The first chapter from ‘Taste, Fashion and the French a Magazine’ by Sanda Miller addresses how “taste provides a rational universal basis which postulated an inborn faculty of taste deeming a beautiful object to a not so beautiful object” (Milller). It goes on to discuss philosophical aesthetics and how they have guided us in understanding our personal concepts of taste and the development of fashion magazines originating from the French Revolution.
Firstly Miller introduces how the first fashion magazine was produced in the 17th century by Jean du Vise who published ‘Le Mercure Galant’ consisting of articles, illustrations and addresses of ‘merchandes de mondes’ and therefore was considered to be the first form of publicity in the sector. Although short lived this first publication allowed people to gain an understanding of the emergence of fashion in media and advertisement. During the 18th century fashion magazines gained a higher status of the Enlightenment during the revolution due to their more intellectual profile.
The chapter goes onto discuss philosophical aesthetics and how they sought to understand how our experiences within beauty sets out to provide us with our own personal opinion, suggestively providing us with a reason as to why we acquire our own taste/aesthetic. This emerged as an enquiry into the concept of taste in order to deal with the shift in interest from aesthetic contemplation to subjective appreciation (the art work and our psychological response towards it). The subject of ‘taste’ began with British empiricist philosophers such as Anthony Ashley Cooper who sought to provide an answer as to why we seemingly have an emotional response to particular aesthetic experiences. David Hume investigated ways to come up with a more accurate definition as to why we seek a standard of taste proposing that ‘only a qualified observer is in a position to provide a proper verdict of the true standard of taste and beauty’(Hume) leaving a range of ongoing disagreements.
The concept in this chapter of fashion and taste being linked creates lots of room for discussion behind why we find things visually appealing and how trends are created due to a common denominator in our likes and dislikes. Furthermore the existence of personal opinion leads to the idea of ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ (Kant) suggesting that everything is art, and everything is beautiful depending on who is making the judgement leaving this down the ‘the delicacy of the imagination’. The linking of fashion and taste has been used throughout history to elevate fashion above its current state.
In summary the emergence of taste in the fashion industry has led to wide success and has been greatly accepted in order to maintain a functioning status within the fabrication of the media. The concept of philosophical aesthetics brings a new light into how we engage in criticism and how this is applied in fashion. I feel that in turn this was very beneficial and will continue to be revolutionary to fashion magazines. I appreciate the depth of the history and the discussions and points made about each statement and feel I have learnt a lot about the importance of taste in order to help the growth of the fashion magazine industry.