fashion: a prevailing custom or style in dress, etiquette, etc.
My lifelong relationship with fashion has been conflicted. How would you describe your relationship with this wholly arbitrary concept that drives so much of our behavior, especially as consumers?
The first synonyms listed for fashion in my dictionary are fad, rage, craze. Though all of those words are major turn-offs to me, it would be dishonest to claim I've never succumbed to the groupthink that fads/fashions thrive on. But over my long life, each time I've changed the width of my ties or the cut of my hair, the herd mentality driving me to do so has not escaped me. I wish I'd resisted boarding so many of these silly bandwagons. But mostly, I didn't.
Each time I stop to consider how fashion mindlessness contributes to my own runaway consumerism, I try to talk myself out of whatever craze has hypnotized me. But fashion-driven messaging speaks to me - as it does to many - via the noose of conformity. And so, even when peer pressure is working me, unless I'm vigilant, the next thing I know, the latest and greatest is further cluttering my already over-stuffed life.
About Me
- Pat Barton
- My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".
Pat, my dearfriend, where do I start..... What comes to mind first is the sparkles on your jeans as an example of your mindlessness. That story still ives on in my mind as one of the funniest and gets me giggling even now. That said, I do not see you as a slave to fashion. On the other hand, I am an admitted clothes junky. When I leave my house feeling like I look good, I feel a real boost in my confidence. Also, as I am nearing a new decade, the cothes I wear "earn" me a certain bit of acceptance with the yoinger crowd I may be leading/ influencing.
ReplyDeleteThat's my $.02!
Lynn; Thanks for your $.02, worth a lot more than that to me because of my deep affection for you. Interesting that you would cite my adventure in sparkles as an example of mindlessness. Strikes me as more of an example of my cluelessness. Are they the flip side of the same coin? Perhaps. Keep reading and commenting: I write for people like you.
DeleteI often dream of what it would be like if we were all suddenly deprived of any means by which to know what is "in fashion", be it clothing, music, movies, gossip, etc...would we all finally figure out and live according to what our "true-self" likes?
ReplyDeleteI have the same hair "style", if one could call it such, many of the same clothes and the same lack of fashion sense I enjoyed twenty and thirty years ago. No apologies here for what others are forced to witness...in fact, my teen girls often take my clothing and wear it to school. haha! Who's the fashion statement now????
D.
d; Thanks for the spot-on comment. I agree many of us would get closer to what we actually valued if fashion were chucked altogether. Great dream.
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