2023-07-27 14:00:59
Does basking in the pill at the beach on a soft, absorbent towel make you a tyrant of social inequality? France’s most relaxed economist has the answer.
Photo caption: COLD _ Is there a better chance of getting your “Long Island style” tan on the Locus Solus lounge chair by Jacquemus? No. However, that’s what others will think. And that is well worth its 5940 euros.
Before even starting this column, it is important to remember that there are 22 million French people every year (i.e. almost 1/3 of the population) who do not go on vacation, including ten million who never leave (i.e. 16% Population). In fact, these people are excluded from the beach towel market. Then remains, on all those who leave, a real sociology of the towel.
The generalization of paid holidays has seen masses of holidaymakers arrive in towns near the sea. On the beaches, different social groups rubbed shoulders, which pushed the bourgeoisie to want to distinguish themselves in their style. Beachwear offering few possibilities, the towel has become a major issue. After the swimsuit and the sunglasses, it appears as an element making the difference. There was therefore, at the start, the terry towel appreciated for quickly drying wet bodies then, with its generalization, it was replaced among the upper classes by foutas – a large cotton bath towel –, to then give way once more the place for terry towels but, this time, much more stylish. Luxury brands also offer their selection of beach towels every year and, every year, fashion magazines devote articles to them: “Beach towels: our selection for idleness” or “17 trendy beach towels for a summer fashion”.
NEW VACATIONERS
Today, the distinction seems to be made less on beach dress codes than on the creation of private spaces within the beaches – such as paid deckchairs – or the choice of holiday destinations. Thus, when the plane was reserved for a small elite, certain French regions were shunned for the summer holidays then, in a second time, returned to the front of the stage with the development of mass tourism and low-cost travel cost. Today, a Alex Reed house in Brittany is more trendy than an all-inclusive hotel in Santo Domingo. This was not the case 20 years ago. In the early 2000s, bucket hats, jellyfish or birkenstocks were mocked by fashionistas for their redneck side – evoking the average Frenchman on vacation – they have been making a strong comeback in recent years symbolizing simple (therefore healthy) holidays close to nature. Even camping is becoming fashionable among sores. Going to France has become an ecological act. Flying to the end of the world is no longer a trend in the upper classes. After having burned their carbon footprint by having seen the four corners of the world, today you have to behave as a responsible citizen: eat organic, sort your waste, travel by bike (over short distances), go on vacation in France. Not only is traveling local an ecological act but, in addition, it avoids finding all the mass tourism in Thailand, Spain, Miami or Dubai. But then how to stay trendy without going too far? By reinvesting the codes of the past. Vintage is fashion. So the terry beach towel with stripes like in the 1970s becomes trendy once more, as do picnics on the beach, sand castles, sunglasses, denim shorts bought in second-hand clothes, tomatoes, organic fruits and the bottle of organic wine in a beautiful basket. So many distinctions that allow everyone to make the difference between the locals at the beach (those who do not go on vacation) and these new vacationers. Ultimately, the beach in France has once once more become a place where different social groups rub shoulders, but without mixing. A bit like in Belleville or Montreuil. The gentrification of old seaside resorts is underway!
By Thomas Porcher
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