There are names, manufacturers and locations that shine and captivate us, however with out understanding how or why, at some point they begin to look grey and the following nobody remembers them anymore. yeah. Activist and writer Cory Doctorow coined the time period “enshittification.” With this crude phrase, Doctorow was hinting on the sluggish decline of digital platforms like Facebook. He might simply as simply be speaking concerning the disaster of French clothes chains that flourished within the Nineteen Eighties and his 90s however misplaced their luster over time.
Some have been tremendous cool. Brand names reminiscent of Naf-Naf, Kookaï, Camaïeu, and Pimkie have been a part of the streetscape of procuring facilities in cities and suburbs giant and small.
As the years handed, competitors from lower-priced manufacturers and chains reminiscent of Spain’s ZARA, altering client habits, and eventually the coronavirus pandemic and an inflationary spiral delivered a dying sentence. Some have been even pressured into chapter 11. Some shops have needed to shut dozens of shops. But elementary social adjustments additionally underlie the disaster within the French chain shops that clothed the center class throughout the closing phases of the golden age of the Western center class.
Around 4,000 jobs can be misplaced within the textile sector in 2023, in keeping with a brand new report from French skilled commerce affiliation Alliance du Commerce. In 4 years, nearly one out of each 5 of his clients has defected.
“Kukayette…a brand new breed of stylish, penniless younger ladies,” stated a tv report within the late Nineteen Eighties about what was then known as the kookai phenomenon. Kokaiets have been women who wore Kokai garments. Taken from the intensive archives of the National Audiovisual Institute, this video, considered from the angle of 2024, seems as a nostalgic lament for a world that can by no means return. One eccentric particular person declared within the report: “A 40-year-old girl who wants a sweater to put on underneath her jacket will come right here searching for it, even when it is a Chanel or Saint Laurent jacket. Just like a 16-year-old lady in a sweater. I’m searching for a T-shirt or sweater to exit at night time. ”
intergenerational aid
These kukayettes, now over 50 years previous and whose daughters and sons not put on kukayettes, have been acquired final fall by the French group Antonelle en Jour Ayeur. He additionally hasn’t shopped in Kamaiu, which has been underneath judicial liquidation since September final 12 months. Instead, they purchase their garments on-line or second-hand from multinationals reminiscent of Primark, H&M and ZARA, or from low cost chains reminiscent of Action and Zeeman.
The ready-to-wear business, which is characterised by mid-priced merchandise aimed on the center class, is struggling to adapt to the brand new period. In actuality, the disaster displays a broader phenomenon that reiterates the French neurosis about everlasting decline.
This is what Jérôme Fourquet and Jean-Laurent Casly name “the tip of the frequent household” of their essay “La France sous nos yeux” (France Under Our Eyes). In different phrases, the erosion and collapse of France’s center class. Some are collapsing, others are rising, and what have been as soon as kind of compact blocks are fragmenting into other ways of life.
On the opposite hand, there’s an higher center class that chooses dearer and distinctive merchandise (reminiscent of gourmand hamburgers and electrical SUVs). On the opposite hand, there’s a decrease center class that has misplaced its footing and is consuming cheaper merchandise (McDonald’s, kebabs, or the ever present Dacia Duster). Currently, every thing has two variations of him: premium and low cost. And in the course of it’s a hole.
Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and get extra English information protection from EL PAÍS USA Edition