At the beginning of the Intro to Fashion Studies Lecture I defined fashion as the things we choose to wear that expresses and defines us in this vast world of others who “fashion” themselves instead of following our primitive nature to be nude. Over the course, I learned my defintion was indeed correct but limiting as I learned fashion to be something that can never truly be defined. “Fashion is dress in which the key feature is rapid and continual changing of styles. Fashion, in a sense is change, and in modern western societies no dothes are outside fashion.” It’s beyond an appreciation of the aesthetics but, also to be understood as one that can be both an emotional and a physical experience for the one who experienes fashion. This newfound defintion of there being no distinct definition found myself to rethink of my design process. I realized how one garment/accessory that we wear has a changing meaning with the context and time in relation to the wearer.
In my own personal experience, I find fashion to be an expression of my emotions to communicate to the world. Prior to entering the world of fashion, I stuck to black as it was uncomplicated at best and let myself to be undefined. After absorbing all fashion, I realized I indeed was participating in a fashion that is complicated and defined in its own way. Wearing black was a statement that was understated in its own community. So when I fashion myself and I design for others to fashion themselves, I look at all aspects from the materiality, to design, to research to express my concepts in a visual manner.
- Wilson, Elizabeth. 2003. Adorned in dreams: fashion and modernity. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 3.
