Sunday, April 04, 2010

Is there a point to this?

I'll admit it. I don't get fashion. It's a wonder I can even throw a coordinated outfit together.

So, maybe it's me.... but I really don't get stuff like this. Is the fashion designer serious when they make outfits like this? Is it one of those deals where you make something that's way out there and hope that some Taiwanese clothing factory will build something that reminds you of this outfit?

Can somebody please explain this process to me?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Accordion pants, duh.

Retro Blog said...

The way I understand fashion, the art form makes it to the runway, and ultimately a retail shop might sell a mens shirt that is gray, squarish shaped with pants that have one horizonal pleat at the ankle. It dribbles down slowly through the layers of purchases who put their fashion stamp on it and the process of devolution allows it to approach a state of common wearability. Yes?

Karl Plesz said...

So if the car industry worked like the fashion industry, car companies would flaunt exotic, super-efficient, sexy cars at car shows, then produce hum-drum cars that maybe have one or two of the original prototype's features in them.

Hey, wait a second......

Judah said...

A lot of the time it's not even about it making it onto people's bodies beyond a runway situation- it exists as it is intended as (sometimes barely) wearable sculpture in order to speak to or about the human body.

The problem is that you're thinking of all fashion as one big lump sum- it's not, it's broken up into little bits and bobs. It's liek the difference in intention between the artist who is trying to get something in the the Gugenheim, and the artist who is painting watercolours to sell at greeting cards at a craft fair. The title for the two people is the same, but what they want to do, how they do it, and why they do it are completely different and have very little to do with each other. It's easier to understand if you remove the notion of business from the equation: don't think of it as the fashion industry unless you're talking production company, retail, or stylists.

That being said, I do have general disdain for self-proclaimed fashion-aware- they're either all clones wearing things because they've seen other people wear it, or they're clones trying so hard to be different, yet they end up looking the same. Or a combination of both, if you look at how blogs such as the Sartorialist have influenced all the hipster assholes into abiding by an expensive sort of uniform.

Karl Plesz said...

Good to know Judah. As I said, I know absolutely nothing about fashion. Now I know a teeny little bit. Thanks.