Hats Please: Part II
"Fashion is what you adopt when you don't know who you are." -Quentin Crisp
posted by MC at 10:22 AM
Documenting the trials and musings of a young man wholly invested in the decorum of the world, the dress of its people, and why any of it matters in the first place. As fashions come and go, we hope the driving pulse stays the same. Realities change and confuse, while the soul holds the truth.
posted by MC at 10:22 AM
9 Comments:
Does this imply that those who are fashionable lack personal definition, or just the opposite?
Thankfully, no single case is the same, and people fall into a variety of different camps when it comes to how they use their clothing, and consequently fashion, in their lives.
I sometimes worry about those who simply use fashion as a facade...a means of making themselves look like something they are inherently not. This is costume. And in some regards, costume is exactly what one needs to get by, or succeed. Just look at Little Richard. However, when the costume is put in place to merely cover personality flaws or insecurities, or to hop onto a banwagon, I'm bothered. there are thousands of designers in the world for a reason. We get to pick and choose what we want to wear, how and when we want to wear it, etc.
I'm for a fashion that reinforces what is already inherently there - a fashion that takes a person's strengths, puts them on display to make them appear even more spendid and worth celebrating.
This sounds like another blog entry to me.
Mike. You must come to Paris. I don't think I'm lieing when I say the men here dress as well as the women. Can you imagine that? JUST AS WELL!!!! Ahh. I need more money though. See you in New York.
I would emphasize Crisp's term "adopt." For instance, participating in fashion is very different from adopting it.
I wonder if people who use fashion as facade aren't actually signaling something that they inherently are...though it likely isn't splendid or worth celebrating. Also, I think fashion can be quite active: it can activate and change people, rather than simply relating to what they already are. It can move through you; it can move you. It can leave you an inherently changed man. And none of these need entail adoption papers.
So, because I connect everything to my profession, do you think that young people use fashion in a way that helps them discover/define their identity, or are they merely participating? It's Erk's idea, focused on the kids.
I've always admired the students who really crafted their look at such a young age, regardless of what their peers or The Establishment might think of it. Punk, Emo, and Thrift store kids (for lack of a better term, as those students cut a wide swath) really tend to craft a look, even if it's designed to look effortless. It's the kids who look like they walked out of the window of A&F that seem to be participating only. And it seems to me that's fine when you're 17, because it's part of being young and making that evolution. Now if you're pulling that when you're 30...
What do you think?
I feel like I have crafted my own sort of... fashion if thats what you'd like to call it. I know that most of the clothing items I have chosen to wear, are things the girls at school would never be caught dead wearing. maybe thats why I do it, or I like to think I'm being original, and maybe I am, or maybe I'm following someone I've never met.
I just know that most of the quote "normal" clothing, most 16 year old girls are wearing (i.e Skirts that could pass as belts and see through shirts) are not things I'm comfortable wearing.
so if that means I wear a sweatshirt/shirt with loons on it and 80's flower jumpers with striped shirts and purple hair on my head. I'd rather do that and feel my own kind of beautiful, then wear clothes that don't cover and shame... well at least I'm ashamed.
though I know some girls, and I have met a few who wear those clothes and still look respectable, so I don't mean to say every 16-17 year old girl is like that, or is like me.
I would just have to agree with Mr.C
"I sometimes worry about those who simply use fashion as a facade...a means of making themselves look like something they are inherently not. This is costume."
[ on a side note]
I have to say that that person (i.e the quote above) used to be me. I did hide behind my dark clothing and the stereotype of being "gothic" and "punk" to keep from being asked to many questions. and I am going to use the excuse of keeping myself safe behind that mask.
but I'm not like that anymore, thankfully,a few good friends helped me break down those protective walls.and I am begining to feel like my own person.
I've often found that agreeing with Mr. C is an excellent policy.
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