Oscar Wilde, whose eccentricity was no less renowned than his genius, enunciated art to be of the highest possible form of humans’ delight, and the only their salvation. Fashion, in such a perspective, is not the art but the entire artistic universe, which comprises of myriads of stars that twinkle brightly due to their sheer individuality.
The following aphorism is, again, intertwined with the literary realm, comparing fashion to poetry: “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” (Breward and Jenss 19). By enclosing the aphorism in his foreword, the author probably intends to demonstrate that through fashion one may observe the course of human development, as if looking in a big dusty encyclopedia. Apart from being the bearer of history, fashion is the purest possible manifestation of personality, since there exists not a single person who would create identically to another one.
The second aphorism continues the subject of identity in fashion, although from a different angle: “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” (Breward and Jenss 19). Much as fashion contributes to the extension of one’s individuality, it also produces the phenomenon of competition, either among people or with the mass character. There always exists the risk of loss, however, it is worth being taken.
Eventually, beauty may indeed save the world from falling into decay of daily routine and inanity. The more of the individual will the world preserve, the less superfluity and shallowness it will bear. Essentially, it is important not to be afraid of showing one’s real self…Of being in complete authenticity and alignment with oneself.
Work Cited
Breward, Christopher, and Heike Jenss. Fashion Studies: Research Methods, Sites, and Practices. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.
