Fashion is always difficult to me. I’ve never understood the fashion in my life. I came to this fashion school to get to know ‘fashion’. And this Intro to fashion course allowed me to understand more about fashion. It changes my idea about fashion in many ways. For example, I learned the relation of body and clothes, and also learned the subcultures. I’ve always hated writing essay in English. But I truly enjoyed the research process for research paper in midterm. Now I know ‘Graffiti’ well. Also, I do care others thinking about me. That’s why I wouldn’t wear very different from others. I didn’t have my own style. But I think I’m changing with that. Now I try to challenge with my fashion and body.

Fashion is always there, but it’s always changing. It looks it’s improving but still it’s returning. Susan Kaiser said, “Fashion is never finished, and it crosses all kinds of boundaries. It is ongoing and changes with each person’s visual and material interpretations of who he or she is becoming and how this connects with others’ interpretations.”

I went to FIT museum. I especially enjoyed the exhibition at the lower floor which is “Fashion from the Extreme.” It is already winter now and I’m wearing down jackets. I’m currently making a winter jackets for my design studio which this exhibition helped me in different aspects; How winter garments can be artistic, what detail I can, what fabric mostly, How the padding used in winter garments.

I think this padding dress is exhibited in this exhibition because of its fabric; padding and fur which are typical fabric for winter garments. You cannot know its shape when you see the front of this dress. Because it looks as it is a dress with wide shoulder and shore sleeves but it is a tube top dress. This dress breaks prejudice in that it doesn’t cover shoulder and arm even though it is a winter dress. I think that’s the contribution of this dress to fashion history. The front fake shape is 2D. It ignores body. It flattens body. But it doesn’t look strange when you see from the front.

During, doing this assignment, I wrote down what I wore that day on the calendar every day. Looking back after keeping a record, it was like short diaries. Once recall what I’ve worn that day, I could recall what I did that day and it was an excellent reminder. And I realized there was a particular pattern in how I dressed. First of all, I check the weather app on my phone before I dress. If it has the big temperature difference, then I bring the cardigans or jackets. And if it rains, then I wear rain boots. Second, I try my best to look tall. I mostly wear heels and tighten my waist because it makes me look taller than wearing oversized clothes. Actually, the clothes I wear differ from what I like because I try to wear the clothes that suits me rather than what I like. When I am dressing up, I prioritize my body more than I do for my preference.

This is the Acne Studios’ fall/winter 2015 women’s campaign. Acne studio is the Swedish contemporary designer brand which has a fame for its genderless fashion. And they present their traits with this campaign well.

When I found these images, I was really shocked because I saw these images before but didn’t know this model was a boy. The model in this ads is Frasse Johansson who is the son of the brand’s creative director and he was 12 year olds at that time. He is wearing a pink long coat and high-heels, and carrying a hand bag. Nothing this boy is wearing is man’s or boy’s but he’s got his own style. The pink color is not a man’s color, high-heels are not for man, and man doesn’t carry hand bag in traditional gender norms. That’s why I couldn’t think this model is a boy. So this campaign subverts traditional gender norms.

As Susan Kaiser said “Gender is actually not just who we are; it is what we do or perform as we participate in an embodied way with cultural discourses.”, we can wear or do anything we want regardless of genders.

I strongly agree with the aphorism “Fashion is intensely personal, in the same way that poetry is intensely personal. It is a medium through which personal stories can be told, memories re-lived and futures foretold.” There is always main stream, we call it trend, in fashion. Almost every woman wears miniskirts in 90’s. Many people who are skinny or aren’t skinny wore skinny pants in 2000’s. Still, it was always personal in same look. We can almost tell people’s aspect by their clothes. It can be wrong, but it tells a lot.

I also sympathize with the aphorism “Fashion is gossip. Never underestimate the power of gossip. Semiologists are driven into ecstasies of supposition by its whispers.” These days, due to the development of the social media, gossip got more power. Because of their influences, Instagramers and Youtubers who have lots of followers got power. People talk, judge and follow. Sometimes people lose their own identities.

This aphorism may sound conflict with the aphorism above. However, I don’t think it’s conflict. I believe there are two sides to everything.

Outcome

Reflection: When I was assigned this shirt project, I’d given it a lot of thought between ‘I should make really dramatically creatively challenging shirt.’ and ‘I want to make a shirt which I can wear in a daily life.’. After all, I chose second one.(And I decided to fulfill my need of first one through Design studio.) So I designed a plain bodice and just put little bit of design on sleeves and length. I chose polyester fabric because it isn’t wrinkled up easily. It’s convenient to wear. At the same time, because of that it was hard to sew. I usually don’t choose black color for assignment because it’s hard to see the details when taking pictures. This time, however, I chose black color because I usually wear black color in a real life.(Sorry about the low quality of the pictures.)

After complete this garment, I could feel my sewing skill has improved. And I have a shirt dress in my closet.