Fashion

Now that the fashion month is being wrapped up and especially New York Fashion Week was marked with inclusivity, I’d like to reflect on the ever-hot topic of the fashion industry – why breakthrough is so difficult for models of non-conventional beauty standards.

Every time I talk about this I get odd looks from around. That’s why I am kind of intimidated to let out this “nonsense” that no matter how erudite and well-cultured we are today, we are still to a great degree moppets of our biological set-up.  And the barrier the “non-conventional” models face is due more to our instinctual set-up than our self-imposed beauty standards.

The article has originally appeared at Marie Claire Italia in Italian. You can read it in this link.

Fear – invisible part of the iceberg

To make it clear, what we call “discrimination” or “prejudice” today is our nature-given, wild instinct of “fear” which serves as precursor to protect us from unknown dangers. Anything or anybody that is not like us immediately raises red “danger” flag in our instinctual realm and our self-defense mode gets deployed. That is why we tend to hang out and mingle with those who either look like us or think like us. Over the grounds of shared sense of security we go on to build criteria and standards for many things, including aesthetics and beauty. Anything or anybody that doesn’t correspond to those criteria “is not from us” or “discriminated”.

Now we are talking about manifestations of instinctual fear in social interactions. This is the underlying motive of formulation of groups – from the smallest gangs to nations and religious civilizations. But that fear is not static, in fact is quite the opposite. If not worked on intellectually, it tends to grow bigger and stronger causing anything from benign prejudice to most violent acts of war and orchestrated massacre.

So talking specifically about the models of “non-conventional or let’s say non-western looks”, breaking through is really more about overcoming that underlying instinctual sense of “fear of unknown” than the criteria of aesthetics. I think many models of African or Asian background can relate here.

Fear – “good cop, bad cop”

In fact, fear is not a bad thing at all, on the contrary it is vital for our self-protection. Letting it take a free-rein in our social interactions is what throws everything into maze of unsolvable issues. Handling fear in proportion is crucial and the way to curb this ever growing monster is to work on it intellectually. Train our minds, ears and eyes not to shut down to difference, but educate ourselves. Once our brain stops seeing “the new object” as a danger, defense mode turns off and we kind of start to like it. With time that “once enemy” turns into “normality” and even “first preference”. Nothing is more moldable than our brains. It just needs intentional training through education. Getting familiarized with the object of danger is the way to curb that fateful fear.

The article has originally appeared at Marie Claire Italia in Italian. You can read it in this link.

The couture week is just over. Yet my Instagram feed overflows with all types of photos from the couture runway – blurry, well-defined, complete look, details– anything. Only today, after the fashion week is over I’ve realized what is common about the majority of these photos – they are mostly about the pieces of the conventional couture. A complete work of meticulous design and craftsmanship. And we have witnessed the unmistakable comeback of elegance and the determination of the “old-timers” to strike back the streetwear craze. What is not getting that much instacoverage is the theme that has been running quietly but steadily along the week – the destruction. What is more interesting is how this theme made up its way up to the couture runway – the parade of the delightful extravaganza of the year.

It makes one wonder what is happening? Is the conventional concept of couture slipping away even more? Are we redefining the nature of the couture craftsmanship? The overlayered and sometimes irrelevant pieces that walked down the runway sometimes blankly made no sense to me. And sometimes, it was the opposite – when you let go the initial prejudices, you see that this is the mirror reflection of our current state of mind – fragmented, detached, unaligned, lost and fast to forget – I apologize for my boldness. Really, the whole morning I’ve been contemplating about this…and I am inclined to reason it this way:

The pyramid upside-down

First came the influence from outside, then its repercussions inside the fashion. I mean, first came the change in the taste and trends with the technology and the millenials. There is no point in talking about this as it gets discussed every day. The pyramid is upside down on both fronts – with the technology the old, good days of “the elusive” is digitally gone – long ago. On top of it, the taste of the millennials has made the army of fashion designers to rethink the definition of beauty (and this includes calling the most ugly the most beautiful sometimes – again the ugly and the beautiful very relevant, I guess).

One shouldn’t be a psychologist to know that the years of youth are the times we all become self-destructive. We tear down all the barriers and restrictions that stand on our way of building our own identity. When there is no obvious barrier, our clothing is the one. With this peculiarity in mind, many established and establishing labels hit the road.

Art pieces on the runway

Now let’s see what happened inside – the repercussions of the outside influence. One thing is the influence coming from the outside, the other thing is how you wither it – you control it or lose it. This is the point I want to make. Whether you are on top of your designs or desperately lost in the flow. While writing this I can’t help making a metaphoric image in my mind where all the designers have found themselves flowing in the current that they do not know where it heads. Some have managed to keep their heads up and somehow control their positions. And the other category is lost, heads down flowing with the current with no sense of what will happen next.

That said, my impression of the deconstructive designs wasn’t univocal. My impression on certain pieces were that they were more than the intention to please the destructive taste of the millenials and the z-generation. They were a mirror to show how troubled and fragmented our mind has become. Did I find them beautiful? Esthetically, no. Did I find them fashionable? Maybe some pieces can be adapted or details maybe used. But, psychologically they were so relevant. I think an exhibition hall is a better place for those art pieces. But today the lines between the art and the fashion are getting so blurry, I do not even know if my thought is relevant at all. All in all, kudos to a fashion designer that has enough guts to evaluate, characterize and mirror his/her own time. It is a hard task and results should be rewarding.

Flowing with the current

But also, I’ve seen designs of destruction that do not seem to be either the mirror or the burst of the creative energy. It is counter-intuitive to talk against the romantic process of creation. But I can’t help imagining that other group of designers floating in the current heads down. In an ever increasing competition in the merciless world of fashion and in the situation where you never know what is beautiful, what is ugly, the stress of becoming successful most probably would cost some good deal of peace of mind to the designers. Especially the ones that are trying to get a voice in the Olympus, where the long-lived Titans have occupied the best spots. Some looks of the destructive fashion on the runway just emitted a silent cry of stressed out and desperate souls that lost the direction.

After all, we all are humans, learning to stop at the right moment is our life-time challenge. If a designer gives in and turns the internal sensors off, he/she kind of gets “blown away with the wind”. And it is so easy in the stressful world of fashion.

Yet, I think, sadly this is the way it is. Every new is born through destruction. The ones that will endure this period of destructive outburst, will shape the lines and shapes of the new concept of beauty.