On the farce of fashion. [The Most Beautiful Job in the World by Giulia Mensitieri]

Fashion is one of the most powerful industries in the world, accounting for 6% of global consumption and growing steadily. Since the 1980s and the birth of the neoliberal economy, it has emerged as the glittering face of capitalism, bringing together prestige, power and beauty and occupying a central place in media and consumer fantasies. Yet the fashion industry, which claims to offer highly desirable job opportunities, relies significantly on job instability, not just in outsourced garment production but at the very heart of its creative production of luxury.

Based on an in-depth investigation involving stylists, models, designers, hairdressers, make-up artists, photographers and interns, anthropologist Giulia Mensitieri goes behind fashion's glamorous facade to explore the lived realities of working in the industry. This challenging book lays bare the working conditions of 'the most beautiful job in the world,' showing that exploitation isn't confined to sweatshops abroad or sexual harassment of models, but exists at the very heart of the powerful symbolic and economic centre of fashion.

Originally published by Giulia Mensitieri in 2018 as Le plus beau metier du monde, and here translated by Natasha Lehrer, The Most Beautiful Job in the World is a fascinating critique of the labor and social aspects of the world of fashion. An anthropological examination of the labor hierarchies of the fashion workforce, Mensitieri gives a multidisciplinary crash course in the economics, psychology, sociology of labor in an one of the world's most profitable industries.

This book is a must-read. Industry specific commentaries are generally applicable and thought-provoking. I found myself questioning how I intrinsically understand or view labor and its value, and examining how that comprehension might have been indoctrinated and continues to be indoctrinated through messages in media and social values. Even as a fashion specific text, this book reads as the juiciest exposé. For a few years I've kept a Tumblr blog, thematically dedicated to fashion and style. But having read this book, I'm wondering how much I'm participating in this creation of fantasy that drives such an exploitative circuit of production. I had a great time reading this book and am I recommending it to all. 5 stars from me.

The Most Beautiful Job in the World was published August 2020.