The history of fashion began in Paris and ended in the United States, though by the time the Americans had entered the scene, the party was mostly over. Escalating operating costs, conglomeration and insidious in-fighting, when coupled with "democratic" trends in the market, sealed fashion's fate. Rather, Agins crafts an incredibly selective history of twentieth-century fashion, concluding that haute couture has taken 40 years to die and the final funeral peals only happen to coincide with the end of the world. To be fair, Agins doesn't suggest that mannequins and boutiques, from Rodeo Drive to Newbury Street, are going to start spontaneously combusting in celebration of the new year. It's the end of the world, the end of Virtue, the end of the Modern Welfare State and now Teri Agins, a veteran fashion journalist at the Wall Street Journal, has written a book called The End of Fashion. Usually these types of ideas are relegated to specific facets of society: messianic religious movements or anti-technology groups. After all, the year 2000 can only mean the Apocalypse. If it wasn't so funny, it might be tragic how millions of people around the globe are convinced that we are approaching the world's end.
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