In Chris Breward’s Foreward for Fashion Studies: Research Methods, Sites and Practices, he made ten aphorisms that, especially for newcomers to the industry, should be taken with a grain of salt. One point that spoke out to me was:
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.
To create clothes, one must learn the skills of how to use the sewing machine or the tools that come along with making clothes. However, fashion design comes through one’s uninhibited sense of creativity and it is apparent through the skills that are learned in the classroom. There’s big brands like Valentino that have various designers building each collection, but the original idea of Valentino still exists through the standard of fabrics/embellishments that are present in almost every season. Another aphorism that I found especially relevant, but not completely true was:
Fashion does not define. It is instead a term that demands definition.
We discussed this in the recitation and someone brought up the argument that fashion shouldn’t be defined, because once someone has determined its definition then fashion has no way to continue expanding and growing. I thought that was an interesting view of this aphorism because there’re so many ways that people have defined it, yet fashion cannot be put into a singular box. Fashion should have infinite definitions, and I think this relates back to the first aphorism. Each person’s definition of fashion varies and produces something personal for every individual.
Yes I agree with you the definiton of fashion is different each of every person. Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thank you, very great post.