vienna

have their centres of worship, our Mecca of fashion is Paris.
Pilgrims from all over the world come to Paris in order to
celebrate the new collections and confirm the myth of creativity.
And the priests of the cult point out the significance of the event
and its effects on everyday life:
“Dear reader! This is the great month of collections in which
new fashion is born in Paris. Your choice, your style, your entire
behaviour will depend on it.” 558
Let us now return from the place of worship to mythology.
Although we would be more at ease with our explanation that
the fashion ritual is part of the same type of festival as the
Anthesteria, we will examine whether it is possible for myths to
change or whether they are partially replaced by other contents.
Nietzsche was not convinced that this is possible:
“It seems scarcely possible to transplant a foreign myth with
lasting success, without irreversibly damaging the tree in
the process: the occasional tree may perhaps prove sufficiently
strong and healthy to exercise the foreign element through
a fearful struggle, but must more usually consume itself in
stunted infirmity or in rampant but sickly growth.” 559
Myths are capable of changing over time. According to
Lévi-Strauss, a myth can create yet another myth, and the myth
can also survive when it is transferred from one society to
another. It is also possible that the formula changes during the
transformations, though its “figure” is still recognisable. 560 Things
become more complicated when the myth is related to a ritual,
because the relation of ritual and myth is still not sufficiently
clear today. 561 The Greek’s did not have an all-encompassing
category of ritual, as three different types of ritual acts existed. 562
The elaborate Greek festivals had a limited number of basic
ritual acts, 563 the procession and the sacrifice being the most
important elements in them. This is why we will try to fill this
basic structure of the ancient Greek festival with the dramatisation
of the contemporary fashion system.
558 Charles-Roux (1959:VI)*.
559 Nietzsche (2000:125).
560 Lévi-Strauss (1978:256).
561 Graf (1993:52).
562 Bremmer (1999:38).
563 Bremmer (1999:39).
Mythology
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