All Glitz, All Glamour, All Gore
Status Quo: We are unable to break away when everbody tries to look the same
Fashion. Eternal? Yes. Fun? Perhaps. Frivolous? As much as I would like to say otherwise, no. To the realms where the fashion-conscious dwell, this is not news. In fact, it is almost a rule there. But to everyone else - I must be joking. But I ask this: How come we always underrate the strangely significant impact that fashion has had on us for millennia?
That’s right. Millennia. From the Pharaohs of Egypt to the toga-clad individuals of Athens, from the mountainous hair and 3m wide, tiered dresses of the 1800s to the shoulder pads and legwarmers of the 1980s, fashion has long since made its mark on human history. Say ‘fashion’ to the reality-dwelling, jacket-wearing body more focused on, well, everything else, and its fairly likely that you’ll conjure up images of bright lights, flashing cameras, a dizzying array of unwearable clothing, expensive stores and stick-thin ‘models’. Either that or your local mall, bright lights, flashy stores and a dizzying array of stick-thin pre-teens inhabiting them trying to replace last year’s now unwearable apparel.
But there is more to than just that to fashion. Today, designer brands, shopping and the incessant shuffle-click of credit cards dominates what we perceive as fashion. And why wouldn’t it? It is clear that the year, no, the season, defines what is now acceptable to be worn, and subconsciously or not, we reject whatever we have in our wardrobes that no longer meets the mark. This behaviour may sound like that of the plastic generation, the indifferent youth, but it isn’t. Fashion is a disease- to what degree varies but it affects all of us, an ever-changing, mutating virus that we can’t keep immune to. Here’s proof.
Alternet.org, an alternative press website, says that apparel is the second biggest consumer sector- after food. Food is a basic human necessity, although we may be ingesting more than just the necessary. Eating habits aside, the amount we spend on food is seconded by the amount of money we spend on clothing.
Though I’m not all that surprised. Our society demands the best of us - that means we must be our best, act our best, look our best. And to look our best we must meet a certain set of criteria that defines what ‘looking good’ is. The majority of us would not think of it as criteria, merely as being presentable. But who set the criteria? Who told us what looking good meant? The same people who decided that the ideal look was the reason for clothing expenditure to catch up to expenditure on food?
To be fashionable is to be like the latest style. To many people it is at least influenced by what the celebrated, ‘beautiful’ people wear, not developing a style of their own. While a group of us strive to be different, look different, no-one really ends up being that different. There aren’t a lot of people you could say with absolute certainty have managed to break the boundaries, and there is a reason for that.
The boundaries of fashion are ever-expanding, stretching out to encompass all in its textured, colourful, glitzy, glamorous grasp. My best example is one that most people are probably sick of hearing and seeing, but don’t really know the origins of. The current emo stereotype, applied to many musicians without grounds, will invoke images of pale tweens and teens sporting oversized fringes and listening to bands such as My Chemical Romance who do not fit the category that seems to be so easy to stereotype people into, despite the real roots of emotive hardcore music not being entirely clear, although it did originate at least twenty years ago.
The fashion we see the new generation of ‘emos’ dressed in bears little resemblance to what the actual sub-genre of rock music really is. A crying shame, really, and an indication of how the fashion world will stop at nothing for a new hit.
How you look determines how other people will see you, judge you, categorise what type of person you are to society. The ‘normal’ look is not far from the ‘ideal’ look, in which what is deemed as attractive is marketed everywhere until everyone wants it, wants to be it. A certain size is the only acceptable one in society, hair, and even age. The latest fashion- eternal youth. The eternal fashion- the right weight. And if you don’t believe me, see if you can go an entire day without hearing at least one comment on how someone looks. Even if it’s not outside- Trinny and Susannah, anyone?
Why do we need someone to tell us how to look? Clothing is a commodity, fashion is not. A call to arms - take back fashion from the minority. Make your style your own again. After all, fashion is about developing a style, and style is best when it reflects your individuality. Do we still have it?
