In week 1 of the Intro to Fashion studies lecture/recitation, Christopher Breward’s foreword to fashion studies was discussed. He curates a list of observations/aphorisms put together by specific sources that have explored the philosophical function of fashion.
Fashion does not define, it is instead a term that demands definition. This is the aphorism I found most interesting. It is the property of Hazel Clark and was uttered at the Locating Fashion/Studies conference organized by Heike Jenns at Parsons School of Design in 2010. Fashion is the manner of doing something or a method and hence, the definition or manner it refers too is ever-changing and different in the context of time, place, person and perspective. This relays that the word ‘fashion’ is defined based on variables around it and doesn’t have an established story. The same is said to go for what’s fashionable and what’s not. It is debatable that fashion does define as it creates an image for the said person sporting the aesthetic and reflects their expression however, this reflection is based on bias and collective assumption. The meaning of the term ‘fashion’ has been discussed for so long, it is almost established that the answer is altered based on relavancy.
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. Design, style, art and method are all creative outputs and in their own way are based on someone who creates them. In this sense, fashion is almost a language as it is a form of communicating ones personal ideas, personal taste, stories etc. It can be something that is created or it can be told in just a small choice that one makes. To me, fashion is almost a way of expressing oneself without having the pressure of being creative as it is something that everyone takes part in (being part of the fashion industry or not) as even if someone dresses themselves in a simple manner, that simple manner is their fashion and tells their personal story. This story being told has a past, future and present as ones taste and the world around us changes.
