RRJ#5

Reference:
Wilson,C. (2009, MAY 19). Luxury in a Bell Jar. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/fashion/21CRITIC.html?_r=1&ref=fashion

Summary:
In Cintra Wilson’s article "Luxury in a Bell Jar," she points out that people should think more simply about everything. First of all, the illustrations feature an author thinking that people’s thinking can’t think about everything easily. One day, he meets a designer, who is called Mr. Lam, who decorates his house very simply, but it also looks fashionable. Actually, he has a prefect and professional desigs group which design clothes for females and the clothes are made to fit female’s requirements, so the author starts to focus on clothes for females which are made by Mr. Lam because his design is so bold and confident. Moreover, the author considers how Mr. Lam desigs clothes and then he found an answer from his background; his mother worked in clothes at a weeding factory when he was a child. In summary, designs should be not only easy and simple but also exclusive and rare.

Reaction:
Although most stores have complicated decorations, some fashion stores have designed simpler and easier decorations than before. For example, modern stores only put on some same style products in the big clean stores which have two or three floors, but in old stores, they will put on a lot of categories of stuff in the small dirty stores. Also, designers have become bolder than before. According to Mr. Lam, he wants his clothes to be high-class, but be appropriately priced and bold in his store. Even if a store is not selling enough, he will still do it. That has influenced me a lot, because he doesn’t care about the economy. For example, not every brands can be like GUCCI or other famous brands having special designs and also selling goods at a high price on the other hand many brands worry about the money, so they just design the normal clothes for selling. Finally, he still focuses on his design. For me, that’s a crazy and amazing thinking and behavior. The article mentions why he has the skills to do that, because his mother was working in a clothes factory. The meaning is that the environments of people are in affected their future.

Vocabulary:
1.Gazing: look at with fixed eyes.
2.Fantod: State of worry or nervous anxiety.
3.Trek: journey on foot, especially in the mountains
4.Disorienting: causing loss of physical or intellectual bearings
5.Boutique: a shop that sells women's clothes and jewelry
6.Couturier: someone who designs clothing
7.Cultivated: prepared for raising crops by plowing or fertilizing
8.Precisely: indicating exactness or preciseness
9.Inquisitive: showing curiosity
10.Oddballs: strange
11.Sheltered: protected from danger or bad weather
12.Femininity: the trait of behaving in ways considered typical for women
13.Ornament: decorate: make more attractive by adding ornament
14.Chastity: abstaining from sexual relations
15.Mannequins: dummy or lay figure
16.Counterbalance: adjust for
17.Sophisticated: having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement
18.Opulence: luxury, rich.
19.Ostentation: a gaudy outward display
20. Bulletproof: that can stop bullets from passing through it