...that fashion is unimportant and claim that they are not followers of fashion, or that they do not care for fashion need to take a closer look at their life. Fashion is not all about overpriced brands, catwalks and impossibly thin models, no, fashion is an all consuming, undeniable force that drives human beings in so many aspects of their life and is a true definer of personality and self expression.
Before it can be understood how important fashion really is, we need to look at why it is that humans feel the need to clothe ourselves. First and foremost it is explained in Maslow's hierarchy of needs that humans need clothing to protect us from the elements, but more than that, humans have always needed to distinguish themselves from others and have always adorned their bodies, fashion is about more than just clothing. Adornment or what we tend to call style in the modern world is what can connect us to our culture (or tribe) it distinguishes our sex, our status, our beliefs and all the small intricate details of our personality. Whether the wearer is aware of it or not, every item of clothing they choose, every piece of jewellery, every watch, sneaker, eyebrow piercing that has adorned a body has been chosen to be displayed. This is something I find fascinating! Fashion is more than just the clothes we wear and what handbag we put with it, fashion transcends into so many aspects of life that wouldn’t ordinarily be looked at as anything to do with fashion.
What car do you drive? Where do you live? What do your friends look like? Do you have animals? These are all fashion statements in a round-about way. For example my brother is very into cars and so is the group he hangs out with, they all share one hobby and are all from different backgrounds, work different jobs and all have different friends outside of the car scene, but the cars they choose reflect their style like a pair of Monolo’s reflect SJP’s style. Their cars are the ultimate fashion accessories, whether they realise it or not. Thousands of dollars are put into these cars to make them look amazing, and why do they pour all this money into them? As a form of self expression, as a way of indentifying themselves with their tribe and as a way of distinguishing who they are. Cars are fashion.
Another place I find this supposedly unfashionable fashion display is with the girls that claim that they hate fashion. Usually labelled as geeks, nerds or freaks these girls (and guys) have a fashion tribe of their own whether they want to admit it or not. I’m sure that Karl Lagerfeld won’t be running up to them anytime begging for them to be his next muse but yes even these “unfashionable” people have their own sense of style. You’re probably thinking I’m mad right now, how could these people possibly be seen as fashionable? They are the ones that never dye their hair, don’t bother to straighten it, don’t worry about whether their nails are painted in the newest shade from OPI, they pay out the popular girls because they “apparently” secretly want their style, they claim to hate fashion and if anyone brings it up they are the first to jump on the “fashion is an evil commercial consumerist culture of brain-dead trend followers” but truth be told these girls are usually more true to their inner style than most of the plastic girls following the up to the second style guide from the latest issue of Cosmo. As I’ve already explained everything a human chooses to put on their body is something they feel reflects their style, and if they aren’t following what Grazia told them too, then they are making a fashion style choice that is based entirely on their personality to reflect their own true style, rather than just picking something because everyone else has it.
This being said it’s understood that every fashion choice is made because someone before you has come up with it and decided to launch it into the main market for you to purchase, but due to the immense amount of product available to us, the choice really is ours. Anyone that has seen The Devil Wears Prada will know the iconic scene where Meryl Streep explains to the young Anne Hathaway that everyone cares about fashion, but it is so true!
There is simply nothing that you can choose to wear, even if you make it yourself, to justify that you don’t care for fashion. You don’t have a choice, because without you realising, it has already happened. You don’t have to like it, but you should accept it, fashion is a force not to be seen as frivolous, fashion turns the economy, fashion provides millions of people with jobs, fashion connects us, fashion expresses us, fashion involves everyone it touches, it is everything and there is nothing you can do about it.
A girl in the world. Fashion, Friends and Frivolities!
