Fashion is like a beach; it can be meditative, freeing, warm. You can swim between the mainstream flags or you can venture out further and see where it leads you. This path includes being devoured by sharks, stung by jellyfish as well as being able to float on by not giving two fucks on an obnoxious inflatable swam. Yep, the beach is a ageless free for all. Each day is a question of how deep you will ventour and how brave you’re feeling.
Unlike beaches, quality clothing is never free; however its unseen magic happens to be. I’m talking about the thrill of the hunt, the excitement as you introduce it to its new wardrobe buddies and the posture that suddenly lengthens your legs from wearing something no one has ever, before seen you wear. The price: new memes for all, #yourwelcomeworld. And of course, like 300 hundred dollars. But like who’s counting, other than your online banking app?
Like a beach, fashion trends recycle themselves. Is this incidental trend a strategy determined by magazine figureheads who don’t feel like parting with their 90’s throwbacks? Probably. But hey, who are we to judge those who judge streets of women at a time? Definitely not fashion forward, that’s for damn sure.
There is one thing that has remained, being the industry’s golden thread needling ‘adapt or die’ into every fashionista’s blazer pocket. Look At Anna Wintour, still seated in the front row of every high-end fashion show from Channel (1989) to Yeezy (2015). The one thing that always seems to be fashion’s seatbelt is a confusing cocktail of youth, today and yesterday. Despite the endless waves of trends, Wintour’s polite, french-inspired bob has staying round and untouched in the company of her staple sunnies for over 20 years now.
The fashion industry, an endless fad buffet, has recently been gorging itself on the ‘name-game’; boosted by brands, in collaborations with today’s ‘It-girls’. These women, ( gorgeous as they are) don’t feel the need to gain degrees nor choose to wear anything similiar to the items they have designed. Yet, we as consumers buy it, encouraging them to pursue their secondary-dreams with cash in their pocket and self-esteem in ours’. It’s a win-win.
Today, taking a tour of Zara is the sheer equivalent of opening up Cosmo and flicking through the ‘trend’ section. Taking a permanent seat, is a trend that has decided to wear us, instead of us wearing it. I’m talking about consciously littering ourselves in advertisements. Possible reasons why the trend has kept such momentum could be due to its relective nature of today’s capitalistic world, where we feel like the endless ads on the screen just aren’t enough anymore. Now it is deemed ‘fashionable’ to pay with our own money to be someone elses’ walking billboard. Hmmmmmmmm.
Known worldwide for their timeless aesthetics, french artisan labels established in the 1940’s have also boarded the name train, while still attempting to hold onto their legacy of tweed and whimsical femininity. Dior is a noted subscriber, engaging in this dangerous flirtation of old and new, with the result being flaunted on the likes of both Nina Dobrev and Bella Hadid.
Thus, by walking down the street we increase a label’s brand identity significantly, while our own personal status increases in millimetres. In marketing terms, they really should be paying us- you feel me?
In saying this, if endorsing a brand you feel embodies who you are/slapping a symbol on your person is what it takes to make you feel more fashionably festive, then by all means. Fashion is all about finding just the right flow and then seeing where it leads you.
Beyond-curious 