“Fashion can be about confirmation, of self and others. But it is also about anxiety, ambiguity and worry. As an aid to understanding psychological complexities it is unsurpassed.”
In this quote, what is trying to be expressed is that fashion has a social side to it. There are complexities within the social habits of human nature that heavily influence fashion and how one may dress from day to day.
This is true. The concept of getting up and dressing oneself in the morning is such a secondary habit to one’s day to day routine that often we forget how much thinking really goes into it. The way we dress is how we would like others to see us. And that can come with anxieties and worries as sometimes we are not actually sure that we are portraying ourselves as who we are inside, but rather, who we would like to be. Even those who feel as though they don’t care about what they wear, actually care about what they wear as they are often wearing clothing to express that very idea. It’s such a complex and idealized thing that those who are not interested in it have a tendency to forget. As my technical design studio professor said the other day, “getting dressed in the morning is probably the most creative part of a lot of people’s day.”
“Fashion is gossip. Never underestimate the power of gossip. Semiologists are driven into ecstasies of supposition by its whispers.”
What is being said here is that fashion has the same concepts behind it as idle chatter and social nonsense. It is often identified with femininity and women nowadays, and therefore considered trashy or below that who is speaking; despite the fact that they state that gossip is powerful, as they are identifying the idea that fashion has power over it’s recipients, as gossip may also do.
I disagree with the aforementioned aphorism. Fashion is not gossip; gossip is a means of idle communication, and fashion is anything but idle. Fashion is the discussion between artist and body; it’s the idea that the body can express something without uttering a word. To say that fashion is like gossip is to say that one does not understand what fashion fundamentally is; it’s to expose oneself as judgmental and ignorant. If you don’t understand the concept of fashion, then you do not understand it’s weight in the feeling of language. Fashion is not just dressing head to toe in expensive clothing with big brand names. It is not having knowledge in upcoming trends or knowing what colors will be popular in the fall. Those are under the fashion umbrella, but that is not what fashion is. Fashion is sculpture, it is a form of art that associates with body. It has a utilitarian purpose. To say it is like gossip is so…. Offensive.
