doing fashion wrong

[anotheranon]

For all my love of clothes and dressing up, I never really got the hang of "fashion". Indeed, I think it's taken most of my dressing-myself life to figure out that the way I defined "fashion" is rather different from the way others do.

I started dreaming about working in the fashion industry when I was 14 or so. In my mind it was a glamorous alternative to the same ol', same ol' everyday wear I saw where I grew up in the suburbs, a place where not only would my versions of goth/punk/new wave/indie (and I use the slashes purposefully - I've danced around with many subcultures but never got the uniform for a single one "correct") fashion would be appropriate but also welcome, where I'd be surrounded by kindred spirits who saw clothes as toys, and the latest trends as a list of possibilities rather than mandates.

College was a welcome respite from trying to keep up with either the mainstream or alternate fashion worlds, and the fact that I didn't mind that should have been a clue that maybe I didn't need to be in the fashion industry. Starting my fashion merchandising major didn't clue me in either - I read fashion history and the like as "5000 years of MORE toys, oh my!"

It wasn't still I started working retail that I realized that many (if not most) people define "fashion" as "keeping up with the Joneses" or "telling the Joneses what to wear next".

Even most subcultural styles are about uniformity - goths don't wear white; ravers don't wear skinny jeans :P

Reading of the snarks over Amanda Palmer's hairy pits or Something Out of Nothing's complaint that most fashion blogs dwell on mainstream feminine looks and little else highlights that fashion is also about enforcing conventional (thin, straight, white, hairless) femininity.

And while I recognize that the fashion industry is in the business of selling stuff, and stuff wouldn't sell if everyone was happy with what they had, it still all comes off as junior high-style snobbiness in a way :P

That it took me this long to figure it out is no surprise because it the only alternative to keeping up seems to be not caring at all: casual sweats forever, or wearing the same stuff you wore in your 20s until it falls apart and then bitching that you can't find it anymore :P Whereas I like change and new things but am leaning more towards additive gender dandy than anything else.

This is why I love costume :)

Comments

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

You've never seen the truly bad days! I keep a pair of shoes at the office because one day I went into work wearing two different shoes. They were both loafers but one was navy and one brown. I'd put them on with the light off as S. was still sleeping so as not to disturb him.

Not to mention the crazy and/or mismatched sock days! Or the outfits whose sole purpose is to keep me from freezing. ;-p

I really put forth an effort at SCA and fan events because I know people will be paying attention. At work, not so much. I've been the only person to notice co-workers who wore the same outfit on consecutive days. (It was to see if anyone was paying attention. I was it! ;-p)

Tailored stuff is nice! You should've seen me as a teen. I had a whole row of pencil skirts with matching jackets and pumps. I mostly wore them to church but would've worn them to school if anyone at all had been wearing anything other than jeans and t-shirts. Gotta love farm/military communities for complete lack of fashion sense! ;-p

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

See, one of my "to make" items is a quality pencil skirt. I love the look but was always scared of it (how to walk in it, nowhere to wear it, etc.), but branching out is good :)