Learning Portfolio Post #1 (300-400 words total)
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 discuss which aspects of the aphorisms you agree and disagree with (and why).
Aphorism #6: Fashion can be about confirmation, of self and others. But it is also about anxiety, ambiguity, and worry. As an aid to understanding psychological complexities it is unsurpassed.
From birth, we are powerless to many important decisions that determine who we are as people: where we are born, what kind of family we are born into, what we look like, et cetera. As we grow into autonomous, sentient beings, we make choices with a brain that we did not choose. As confirmation, fashion can create a sense of belonging, community, and connection between seemingly disparate beings through similar function and aesthetic of chosen attire. Fashion can also divide and restrict people, as uniform, as signifier, as means for alienation. Fashion, for most, is one of the only things we can choose for our outward appearances, thus representing a deep part of our own subconsciousness that we ourselves may not even realize- a part that goes far beyond the superficial.
Aphorism #10: Fashion does not define. It is instead a term that demands definition.
Fashion seems easily definable upon first glance. For most, fashion is synonymous with clothing. It is trendy, it is new, it is fresh, it is fashion. According to the dictionary, fashion is the prevailing style (as in dress) during a particular time (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fashion). But then the line between fashion, clothing, trend, and style can be easily blurred. There are “fashions” that do not always go on the body, “fashions” that do not always function as clothing, “fashions” that are retrospective and progressive. Fashion can be both a verb and a noun, to make and what is made. Fashion is constantly changing and evolving and as time passes it can never be the same as it once was. To standardize a definition for “fashion” would be to limit its ability to change and evolve. Thus, fashion cannot be defined and cannot define an individual. It is the job of the designer to materialize whatever their perception or vision of fashion into a physical form. Fashion is different for everyone at every time. Fashion needs to be constantly made and remade in order for its existence to not die.
