Fashion is one of the very few forms of expression in which women have more freedom than men. And I don’t think it’s an accident that it’s typically seen as shallow, trivial, and vain. It is the height of irony that women are valued for our looks, encouraged to make ourselves beautiful and ornamental… and are then derided as shallow and vain for doing so. And it’s a subtle but definite form of sexism to take one of the few forms of expression where women have more freedom, and treat it as a form of expression that’s inherently superficial and trivial. Like it or not, fashion and style are primarily a women’s art form. And I think it gets treated as trivial because women get treated as trivial - Fashion is a Feminist Issue - Greta Christina (read the whole thing, great!)
(IMHO it could also be argued that there is much homophobia in the anti-fashion discourse as well)
After I dropped out of high school I decided I wanted to go to fashion school. So I enrolled at FIDM. I didn't want to design clothes but I wanted to be in the mix somehow. I grew up influenced by the creative style of punk rock and the fashion conscious new romantic music scenes. The combination of those two musical/style influences, and the people that participated in those scenes, captured my imagination in a profound way. While at FIDM I met all kinds of passionate women and men who had a love for creating, in many different ways. FIDM was also in introduction for me into gay culture. It was a wonderful experience cut short by my participation in another culture, the drug culture.
Unfortunately if you look at me now you would never know that I was so heavily influenced by fashion and style. I have a hard time matching socks, but I still try and pay attention to what goes on these days in the style world. I visit the Sartorialist blog often and enjoy many street style blogs. I also enjoy the personalities attached to the scene and hope to catch the attached movie soon. Yes, I know the fashion world is an easy target for much criticism, but if anything, it's all about multiplicity.
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