As a self confessed fashion addict; a girl who would spend her last hope of paying rent on time for those shoes she reeeally wants; a girl who turned down a History degree at a fairly good university to do fashion journalism at a new and not yet critically acclaimed one, (much to the dismay of every adult around me): I started to wonder if I was a little shallow. I sometimes feel guilty for my passion, but then I thought why should I? If science was my thing, and I spent all day flicking through encyclopedias and I sacrificed other things to indulge in experiments people would applaud. Even when kids start collecting stamps and Pokemon cards that's OK; but when I start collecting dresses, oh no, that's another story ...
Why do some people have such a problem with fashion? They sneer at it, look down their nose at it or disregard it completely. But why is one of the largest, most influential and most profitable industries in the entire world seen as such a joke? The words 'Mickey Mouse' subject springs to mind. Shallow and stupid come shortly after. Just because fashion occupies a part of the brain doesn't mean there's nothing going on in the rest of it. Fashion writing is the absolute lowest form of writing imaginable but is read by billions. A little ironic don’t you think?
As much as I love fashion and following trends, ‘fashion’ in itself is much deeper than that. Take away fashion and just look at clothing. It can be a uniform, a status symbol, or just a tiny snippet of you mood/personality/music taste. Clothing is an outer representation of the inner. It shouldn’t be the only point of judgement but it’s still an important one. If you have an interview in an office, a suit would be appropriate: because you want to give the impression of smartness and reliability. Showing that you take pride in your appearance, will be judged by your potential employers as an indication that you take pride in other aspects of your life, eg your job. And of course they will speak to you, read your CV, ring previous employers, but that first impression is key, and you wouldn’t want that impression to be spoilt be a bad outfit choice now would you? Clothes present to people the impression that you want to give them, whether you do it consciously or not.
Culture is made up of many things: art, history, music, politics … fashion. All of the elements that make up a particular culture are interlinked. They all influence each other. Music and fashion are probably the most closely related, having recently done research into British subcultures, every fashion fade has had a music genre to match or vice versa. Take the Teddy Boys and Girls, who put a fashionable finger up to strict 1950's society, creating the 'teenager' as we know it. Telling me that fashion has not helped shape society is like telling me that Martin Luther King had no impact on Black History.
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| Ted Girl |
I’m not saying that every t-shirt tells a story, but the majority of fashion trends happen for a reason. There are reasons for why everyone wears everything, nothing is by accident. Even if you genuinely don’t care about fashion and choose not to indulge in it, it's still a conscious choice to wear a plain t shirt and un-branded shoes. Even the choice NOT to be fashionable is still an indication of how you feel about it. Everything in life is a choice. Including what you wear when you wake up in the morning, which is why fashion fascinates me.
I’m a little bit protective of fashion, I feel like I constantly have to prove my self and defend my hobby and ultimately my career choice. When I asked my boyfriend if he thought I was shallow and if I should have done history instead. He replied that wouldn’t it have been much more shallow to do something that I didn’t love for fear of not impressing other people? Fashion lovers: hold your head up high, because I think he makes a very valid point.
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