that everyone wanted at the same time. Fashion and business magazines proclaimed what was'in'and what was'out.'Back then, it was fairly easy for companies to determine the next big trend, and ride it all the way to the bank.In today's marketplace the'next big thing'has been replaced by a thousand next big things. And in order to discover what consumers are hungry for companies need to discover what's important…to them. Today a cookie cutter approach no longer works. Waters explains that for every trend there's an equally valid countertrend.In The Hummer and the Mini, Waters explores the new trend landscape and urges companies to stop looking for the one right answer in their industry. There are many good ways to design products, develop a line of goods, merchandise a store, or craft a marketing message. You can thrive by selling huge cars (the Hummer) or tiny ones (the Mini). You can turn something old into something new and desirable (the Vespa) or turn a commodity into a luxury (In-and-Out Burgers at the Oscars). You can even customize a product designed for the masses (personalized postage stamps) or sell less as more (Minute Clinics).Through lively tales of influential trends and countertrends, The Hummer and the Mini will show you how to live with the contradictions, make the most of the inconsistencies, and embrace the paradoxes of business as a source of fresh ideas.

Mark A. Long's Bad Fads takes a fun and nostalgic look at many short-lived popular trends. Whether you are eagerly practicing your hacky sack skills or trying desperately to forget that you ever disco danced in that awful leisure suit, Bad Fads has something for you. Covering just about everything, from fashion to collectibles to activities to events, Bad Fads takes you on a stroll down memory lane and reminds you of the fun-filled (and often embarrassing) times of the past decades. You may remember that in the 1970s the term “bad” meant “good” to those in the know, and so it is with fads throughout the years. While children tease their parents for the bellbottoms and platform shoes they once wore, parents laugh right back when their old rags come back in style and those same kids are digging through the attic for a “new” wardrobe. From 3-D movies to zoot suits, Mark A. Long's Bad Fads takes a fresh and funny look at the games, gags, dances, and styles of yesterday. Bad Fads will keep you laughing at our outrageous attempts to be cool.

The modern society of consumption is a society of fashion. Fashion has extended its influence over various fields of social life and, together with taste, become central to our understanding of the inner dynamics of any modern society.The Sociology of Taste looks at the role of taste - or the aesthetic reflection - in society at large and in modern society in particular. Taking case studies from social life, for example eating and food culture, it illustrates the role of fashion in the formation of collective taste.