Learning Portfolio Post #5

Definition of the term ‘Fashion’

Fashion can be simply understood as a popular style or practice, especially in clothing, footwear, accessories, makeup, body piercing, etc. It is a distinctive and often habitual practice in the style in which a person dresses. Fashion can be seen as a silent expression an individual use to communicate with the society by showing who he or she is and who he or she is becoming. The study of fashion can be interesting because it usually reflects things that are happening in society and can be read as an encapsulation of the decade itself. Through fashion, we can learn from the past and understand the present. The subculture formation in the 70s and its purpose of going against what was “in-the-know” fashion and venting their dissatisfaction with the society as a whole, as well as the reconstructed fashion and how we see it as a response to fast fashion and overconsumption can both be examples of how fashion, as fluid form, explain the places and times. Fashion is of the body and on the body but does not limit to the body, it could also extend to languages, activities, and lifestyle. One quote from Susan kaiser that is educational and worth mention, “ fashion is never finished, and it crosses all kinds of boundaries. It involves mixing, borrowing, belonging, and changing. But it is also about matching, creating, differentiating, and continuing. It is a complex process that entangles multiple perspectives and approaches.”

How has the definition shifted from the beginning of the semester and how will I apply this definition and these ideas to your future work (coursework, design work, or general thought process

At the beginning of the semester, I consider myself had good knowledge of what fashion is, and why do we study fashion. The overall lecture and recitation have truly opened up my eyes to many different perspectives and ways of thinking. From the style-fashion-dress, a system of concepts, and later on digging into subject formations such as gender, class, race, etc, the content fully explained why fashion is considered to be an interdisciplinary field of study. One thing about fashion that would never change is that it is ephemeral within a culture, fashion itself is consistently changing. Being a future designer, one question that I can always ask myself could be that can we make something “brand new”? A new fashion with a twisting of(older) elements? Is there a way that we can completely alter the whole idea and concept of clothing? The making part of the process is also important to consider in my future work by studying the systems of fashion production and making myself aware of what companies do and its impacts and consequences. Another quote from Susan Kaiser states: “ As interdisciplinary fields, both fashion studies and cultural studies require the perspectives of multiple fields, theories, methods, and practices in order to analyze fashion and culture adequately.” My interpretation for this quote is that we can not only study fashion and make fashion from only one perspective but also to step back and see from a bigger picture. Observing what people wear daily and asking why they wear what they wear are ways I consider to be helpful in terms of developing new concepts of design in my future work. Some other things I might do: analyzing trends—past trends, current trends in different cultures—figuring out what’s going on historically and in the present are important because as mentioned above, fashion is a reflection of both; practice of making, because the more one makes, the more one can see the connection between the object and the past/present, and last but not least, media study, because, with the rapid development of technology, media has become one of the most powerful publicity and marketing, which is indispensable in the future fashion world.