Comment by nekopa
16 years ago
The problem here is in the matter of status symbols. A quick tale for you: A consultant who gave me my start in the industry once had his car break down before an initial meeting with a client(Mercedes). He had to borrow his son's tricked-out VW boy-racer to get to the meeting on time. As he pulled into the meeting the clients were exiting their cars and saw him parking. He said the meeting never even really got started, as they had already pre-judged him.
There are lots of little cues like this. The car you drive, the cut of your suit, the watch you wear. It's funny because this is an industry that everyone is aware is awash with charlatans, so everyone is looking for clues that the person they're speaking to is credible. Which is something that can obviously be hacked. Having said that, it does basically work. A guy wearing a huge Rolex is probably faking it, for example, it's just too obvious.
On the other hand - if you've got the Armani suit, the Tag Heuer or Rolex, and drive the Porsche, you can only be 'faking' so much; obviously you've had some financial success.
Not really - the suit and the watch would fit onto a fairly normal credit card, for example. You'd be a fool to go into debt for them, of course, but people do, status symbols, even misguided ones, can be powerful lures. Rolex and TAG in particular are now almost anti-brands for that reason (same with Louis Vuitton luggage, Porsche, Burberry, etc).
The guys who signal to each other with these accessories are subtle and understated - their messages are intended only for others of their type. Anything a rapper would wear is out! Think Pierce Brosnan in Thomas Crowne or James Bond. He's a actor who is "faking it", playing the role, and doing that on screen takes a wardrobe professional who studies this full-time and the budget to spend not $2000 but $20,000 on a suit (really, that's what Brioni costs, and what the production spent) and I'm sure there are real "upper class" people who glance at Bond and spot all the little mistakes straight away.
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