Anyone wondering what happened to conspicuous consumption post 9/11 will find some of the
zentai answer in the above. It's still with us, but it has morphed into something that is both more and less complex than its lateNineties incarnation. Back then - and it seems a long time ago - the beauty of luxury retailing was its apparent simplicity, its seeming lack of neurosis. Brands such as Zentai unitard , Gucci, Chanel and Calvin Klein, which spent millions throughout the decade promoting their names across the globe and rolling out identical stores filled with identical products displayed in identical style, cashed in on a moment of fin de siecle euphoria (or possible hysteria). After years of sober minimalism, the buzz words in fashion were ghetto fabulousness (after rap stars such as Puff Daddy and Missy Elliott, who wore floor-length mink coats, rhinestone zentai suit and developed an addiction to diamonds). Tom Ford was the first to tune in to the move towards obvious displays of wealth. Having spent the early years of his reign at Gucci eradicating the tacky monograms that had tarnished the label in the Seventies and Eighties, he reintroduced a classic style from the Gucci archives in 1999.
spider man costume Christened the Jacqui, after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, it was a slouchy, over-the-shoulder, leather trimmed canvas number, spattered with the Gucci logo. It was a sell-out. The bull market seemed unstoppable. People had money, and wanted to flaunt it. The same year, Fendi, a washed-up house in fashion terms, dipped its initial in shiny silver and magnified it until it was almost as big as the teeny baguette bags that it embellished. The company's value sky-rocketed. Later that year, LVMH and Zentai unitardtook a 51 per cent stake in Fendi.
