“I think fashion is repulsive. The whole idea that someone else can make clothing that is supposed to be in style and make other people look good is ridiculous. It sickens me to think that there is an industry that plays to the low self-esteem of the general public. I would like the fashion industry to collapse. I think it plays to the most superficial, most insecure parts of human nature. I hope GQ as a magazine fails. I hope that all of these people who make a living by looking pretty are eventually made destitute or forced to do something of substance. At least pornography has a function.”—
I know. Old. But I can’t shake this last paragraph.
I have a lot of friends who work in fashion, and almost every woman I know cares about it to some degree. But I think Albini is right on the money with this, and it makes me feel like an asshole. Like Beenie, I experience waves of revulsion when I see waifs peacocking around SoHo. The idea of people spending so much money, and making themselves so uncomfortable, just to maintain someone else’s idea of style…it actually makes me feel sick! (Oh, and that old “I do it for me” saw? I’ll believe it when I see you doing anything else but taking off your uncomfortable footwear the second you get home.)
I don’t want to get into fashion, but I want to be able to respect people who are. I don’t want to view them as self-absorbed or superficial or insecure. I don’t want to see all the money poured into it as vanity.
Can someone recommend a book, or even a great essay in defense of the fashion industry? Something that explains 5” heels or a $400 purse as something more than a desperate biological impulse?
Eh, I agree that some people take it waaay too far (I’m looking at you, Ms. Wintour) and there’s a lot of room for improvement in the ethics department of fashion industry overall, but the general concept of fashion is just an intersection between art and commerce. It can be appreciated on many levels, from incidental to obsessive to not at all. Clothing, after all, certainly has a function, so I can’t see what’s so evil about being inspired by the artistic qualities it can offer. It’s not really so different from, say, architecture (why isn’t Albini railing against architecture, saying we should all live in pre-fab corrugated steel dwellings? All those arches and flying buttresses and whatnot are a big waste!)
I’d argue that a coat has more purpose than his music (at least it keeps me warm), but who am I to judge? If people get pleasure out of something, then they should rock on with their bad selves.
