Wait, why is a Perspective writer writing about fashion stuff? Well, fashion can be pretty serious business, ya know. Fashion is a form of human expression. So if you care about ideas, fashion should interest you.

Here’s something that’s an example of something I’ve been wanting to talk about for the longest time: The SIA girls are simplifying their makeup.

Old scheme on the left: The red is redder, the eyeshadow is bluer- it looks a little more garish and obiang.

By itself, this seems a little random, arbitrary, uninteresting. Who cares about what a bunch of flight crew (bless their hardworking souls) does with their eyeliner?

I do. I care because I think it’s interesting. It’s interesting when you put it in the context of broader ideas about how things should be presented. I think it says something about the age of abundance we now live in, and how to deal with information overload.

That’s Aishwarya Rai in a movie. Look at all those details, all those colours! Do a Google image search for Indian Wedding and you’ll be overwhelmed with incredible amounts of detail. Why is there so much detail? There’s clearly a lot of craftmanship that went into all of that – the goldsmith, the jewellers, the embroidery – all of it is highly elaborate and complicated. Why?

You have to understand the context. In older times, jewelry and embroidered clothes were a luxury. Here’s a quote from David Marshall, Singapore’s first Chief Minister,

“You know, when I won a case once years ago, I was presented with a lovely porcelain Buddha with a big flowing belly and ears that reached to his shoulders and a chubby face. I said to my client, “Look, you Chinese got a real feeling for aesthetics. How can you worship something so obscene?” He said, “Mr Marshall, try and understand. China is a land of starvation where millions of people die for lack of food, and to be able to eat that much, to be that fat, that is heaven!”

Here’s how Aishwarya dresses in real life:

Notice a difference?  It’s a lot more subtle. Why? 

I believe it’s a because  of the transition from the age of scarcity to the age of information overload. Everything is information, every choice you make is a signal to others about who you are. In the past, abundance was power. Now, it’s almost obscene – why does anybody need that much?

Consider the Papacy. Here’s Pope Benedict XVI in front of his gold throne:

And here’s his successor, Pope Francis, who’s done away with a lot of the opulence typically associated with the Papacy. He also went on to wash and kiss the feet of prisoners, including a Muslim lady’s.

It’s pretty clear we’re seeing an overall trend towards minimalism.

Need more examples? Here’s Princess Diana’s wedding:

And here’s her son William marrying Kate Middleton:

Notice how there are far fewer details on the dress. There’s less fabric. The bouquet is smaller.  The veil is less elaborate. The whole picture looks more “elegant”. It’s less “heavy”, more pragmatic.

We’re moving away from the “Flamboyant Peacock” doctrine, where you demonstrated your wealth and power by flaunting so much gold and wealth that you’d literally be weighed down and incapacitated by it. Diana would need help running from zombies – and she has that help, so being encumbered is a sign of her Princesshood. Kate, on the other hand, looks like she could kick ass herself.

Mr. T’s model of manliness is unlikely to make a comeback, methinks. It used to be a sign of power, strength and wealth. Today, he’d look like a guy who’s insecure and trying too hard.

Consider the general obsession with cars, girls, bling-bling, cigars, suits and other trappings of wealth that rap stars tend to focus on. (Tupac, Eminem and Andre 3000 are 3 examples I can think of who buck this trend. They will probably be remembered as the real artists, because they chose to speak about issues beyond their immediate desire for social acceptance.)

This painting by Polish artist Pawel Kuczynski (above) captures it well – doesn’t an obsession with opulence ultimately wear you down? What is the point of wealth if you have to spend all your time flaunting it? It’s the “New Wealth” who have this problem the most. “Old wealth” is quiet and reassured.

Ultimately, SIA isn’t trying to make a statement here, all they’re really doing is responding to feedback. “We took into account feedback from some customers that the previous colours seemed to be on the strong side,” said the head of cabin crew.

What’s happening?

People on the ground are starting to realize it looks and feels odd when public figures are overly “painted”. We needed that in the past, when there was a huge distance between the Pope and his flock, the King and his Subjects. We no longer feel this vast divide today, not so much. The Pope is a ultimately just a human being like the rest of us – why should he get to ride on the shoulders of others?

A person who tries too hard to be different from everybody else looks a little bit silly. (Exception: Lady Gaga – but that’s a uniquely complex case, because while she’s distancing herself from the general public, she’s ingratiating herself to her audience – “Little Monsters”, she calls them.)

It’s all quite exciting, if you ask me. We have design that is more elegant. Now that information is freely accessible, minimalism is becoming not just a random subculture, but a way of life, a way of navigating the absurd amount of garish detail everywhere.

P.S. If you’re interested in things like this, look up Alexander McQueen’s designs (R.I.P.). I felt that he was able to understand the power of using simplicity to express authority. He designed for goddesses, for empresses of galaxies who didn’t have time to bother with cumbersome, over-elaborate peacocking. I can’t help but feel that we should all learn to do the same. True royalty isn’t inherited, it is earned.

For the language geeks, Royal comes from Regalis, Rex –  ”to keep straight, guide, lead, rule.”

Keep straight, folks.

Image credit: Worldcrews, Malar World, BoredPanda, Airtraxx