At the beginning of the semester I believed that fashion was a way of changing oneself to manipulate public perception, like a costume. However, after this semester, I have learned that style, fashion, and dress are words of similar meaning, used in very different contexts. According to style-fashion-dress theorist Joanne Eicher, dress is defined as “body modifications and body supplements” (Kaiser 7). Dress is a process, a routine, the way you create your aesthetic, from the way you do your nails and hair to your shoes and makeup, while style is made up of dress practices and individualism. According to fashion theorist Carol Tulloch, style is “a part of the process of self-telling, that is, to expound an aspect of autobiography of oneself through the clothing choices an individual makes” (Kaiser 6). In contrast, fashion is a universal term that encompasses a variety of personal styles in order to create a form of personal expression. Fashion is bigger than clothing, bigger than aesthetics. It is the way style and dress make people feel. Fashion can be a costume, but also a genuine form of self expression. Fashion is how we alter or establish a persona, it is what makes us real, but also fake. Elizabeth Wilson’s work Adorned in Dreams contains a quote that expresses this same idea of style-fashion-dress being both a method of manipulation, but also creativity and originality, “Dress is the frontier between the self and the not-self.” Fashion is the grand picture, it encompasses more than mere dress practices and personal style, it is multidimensional and conveys the dynamic social process of change. Susan Kaiser puts it best in her book Fashion and Cultural Studies, “it is ongoing and changes with each person’s visual and material interpretations of who he or she is becoming and how this connects with others’ interpretations.” (Kaiser 1) Ultimately, style -fashion-dress is a term that shows a part-whole relationship between terms of similar but different concepts.
This definition of fashion explains the difference between my design and personal style. Personally, I like to establish separation between my professional and creative lives. In my professional life I dress very plain, safe, and conservative, mostly because of a rich cultural and religious background, but also because I am a part of a “go getter” subculture, in which I dress for the purpose of respectability and productivity. While my creative life, portrayed through my designs, reflects my inner desires and passions, if I wore them on my own body I fear I would lose my sense of professionalism. Fashion design is my outlet of creativity rather than my personal style. Often when I design, I base my concept on personal connections, but create a very avant garde approach to said concept. Such as in my most recent collection, “into the woods,” in which I portrayed my past struggle with an eating disorder through a high-end grunge collection. Similarly, In my current collection, “survivor” I am creating “at-home couture” which is a mesh between practical protective gear, comfort, accessible textiles and materials, crafty textile techniques, and space age glamour. The entire collection has a middle school science project aesthetic. This is very different from my own personal style of dress, but it is an outlet of my inner desires. I have been attracted to abstract art and bright colors for a long time, but I always felt too scared to experiment, since coloration and abstract painting were never my forte. However, due to this pandemic I have been able to practice and find comfort in things that look “easy” but are truly hard to master. This collection reflects my work ethic and mindset throughout the pandemic quarantine order. It shows the various stages of my time in quarantine with a splash of conservative cuts due to my family’s established house gender roles, and a pinch of throwback elements from 1960s space age crafty fashion. Each look represents a different role, or costume I wear in quarantine: the Tik Tok star, the sleep till nooner, Netflix marathoner, the gourmet chef, the seamstress, the landscaper, the cleaning lady, the explorer, the exercice buff, the cheese/wine connoisseur, and the tie dye craft lady. Take your pick. In a way I’m bringing my audience along my journey of quarantine, like they are entering a game. They are allowed to select their “fighter” and experience what it would look like to be fashionable but human, imperfections and all, within the context and laws of confinement of this pandemic.
