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.
Art of any form can supply or follow narrative, especially that of personal reality. Our experience shines through our art, and perhaps our art can be seen in our experience. Art comes from a place deep within, in this world you may either create or copy. When drawing from self, copying is not an option. Your work must relate to you on a deeper level. Often, I have found that artists draw from the worst thing that has ever happened to them as a well of inspiration. I disagree with this practice, while it may be a tool, or a means of working through trauma, it should not be used as a way to make your art interesting. Art can be much more interesting without context, it is the abstractness which allows the viewer to relate.
Fashion is so all-encompassing and encyclopedic in its terrain that it seems tailor-made from 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.
Virtually every part of the consumers purchases can be predicted based on their habits. Ethnographic groups are easy to understand when you can predict why they buy what they buy. If a consumer has a habit of purchasing comfortable, stylish, and practical shoes, they may either work in a job where they spend lots of time on their feet or they walk as a means of commuting. If a consumer often purchases stylish and impractical shoes, (such as heels) they probably take a car or public transportation and walk less than a mile to work every day (or perhaps they go out at night with these shoes). This aphorism is elaborating on the idea that virtually every person’s behavior can be predicted based on their consumer habits.
