Above: Diary of a Yuppie by Louis Auchincloss. Much of the literature of the period was written by American authors who were less inhibited than their British counterparts at recording changes in society in the 1980s. Bright Lights Big City by Jay McInerney, Slaves of New York by Tama Janovitz and Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe are examples of this genre. In the United Kingdom Michael Bracewell is the most vivid chronicler of the yuppie demographic. Other British writers such as Robert Elms (In Search of The Crack) and Rupert Thomson (Dreams of Leaving) chose to ignore the yuppies that populated the 1980s London they were attempting to describe. This refusal to face reality is interesting in itself and deserves further study.
Yuppie was originally a marketing term that sought to identify and segregate a demographic known as "young upwardly-mobile professionals". Because this group was characterised by large disposable incomes and a willingness to spend freely on aspirational status items it was often the target of marketing campaigns. Although vilified today, yuppies characterised the 1980s, and the demographic represented a mechanism by which working class people who had entered well-paid jobs were recruited into the middle class (and through the purchase of private education for their children were able to propel future generations into the upper-middle class).
This is a particularly difficult subject to research since nobody today will admit to having been a yuppie, although in reality a huge section must have fallen into this classification, and an additional group (almost as large) assumed the identity of a yuppie and funded their yuppie lifestyle through credit.
Simultaneous with the emergence of yuppies was the "discovery" and recording of the Sloane Ranger demographic (I use the term "discovery" since some elements of this group were of considerable antiquity, although other attributes were new and a few traits were invented and projected onto the sub-class). Researching the Sloane Ranger class is problematic since the field is dominated by Peter Yorke, former editor of Harpers & Queen magazine. Effectively a Sloane Ranger was whatever Peter Yorke said it was (and equally if he said something was not Sloane Ranger it is hard to argue against him). Sloane Rangers appear to have been (I use the past tense since once again, no-one today will admit to having been one) a melange of lower aristocracy; London relatives of the landed gentry; and urban rich people (with oldish fortunes and private educations). This generally unremarkable collection of inter-connected families would have remained in obscurity were it not for the marriage of Lady Diana Spencer to the Prince of Wales in 1981 (in what must have been the upwardly-mobile act of the century since it was the first time a commoner had married the heir to the throne for several hundred years).
The shinto-like worship of the Princess of Wales by all classes led to the Sloane Ranger style (which she epitomised and popularised) becoming a mainstream phenomenon. In what can only be described as the mass indulgence of sympathetic magic a plethora of imitative behaviours and purchases resulted in an unusual social construct whereby the Thatcher revolution in society was masked by the re-emergence of a very traditional and conservative lifestyle (just as society was becoming atomised and individualised it was dressed up in the clothes of extended families and collective country communities, change was disguised as continuity). This led to some unexpected coincidences - when the Princess of Wales waved her hair in a particular style George Michael and a million others dyed their hair blonde and waved it in the same way.
The question asked by this chapter is how far (if at all) yuppies merged into Sloane Rangers, what was the process by which this happened, and when did this process start and finish.
Being interested in issues surrounding branding, I will attempt to answer the question by referring to the way in which very traditional luxury brands were, during the 1980s, sold to yuppies as a way of attaining and confirming their new upmarket status. I only have a few examples at present, but I hope to add to this post in the coming weeks and months. If anyone wishes to contribute to this study do please let me know.
Above: this is a modern artwork by Grayson Perry but it illustrates the way in which luxury brand names formerly synonymous with the aristocracy have entered popular consciousness (Dior, Chanel and Hermes were particularly exclusive and expensive brands, far more than they are today). Personal identity, which originally was conferred by family, religion, political allegiance, cultural upbringing, occupation, sporting clubs etc is now acquired by shopping for brands, and even wearing clothes where the brand name is prominently displayed. Acquisitive materialistic shopping has replaced religion as a provider of solutions to the insecurity and guilt which most people feel most of the time, and this transition began during the 1980s.
Above: the Hermes store in Sloane Street. Prior to the 1980s the Hermes brand cultivated exclusivity and reputedly instructed their sales assistants to deter people they did not like the look of from entering their shops. Increasingly however their products were made more accessible (“Sloane Ranger novelist Charlotte Bingham wrote about characters who gave Hermes scarves to London debutantes – you can see this in her nineteen eighty-three novel Belgravia”).
Above: this profile of Hermes designer Eric Bergere appeared in 1986 in the magazine Blitz (which had a high yuppie readership). Is this evidence of cultural transition? Today Hermes products have completed the journey from badges of a closed social caste to signifiers of material success (women will pay ridiculous amounts of money for an Hermes handbag and will insist their life is incomplete without one).
Above: just as interesting as the brands which made the transition to popular consumption are the ones that did not. Smytheson was another brand that defined the Sloane Ranger demographic, and yet it was not taken up by yuppies (who presumably bought their writing paper from Paperchase). Why was this?
Above: I thought initially that it was because of a decline in letter-writing, and yet the Royal Mail ran a major campaign during the 1980s promoting the writing of personal letters. The ads are romantic in style and talk about the way in which hand-written letters have a permanent quality. Obviously there was no e-mail in the 1980s.
Sloane Ranger icon HRH The Princess Of Wales: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/119/311906117_a41c5592c3.jpg
Yuppie icon George Michael: http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2008/05/16/1210959930_4463.jpg
For more on sympathetic magic see the relevant chapters in The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer.
No comments:
Post a Comment