Sleevehead: Patriotic dressing: Who's the most patriotic?                                                          

Patriotic dressing: Who's the most patriotic?

    Happy Fourth of July to my readers! One might think Americans are the most unswervingly patriotic of dressers. But according to a 2009 survey by luxury market analysts Ledbury Research, you might be surprised.

Below is a list of consumers, ranked by percentage who prefer to buy goods from their own country:

French: 92%
Americans: 64%
Germans: 61%
British: 50%

The research firm dubs this sartorial nationalism "fashionalism". Given the historical byproducts of excessive nationalism in Europe and elsewhere, one hopes the energy and tenor of so-called fashionalism will be light and none too serious.

I think behind the numbers is a closely coupled relationship between a particular notion of "quality" and certain, historically prominent crafts and industries that happened to develop in specific countries. In France, think women's fashion, leather goods and silk (Lyon was a major center of production). In Germany, think automobiles, precision tools and machinery, photographic equipment and watchmaking.

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