what are you wearing??

What are you wearing? Where did you buy your clothes? Who made it? Do your clothes represent you accurately? Fashion touches everyone everywhere. So to meet these demands clothes are mass produced in a standard set of sizes As global trade and communication grew,  designers wanted to reach a wider audience Its seems like such a no-brainer for people to shop like this but there was a time when this wasn’t anything but. Courtier’s of the past would arrange appointments to their most exclusive clients and make clothes to their liking and fit. . With the current mass-marketing modern approach fashion has become less of a personal experience and more “expendable”.
      There was a time when fashion was handmade whether it was made at home or by a world class tailor. Ther would be private shows for only the most intimate clients, where everything was created with the highest standard. From the pre world war age came Haute Couture. Haute Couture was for the distinguished woman of class. This was where all to the influential styles of movies an royalty were created.

      “the maintenance of such a masquerade required significant organizational and creative skills from a range of employees, the test of which resided in the apparent perfect finish of the product and the effectiveness of the publicity surrounding it

      fine hand sewing, beaurocratic control, and creative vision, then, underpinned the success of a couture house”

      Fast forwarding to now, the aesthetic of making clothes are practically opposite of Haute Couture. In a world of machine manufactured goods and an ever growing population, handmade clothes are a commodity. The rise of the internet and television has caused cultural trends to spread thinly over a huge audience of people. This puts everything on high demand; including clothes.
      Luxury designers design clothes that are now considered Pret-a-Porter. Clothes are now made in standard sizes and available to everyone. This in turn makes them more “disposable”. Department stores and magazines are now encouraged to sell you a “look”, rather that help you state your own.

      “…  in recent years Seventh Avenue marketers have added another element; instant style changes… the prevailing philosophy is ‘here today gone tomorrow.”

      Fortunately the age of Couture is painted in a romantic haze by surviving old time fashion designers such as Valentino and Oscar de la Renta. So there are some creative standards that still translate into the masses; if you have the money of course. Others find their individual solace in websites like Etsy and Cut Copy where allot of independent designers and crafts people make hand made items. Even though fashion is “expendable” there are still ways of creating your own, truly, individual style.

Health Care Reform: Loss of Benefits

               The new health care reform is going to change your life. Will it be for the best? Some find that this new health reform is going to make things better and affordable. But the process of making this work is going to make things very difficult for the day to day of everyone. The private sector of medicine has been bleeding the public dry on this critically important necessity for decades and this new reform is not going to change that, especially for the self-employed.

 The United States is predominantly comprised of small business owners and entrepreneurs. For a really long time these people have been resigned to buy their own health care from private subsidiaries. With the new health care reform that will not change. It’s going to be a while before the regulations will come into effect.  The major healthcare changes wont even take place until 2014 and until then anyone with previous health problems will be rejected by the current health insurance standards. 

To top it off the government is wont take the responsibility of the reform just by themselves. Self-employed individuals are the only group that will have to pay 15 percent of their yearly income to healthcare thorough taxes on top of paying out of pocket to their health subsidiaries.  Any federal reimbursements that are in effect will freeze by 2012 to cover the government costs while the, would be, previously private sector will keep its high prices rising.

No one will have any choice in the matter, self-employed or not. The individual mandate that will be enforced will mean tax punishment if you don’t have health care. Unless your under the poverty level there is no way you can get any full coverage without having to contribute in some type of way.

The United States prides itself on the American dream of being independent and capitalistic. while pharmaceutical companies get to live the capitalistic dream of cashing on the publics need for health care the bread and butter of American society, the entrepreneurs and small businesses will continue to struggle to steak their claim in a government that doesn’t provide much benefit towards their growth.