A few notes taken from last weekends FT Life & Arts: Only in America by Vanessa Friedman are quote below before I head off on a commentary on the development of the Web. Stick with me!

Contemporary aesthetic identity : Michael Kors "Paris stood for fantasy, Milan for luxury tailoring, London for quirkiness and New York for pragmatism."

"Is there such a thing as a national aesthetic anymore?"

"Blurring of old dress codes rules, the rise of the high street fashion, and the recession…helped create a new group of New York-based designers with a shared aesthetic."

Valerie Steele, New York's Fashion institute of Technology
"…designers had to figure out what their added value would be. ..first reaction was to make their clothes fancier – more Parisian…but then they realised: 1) during a recession, being experimental is not necessarily the right answer and 2) if you make your clothes better – better fabrics, construction, raise them to the level of luxury – that is the point of difference. You can't knock off incredible fabrics."

"It is also a response to the straitened [sic] economic times..created a groundswell of demand among the still-moneyed classes for more discrete, less public luxury: the sort of indulgent garment that speaks to the wearer but not the watcher…"

Reed Krakoff"Clothes are no longer delineated. It's more a point of view, as opposed to a classification."

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Krakoff's comment is very interesting point on how society is breaking down old social structures, as people become aware of self – their "point of view". At what age can this come about? Is it the establishment of the centred personality from age 21-28 by a new generation? The new ethos straddling the generations by dint of "natives" and "immigrants"?

If the www started in 1994 for the public then might we consider the first seven years the building of its network body? 2001-2008 the emotional connection after the calamity of the dotcom collapse. 2009-2016 the emergence of the ego consciousness of ourselves as users of the new connectedness?

So it's luxury and you cannot "knock off incredible connections"!