Conspicuous Consumption.

Conspicuous consumption: i.e. Using very expensive materials and very time-consuming methods to show that an item is sacred or important.

The term “Conspicuous consumption” refers to consumers who buy expensive items to display wealth and income rather than to cover the real needs of the consumer.

A flashy consumer uses such behavior to maintain or gain higher social status. Most classes have a flashy consumer affect and influence over other classes, seeking to emulate the behavior.

Conspicuous displays of consumption and leisure were the means to demonstrate somebodys superiority. Whether you were rich or poor everyone attempts to impress others and seek to gain advantage through “conspicuous consumption” and the ability to engage in “conspicuous leisure”.

Here of some of everyday life examples of “Conspicuous consumption”

• Fashion designer clothes are not a necessity; they serve the purpose to show that the person who wears them affords them and has a certain social status.
• Diamonds or jewellery in the broader sense and so are high-end watches.
• Luxurious cars like Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari etc.
• Silverware is another example of conspicuous consumption. There is no added benefit of eating with a silver spoon. (Taking care of the silverware is time consuming too as it requires regular polishing) What is the point really?

The fact that silverware is used mainly when guests arrive shows that they are an item, whose main purpose is to show others the status of the owner. I definitely could argue that fashion designer clothes may be a need in some cases or that luxurious cars have some functions that other regular cars don’t. But… they are still not a necessity!

https://drvidyahattangadi.com/is-conspicuous-consumption-good-or-bad/

So why have i researched Conspicuous consumption?

Conspicuous consumption not only occurs with Items/Products but in typography and lettering. Calligraphy is a prime lettering style to be discussed as it is sometimes written with great Detail, there were many ways in which calligraphy could be enhanced by adding decoration. The words themselves could be written in gold, or in colours other than black. The letters and words could also be outlined or could lie against a background pattern.

Calligraphy has a sole purpose to communicate a message but now i see it being use for decoration/ to enhance a particular item. An example of this is someone i follow on instagram na7tdesigns. There is no purpose for these designs or lettering other than status.

https://www.instagram.com/na7tdesigns/?hl=en

However, conspicuous consumption hasn’t just happened its always been around even back in the ninth – tenth century. The Qur’an is an example of this

Unlike paper that is made from rags and fibers in the Islamic world, this page was created from animal skin! Known as “parchment,” this long-lasting material took a long time to prepare. A parchment-maker would first remove all the hairs and clean and dried the animal skin. The next step would be to stretch out the skin before preparing it for writing.

For a books with lots of pages, one would have needed the skins of many animals, often a whole herd of sheep, as many as five hundred or six hundred. Such requirements meant that manuscripts on parchment were very expensive. Not surprisingly, only the most important texts were written on animal skin, and only the richest people were able to afford them. Again there was no severe purpose to write on animal skin its more of a status.