-Choose any two of Christopher Breward’s aphorisms from his foreword to Fashion Studies, which you read in Week 1. Explain what each of the two aphorisms means (in your own words) and explain why you agree or disagree with them.
Coya Campbell
Intro to fashion Studies Rec.
Nancy Satola
January 28, 2019
As time moves forward and fashion trends continue to reemerge there is one overarching theme that remains; fashion is composed of many different parts that can mean a variety of different things to different people. This concept is one that proves true when examining Christopher Brewards forward to Introduction to Fashion Studies Research Methods, Sites, and Practices. Throughout the piece, Breward uses a series of ten aphorisms to further his stance regarding fashion as more than physical garments but an entity that expands and transcends time. The first aphorism that stuck out 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 relived and futures foretold.’ This aphorism is one of the main things that makes fashion so great it gives people the ability to further channel themselves in a way the other forms of self-expression do cannot fully embody. Fashion grants us the ability to adorn our physical forms with things that speak to who we truly are or the person we desire to become. It is the ability to distinctively sort through the maze of things, make a selection and do so in a way that is in keeping with how we see ourselves. Using fashion as a tool, we stamp our personal identity on an arrangement of things so the world is full of endless possibilities it just depends on what aspect of our identity we want to make palpable. The second aphorism that resonated with me was ‘Fashion is so all-encompassing and encyclopedic in its terrain that it seems tailor-made for the era of big data. The old antiquarians used it to map national customs and habits. We have the tools to put it to the service of as yet unimagined projects, of even greater scope and impact.’ This aphorism stood out to me because encapsulates all the things that fashion is and fashion can be. We are often times taught fashion as being a physical garment, however, it doesn’t end there. Fashion is an all-encompassing idea that can be expressed in many different ways by many different people. Meaning that fashion should be seen as a tool used throughout many different fields because it tells time through history and can be used as a means to discover and keep track of everything that has happened in the past and everything that will happen in the future. Overall, Breward makes it evident that fashion has for so long been thought of in such a minuscule manor and i† is time for that to change. I completely agree with these aphorisms and hope to see a significant change in thinking in the years to come.
