The Victorian era hats are back in fashion! At the World Fashion Fair

Question

The Victorian era hats are back in fashion! At the World Fashion Fair held in Milan last week, no less than twenty-two designers introduced their new hat collections which featured the long-forgotten design. The hats sold like hotcakes. In another fair coming up in Paris next month, designers are contemplating introducing the long skirts of the Victorian era. It cannot be doubted that those too will be widely appreciated by the public.

Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the conclusion drawn above?

A. The hats are less expensive than the skirts.

B. The long skirts of the Victorian era are truly compatible with contemporary fashion.

C. For the last three years, the fashion fairs in Milan and Paris have failed to indicate the latest trends in global fashion.

D. Victorian era long skirts have been regularly experimented with in the fashion world.

E. Fashion icons such as Liz Taylor are attending the Paris fair and are not likely to foster a trend of long skirts.

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wadhwakaran · Accepted Answer

Premise: The victorian era hats are back in fashion. Designers introduced their hat collections  which featured the long-forgotten design . Hats sold like hotcakes. Now designers are contemplating introducing the long skirts of the Victorian era.

Conclusion: Those skirts will be widely appreciated by the public

Aim: To weaken the conclusion.

A. The hats are less expensive than the skirts. Irrelevant because price is nowhere related to the argument

B. The long skirts of the Victorian era are truly compatible with contemporary fashion.  Strengthener at best.

C. For the last three years, the fashion fairs in Milan and Paris have failed to indicate the latest trends in global fashion.  So what? Irrelevant to the argument

D. Victorian era long skirts have been regularly experimented with in the fashion world.  This weakens the conclusion as the hats were sold because they featured long-forgotten design but if the skirts are already being experimented with means that they not forgotten design. This certainly breaks my conclusion

E. Fashion icons such as Liz Taylor are attending the Paris fair and are not likely to foster a trend of long skirts.  If not icons then other artists will wear.

divyadna · Answer

Premise:The Victorian era hats are back in fashion! At the World Fashion Fair held in Milan last week, no less than twenty-two designers introduced their new hat collections which featured the long-forgotten design. The hats sold like hotcakes. In another fair coming up in Paris next month, designers are contemplating introducing the long skirts of the Victorian era. 
Conclusion: long skirts of Victorian era will be widely appreciated by the public.
Weaken the conclusion

A. The hats are less expensive than the skirts.
The hats sold like hotcakes since people attending the fashion week appreciated the coming back of Victorian era style hats. The same notion may hold true for long skirts too.
This doesn't weaken the conclusion.

B. The long skirts of the Victorian era are truly compatible with contemporary fashion.

This strengthens the conclusion

C.For the last three years, the fashion fairs in Milan and Paris have failed to indicate the latest trends in global fashion.

What hats/skirts do to latest fashion trends is irrelevant. If people liked Victorian era hats, they may very well like skirts.

D.Victorian era long skirts have been regularly experimented with in the fashion world.

If at all this statement does something to conclusion, it certainly supports the conclusion.

E.Fashion icons such as Liz Taylor are attending the Paris fair and are not likely to foster a trend of long skirts.

This certainly weakens the conclusion. If a fashion icon disapproves of long skirts, people will join the wagon and won't appreciate long skirts.
E is the answer IMO

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arya251294 · Answer

We can not say for sure that if a fashion icon disapproves of something then people will join the wagon.
For this to be true, the statement has to first set the legitimacy of the said fashion icon.

We do not have any proof to say that people will follow Liz Taylor.

Bunuel · Answer

Experts' Global Video Explanation:

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infowarf · Answer

This question is poorly written. First, if the skirts are experimented what was the result of those experiments. Did they reveal an acceptance or denial? How does a statistical analysis whose result is indefinite attack the argument that the sales will skyrocket.

Sujithz001 · Answer

Bunuel   KarishmaB   chetan2u

This seems a valid doubt to me. Can anyone help tag the concerned PoC from the Experts Global?

If couldn't, could anyone please help resolve this doubt?

Thanks a ton.

pk14y · Answer

I answered D but I don't like how the conclusion is worded and the logic that follows.

From the premise, it states that forgotten design -> hats sold

Putting D together with the conclusion implies that if the entire fashion was already there, sales will not go up based on the novelty factor established by the hats.

This also requires the assumption that inc sales -> increased public support

Now with that assumption, why won't A work? It could be implying that instead of the hats's new design it was rather they were being sold on a low price, leading to people buying it for it being cheaper rather than the novelty factor that was associated with it.

But now that I reviewed it properly, hats being less expensive than skirts does not necessarily mean the hats can be affordable. Afterall, the skirts themselves could be affordable. It simply states that hats are cheaper, but that's not an alternative reason as to why the hats are being sold

The Victorian era hats are back in fashion! At the World Fashion Fair

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The Victorian era hats are back in fashion! At the World Fashion Fair

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615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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