I have seen the future and it is flimsy.

I have watched with amazement as the dominant look has become that of the cut-rate knockoff. Budget denim studded with tin rivets to form hearts and speckled sleeves. Wide, ill-fitting trousers that would be fine in their alienation of adults except for the fact that the fabric is so, well, cheesy. Shoes that, again, may be hideous to parents, but whose real travesty is that they are just so gosh darn poorly made.

My colleagues in the rag trade have always exploited - how can I put this delicately - inexpensive labor, but past products at least had a look of craft and durability. Most definitely, fashion has always been a cynical profession that mocked its clientele as it took their money. Today, however, the doyennes of design lack the worldliness to get the joke. Just as Hollywood takes its blockbuster inspiration from syndicated television, so too does haute couture seemingly look to inexpensive retail outlets for its fabric quality.

But I digress. Recently, I saw a delicious young thing strolling the boulevard in polyester bell-bottomed trousers so badly stitched that the seams swayed in opposite rhythms. In that instant, she changed from gazelle to grandma. And it was not an attractive sight.

I have noticed well-paid corporate officers ambling down hallways, their paltry pinstripes squeaking and rustling even as they begin to disintegrate on the spot. Conference attendees raise hands fitted in loose-threaded cuffs. I see news announcers whose lapels bend from lack of sufficient molecular structure. And with horror I watch the influence of cheap sport clothing upon even the most continentally svelte.

How one longs for the sweet lines and longevity of the peplums, Peter Pans, and twinsets of yore. Ah, where is the unbridled flamboyance of natural fabrics, the classic charm of chambray, the sassy strength of Swiss muslin, the priceless perfection of percale?

Sadly, the magnificent materials of yesteryear have been replaced by the commodity of disposability. Yet let us not mourn their absence but rather celebrate their spirit. And try to look our best as we do so.