The Artisan Paradox
By Victor Lim • March 31, 2025
The role of consumerism in both community and distinction
I didn't realize 'artisan' wasn't really a thing before. That's just how stuff was made apparently before the industrial revolution. If you went to the grocery store (or whatever farmers market they had before) there's no signs saying 'locally grown' or 'organic' trying to boost customer willingness to pay. There was no such thing as globalization or GMOs. It just was. This isn't a normative judgment based on nostalgia. I'm almost certain the quality of life now is higher than it was before. But maybe something went missing when we moved from artisan shops to industrial factories.
There's this inherent tension going on within people that manifests in macro consumer choices and it reveals a truth about the way we experience life. This tension isn't new, but modern consumerism sets the stage for it to play out. It's the simultaneous desire to belong and be an individual. It pulls in both directions.
The rise of Etsy appears to be the cyclical resurgence of artisans. Prioritizing the 'unique' (veracity of the uniqueness is debatable) over off the rack. I think the idea of uniqueness with Etsy is more important than the actual uniqueness of the item. Marketing at its finest. The small shop syndrome seems to be taking over once again. Replicating the precarious economic conditions of commerce of the past to palatably fill a modern void. A void of generic and lack of individuality. Advocating for anti-consumerist consumerism.
I think in a sense it's always been that way. I find it interesting that haute couture and runway shows are the top level of high fashion that inevitably influence the ready to wear lines, yet the ready to wear lines make a large majority of the money for these fashion houses. It's like Plato's forms. The form is the haute couture and the ready to wear lines are the Imitations. Haute couture is the practically unattainable for almost everyone outside the ultra-wealthy and exist only in thought. Everyone else gets the Imitations filled with noise and imperfections.
The Imitations carry echoes of the form but adapted to the masses for consumption and economic feasibility. The inherent compromise. I guess that's what defines life. Tradeoffs, compromises, scarcity... all falling short of the form itself. The loss of perfect fit, exquisite detail, or personal attention due to the system. A dilution of purpose and intention. Dog eat dog world. The pie may get bigger but will your slice? Better not end up on the wrong side now.
The law of scarcity dictates that the ideal cannot be democratized without ceasing to be the ideal. Relationship of haute couture and ready to wear is a symbiotic but the sad one. The fantasy generated by haute couture provide the cultural capital and marketing allure that drive desire for the more accessible ready to wear lines - the financial engines. The profits from the 'Imitations' consumed by the many fund the continued existence of the 'Form' enjoyed by the very few.
It feeds the hedonic treadmill. The unattainable dream fuels the purchase of attainable symbols of that dream. Dollars of the never will propping up those that always had. Ideally everybody gets the attention and tailoring a haute couture piece has but that's not economically feasible. Haute couture is 1 of 1. The bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The law of scarcity is in full effect on this one.
Humans seek both community and individuality. Affordability and exclusivity. Artisanal marketplaces and luxury brand hierarchies simply codifies this tension into economic structures. We're really seeking isn't the product itself, but the story it tells about where we belong in a world of mass production and diminishing uniqueness.