You Look Marvelous

National Review, Oct 27, 2003 by Kenneth Silber

The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness, by Virginia Postrel (HarperCollins, 237 pp., $24.95)

This is a book devoted, in large measure, to asserting that its subject matters. The subject is aesthetics, defined not as the philosophy of art but rather as "the way we communicate through the senses" and "the art of creating reactions without words, through the look and feel of people, places, and things." Aesthetics, according to Virginia Postrel, is an increasingly important element of our society, both economically and culturally; moreover, in her view, its expanding role is mostly a good thing.

In recent decades, in Postrel's telling, people have placed growing emphasis on the "look and feel" of their possessions, their environments, and even their own bodies. This is a consequence of growing affluence, as more people now can afford to focus on such things. But it is also deeply rooted in human nature, for impoverished people too have for millennia participated in art and design. Postrel aptly criticizes social scientists who apply an overly simplified version of psychologist Abraham Maslow's "hierarchy of needs" to describe aesthetics as a luxury to which only wealthy individuals and societies pay heed. Rather, attention to aesthetics is better viewed through the economist's concept of marginal value, in which circumstances affect how much more of something is desired.

Postrel writes an economics column for the New York Times and is a former editor of the libertarian magazine Reason. (I wrote a number of articles for Reason during her tenure.) Her previous book, The Future and Its Enemies, presented a case for "dynamism," an affinity for decentralized technological and cultural change. The Substance of Style reflects a libertarian and dynamist outlook as well, as Postrel celebrates the aesthetic boom as conducive to individual choice and creativity. At the same time, she displays an interest in finding middle ground in political and intellectual disputes over aesthetics. The book succeeds in establishing the importance of its subject, and moreover provides a thoughtful guide for navigating some of the contentions of the emerging aesthetic age.

Postrel convincingly demonstrates that a shift toward aestheticism is in fact underway. She ranges broadly across the landscape of everyday life, discussing clothing, cars, real estate, makeup, plastic surgery, hairstyles, restaurants, computers, graphic design, vacation destinations, and more. Increasingly, economic value is tied to aesthetic considerations. Consumers want their products to work-but also to look good. Hence, General Electric now makes plastics in thousands of colors and textures. Restaurants that serve fine food go out of business because their decor is unappealing. Brochures and resumes are typed using fonts that few typesetters could offer a few decades ago. Dermatologists remove age spots with lasers.

By contrast, during much of the 20th century, consumers tended to focus on functionality and convenience. Aesthetic considerations were not absent; the tailfins of automobiles in the 1950s were one example of product differentiation based on looks. But for the vast numbers rising into the middle class, the reliability of products was often a paramount concern. A brand-name hotel room might not be beautifully decorated, but it was assured to be clean and comfortable. Being not far removed from urban tenements or austere rural homes, middle-class consumers wanted to be sure the faucets and lamps would work.

As interest in aesthetics has grown, various social critics have castigated it as deceptive or destructive. Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth advocates "civil rights" for women to forego makeup, hair dye, and cosmetic surgery. Daniel Bell, in the 1996 edition of The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, highlights fashion and beauty products as part of a hedonistic "contradiction" undermining capitalism. Economist Robert Frank attacks aestheticism as purely status-driven, a wasteful competition with the neighbors. Critic Stuart Ewen denounces product design and packaging for creating "provocative surfaces" that distract consumers from quality and substance.

Against such complaints, Postrel points out that people actually take pleasure in the way things look. Surfaces do matter, not necessarily for what they tell us about substance (which may be little or nothing) but because they can be pleasing or displeasing in themselves. Pleasure is no less important than usefulness. Furthermore, changes in surfaces, shifts in fashion and style, stem from individual freedom. Such changes are wrongly depicted as due to commercial manipulation; in fact, fashions arise even in noncommercial matters such as the naming of babies.

Moreover, aesthetics is rife with meaning. People develop and convey a sense of who they are as they make choices about how to dress or decorate. In tinkering with appearances, one can express one's connections with others, or with particular places or ideals. People create new meanings for aesthetic signals over time. The color blue in 12th-century France signified the monarchy; six centuries later, it symbolized revolution. Today, in Europe, blue is often associated with conservative political parties. It also signifies the U.N., IBM, and more.