Going back to week 1, we were asked to write an overarching and all-encompassing definition for the word “fashion”. Now looking back at it, I think the answer that I have in the first week could be described as somewhat vague and uneducated. I feel like I didn’t know enough about fashion studies to answer this question. Now, we’re at week 14, we’ve gone through all the topics of fashion studies, and my definition of fashion from the beginning has shifted a lot since the beginning of the semester. At the beginning of the semester, it was easy to give a clear definition of what fashion is, but not looking back at it, I don’t think I could fully define what fashion is. Fashion, as I defined it, was much more than a means of expression and creativity. It’s a methodology that forms identities and can be affected by society and the media. An important aspect of forming identities in fashion is the idea of subject positions to create intersectionalities. We talked about subject positions as being those things in our lives that identify us and are used to form an intersectionality map. Fashion is also the future; it’s the innovation that relies on the global impact of the fashion industry. Is it our responsibility in this industry to ensure that our actions and what we do in this industry does not impact our environment negatively.
In regards to my future work, there are a lot of ways that I can apply what I’ve learned throughout this course into my fashion design studies. I remember at the beginning of this course, one of the things I was curious about was how fashion studies would be able to help my studies in design. Especially as a designer, you have to think about the customer you are designing for and that is when fashion studies and methodology comes into play. Thinking about all the things that are involved in fashion studies including the physical body, the social body, value, power, subcultures, media, and culture. One quote that has had a lasting impact on me throughout the entirety of the semester was from Christopher Brewards aphorisms, “Fashion does not define. Is it instead a term that demands definition.”
