Fashion Week
This past week has been Fashion Week in New York. It is the week that all the expensive designers put on shows for their upcoming lines of clothing. I have to admit a facination with clothing fashions. I enjoy putting together a “look” and wearing it well. I pay attention to other people’s clothes and make private judgements about what I think looks good or how I think it would look better. Like the fashion designers I enjoy the interaction of color and line and texture that clothing can provide. However unlike fashion industry people I believe there are things far more important than clothing. People for instance. My private judgements remain private because I know that what is to my taste is not to everyone’s taste. Howard has a shirt which he loves and which makes me cringe. He loves it because it makes people cringe. When he wears it, he is dressing for effect and doing it very well. I will not criticize what other people choose to wear because I don’t know why they are wearing it. Why they choose the things they wear is far more important than what they choose to wear.
I watched some video of a few fashion shows. I found the models uniformly repellent and I liked almost none of the clothing. Then I realized why I was reacting this way. In a fashion show everything is about the clothes. The models are trained to be as nonexistent as possible. The only reason the model is there is because the clothes can’t walk by themselves. The clothes themselves did some fascinating things with color, line, and texture but none of it was aimed at making an actual person look good. These designer clothes are to be viewed aesthetically by themselves. To me the point of clothing (beyond the practical “keep me warm”) is to make a person look good. Clothing is not a point unto itself. Clothing should fit the person who is wearing it. Clothing should fit what the person is trying to do. Clothing should make the person feel happy and confident and attractive. (Or daring and rebellious, or nonconformist, or whatever the person is trying to express.) None of the clothes I saw in the fashion week videos did that.
Clothing should also not break the bank. One of the fashion week videos I saw was about Tory Burch who opened her own line of clothing. She said she was tired of designer prices and wanted to provide attractive, afforable clothing. Apparently to Tory Burch $150 for a T shirt qualifies as “affordable.” In the past two years I have not spent more than $7 for any one item of clothing in my closet. Most of my clothing acquisitions have been free hand-me downs from friends. This means that I have a fairly eclectic wardrobe full of things that I would probably not have paid money for. Anything I really don’t like, I get rid of, but other than that I keep it and as a result I have a wardrobe that meets my needs, clothes I can live in. I also have some clothes I can dress up in when I want to dress for effect rather than for practicallity.
Years ago I bought a book on sewing couture style clothing. It was a fascinating read for me. Someday I plan to use the information in that book to sew myself some really amazing and wonderful clothes. Those imagined clothes will be more wonderful and fit my personality better than any designer clothing because they will be mine from start to finish. Unfortunately this couture sewing is way down on my “to do” list because no matter how much I enjoy beautiful clothing, other things are far more important for me to spend time and money on.