Abigail and I had a debate about fashion and its practicality today. Of course, she won, because when you think about it, fashion isn't very practical. It's fundamental base is luxury and frivolousness, yeah? I could go on and on about how the biggest and oldest brands we know of today have survived by becoming commercialized, but I don't like being cynical. I talk about how fashion has changed (I'm not certain the word evolved is so much the word, right now, anyway) with my mom and dad all the time. The conclusion of the conversations are that they don't give a shit about fashion anymore (my mother wears crocs now) and quality isn't what it used to be.
I agree, but I think in order to survive in a fast fashion world the Houses had to change. What makes Marc Jacobs so brilliant is that he made the change suit him and his business mind is just as brilliant as his fashion mind. He survives because he thrives in the current world where a business mind is just as important -- if not more so -- than your artistic endeavors. This fact makes the longevity of Comme Des Garcons all the more brilliant; Rei has very seldom (and only very recently) thought more about business than she did her design aesthetic. Even then, the H&M collaboration is all CDG in the design. It's not very mass-market, which makes the limited edition aspect of it all the more covetable.Again, which bring me back to practicality. I will not lie to you and say that fashion is practical and by loving it, I am researching a cure for cancer nor am I solving world hunger. I love clothes. I love even more than clothes, thinking about clothes and how they came to be and what they represent. I love thinking about clothes and analyzing them. It is genuinely fun to me. I love the people who make clothes, style clothes, talk about clothes, sell clothes, wear clothes, and dream about clothes.
Fashion isn't practical. You don't go into it as a career for the money; there can only be one Anna Wintour.
You go into it because you love it, you breathe it, and you are willing to live in a shithole 250 sq ft apartment for an obscene amount of money and juggle 2 jobs and an internship because you love it. You want to be surrounded by it and you feel offended when someone does not love it as much as you do. Deep down inside, you might even pity them for not being graced with the knowledge of fashion. You want to out-fashion everyone else.
It's not practical. But either is love. And where would we be without the irrational, kind of annoying and absurd thing we call love and happiness? Abigail says she'd rather live in a world where everyone dresses the same and feels comfortable in themselves (they would all be wearing jumpsuits, apparently) and I am glad she is not God because I would hate that world.
Anyway I definitely sound pretentious and maybe possibly deluded. Also maybe you shouldn't take me all that seriously because I like to dress like a hippy llama herder in my spare time. Going back to mandarin homework now. Bye.
