I’ll never forget the episode in “Sex in the City” when Carrie and Berger break up because she calls him out for having his leading lady in his novel wear a scrunchie in her hair. And whenever fall hits here in New England, my mind goes to immediately to fashion. Or as EA Barker likes to call it: Look-Like-A-Jedi season. Yup. Boots! And over-sized sweaters. Scarves. Jackets. Turtlenecks. Corduroy. Belts. Tweed. Tights. Hats. Thigh-high socks. Oh my! It’s my favorite time of year for myriad reasons. But fashion is one of them. Working in academia, I often get flack from some of my colleagues. How can you wear those shoes? Where do you shop? There goes our little fashionista. I like fashion. And that’s never going to change. An article in the Guardian argues that fashion is history. It is art. Oscar Wilde had this to say about fashion: “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.” What say you? What is your favorite bit of fashion? Is fashion another way to separate us, maybe even define classes, or is fashion a form of art that knows no class? This is what Zandra Rhodes had to say in her article: Is Fashion a True Art Form? (Full article here) www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/jul/13/art.artsfeatures1 “Quibbling over whether fashion is more or less important than art is just as pointless as questioning whether or not it is art. Of course it's not, it's fashion. That is not to say that fashion, at its best, is not a suitable subject for museums or that it cannot share some of the attributes of art. On the contrary, an exquisite haute couture dress - like the ones that Cristóbal Balenciaga created in his 1950s heyday - can look as perfect as a beautiful painting or sculpture. Yet only an old-fashioned aesthete would argue that the role of the artist is to create beauty. Sometimes artists do, but for most of them beauty tends to be a by-product of their quest to explore the complex, messy, ambiguities of modern life. Think of Wolfgang Tillmans's photographs of areroplane wings and window sills now on display at Tate Britain. Beautifully composed they may be, but with a forlorn beauty too subtle to be replicated in fashion. Similarly, fashion is adept at fulfilling another traditional function of art by reflecting changes in contemporary culture, but only up to a point. Think of how the Ossie Clark dresses in the V&A's exhibition evoke the desire for escapism at the turn of the 1970s. Yet, unlike art, fashion rarely expresses more than the headlines of history. And fashion has a practical purpose, whereas art does not. The result may be as gorgeous as a vintage Balenciaga ballgown or an eloquent political metaphor for its time, but it is still an item of clothing intended to be worn. Why pretend that it is anything else?”
4 Comments
Sir
12/7/2017 20:21:12
I think those who wear fashion well are 'bound' to love it.
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Jaime
12/8/2017 13:40:11
I love your writing!
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1/28/2018 15:37:09
I love fashion, although I don't wear fashionable clothes any more. I long since decided that certain styles suited me, and have stuck with those. But I adore looking at vintage clothes, and quirky looks that obviously work (like your picture above!). But I can look at haute couture gowns and imagine myself sweeping through a marble ballroom, hair upswept and loaded with jewellery-all eyes on me. (That's the unfulfilled actress in me.) We can dream!
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Sharlie
1/28/2018 17:38:04
As a mother with four children to raise, my fashion was what I could easily grab to put on before my kids woke up. The high end fashion is what I saw on the red carpet for the rich and famous. Now my fashion today is what I am comfortable in wearing. I do look at magazines, but I am happy being me.
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I LOVE to write and read. I particularly enjoy reading erotic romance that has tons of emotion in it. I hope you will ask me questions and share your favorite authors and novels. I welcome all feedback.
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