From the Shelf

In this episode, I am not trying to convince you that everything you buy is a scam. I use the wellness economy as a social theory on why we buy and how it makes us feel ( obvs, including me) - healthism, the aestheticization of everyday life, postmodern consumption.

K-pop idols have become luxury fashion's most powerful — and most extracted — marketing channel. When Dior signed Jisoo, Korean sales nearly doubled. This episode breaks down why, using Bourdieu's cultural capital, Nye's soft power, Horton and Wohl's parasocial interaction theory, Tajfel and Turner's social identity theory, fan economy theory, and Abidin's calibrated amateurism — to explain why fans buy the bag even when they know it's an ad, and why that knowledge doesn't stop them.

This episode explains how second-hand clothes shifted from being associated with poverty to becoming a trendy, billion-dollar industry.In this episode, a "trickle-up" theory explains how behaviors that begin as necessity at the bottom of the social ladder get adopted and eventually monetized at the top — comparing it to how denim workwear and hip-hop streetwear became luxury items.

Fashion collaborations run on trickle-down theory: prestige flows from high fashion to mass retailers, who borrow cultural capital rather than create it. Zara isn't selling quality — it's selling proximity to luxury. From Madame Bovary to The Devil Wears Prada, fashion consumption has always been about identity and belonging, not need. Social media just sped that up. The gap between luxury and mass market looks smaller, but structurally, it never closes.