High fashion or high fascism? A Kantian analysis of aesthetics, beauty, genius, power and politics.

This article explores the response of the fashion world to an incident involving John Galliano. This incident is used as a case study to examine issues about beauty and fashion, the politics of aesthetics, the philosophy of human affairs and the relationships between morality and good citizenship. It seeks to question some conceptions of beauty that circulate within the world of haute couture and also to problematize the use of the term 'genius' when this is divorced from any consideration of moral acceptability. Two philosophical works are used to help with this task: Immanuel Kant's ([1790] 2000) Critique of the Power of Judgment, and Hannah Arendt's (1992) Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy. In exploring whether individuals can be expected to exhibit an acceptable moral condition under a 'good constitution', the Galliano incident prompts, in complex ways, consideration of three things: 'What constitutes a bad man?', 'What constitutes a good citizen?' and 'What constitutes a good state?' Corollary questions include, 'are 'the beautiful' and 'the good' related?', and 'should one who fails to show moral behaviour be considered a genius'? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]