What is Fashion?

Dear readers (or is nobody reading this anymore?),

I’m not dead! I’m back from my trip to Japan which was amazing! I know I’ve been out of touch with quite a lot of things lately. I’m the sort of person who does a lot of self-reflection and I’ve been wondering for a while of where exactly I wanted to go with my fashion blog. Unlike many fashion blogs, I like to make lengthy observations on things that wouldn’t normally be talked about revolving the fashion industry. I don’t know everything about fashion (who does really?), thus some of my observations may be deja vu, but I like to point out what I see, and as you know, every point of view is different.

But after some time of reflection, I realized that we all want to fit in with our fashion peers in terms of opinions or point of views. And in this industry that highly scrutinizes looks, I’m starting to wonder who’s really right when it comes to taste? What defines fashion sense? Why do we admire famous designers? And if fashion evolves with the times as we are ever changing our political, social, and cultural lifestyles, when are we ever in the “right”? Fashion is only delimited by what we know today but it can quickly change tomorrow, and if you can’t adapt to the new ideas, you’re out of sync. At least, that’s what the billion dollar fashion magazine industry has come to tell you.

My trip to Japan has been my first to Asia and it has opened my eyes. Some may not dig the Japanese street fashions, or the flawless application of work uniforms, or even care much for traditional kimonos. But it’s a clear indication that fashion in any part of the world is defined in its own unique way. I mean Korean women still wear 50′s style dresses and nobody would bat an eyelash.

Fashion is what you make of it. Out of style, in style, whatever. Fashion is boundless. And if I find something ugly or pretty, it doesn’t mean I’m in the wrong. People agree and people disagree, this is how the world works, and this is how the world is. To subject limits to fashion is like trying to contain a firecracker in your hands. You can’t contain it. Fashion magazines are still trying to contain it, but with new technologies, it has runaway and “democratized” itself to the public. I believe the structures of fashion as we once knew, have crumbled. And as my experience in Japan has showed me, when that wall falls, hell breaks loose (in a good way).

In my upcoming (and lengthy) updates on my observations of Japanese fashion, clearly the duality between the structured and unstructured nature of the Japanese should be something to keep an eye on. And perhaps this is why Rei Kawakubo is wholly admired for her work.

Go crazy with fashion.