Fashion Is Folly
...whose appreciation of fashion means a compulsive shopping habit. Whole sections of the media exist to alert the fashion victim to who is wearing what. Spotting the next trend is a multi-million dollar business. Fashion thrives on publicity, be it from London, New York, Paris, or Milan. The names of designers and their precious labels are never far away from either advertisements or the tips of our tongues. Who hasn’t heard of Prada or Versace? In many cases, the fashion victim will even pay ridiculous amounts of money to wear the designer’s label across their chests. While we laugh at the outlandish creations of the catwalk, fashion victims are already planning their purchase. Often it seems we are blind to the ridicule that some of these creations should bring us. The history of fashion is annotated by the folly of those who strive to be fashionable. The fact is fashion has always been about those with too much money striving to assert themselves ahead or above the rest of us. By the time the latest fashions hit the high street and the sweatshops are in full swing, the house of style has moved on the next big thing. In the fifteenth century, a new breed of Italian merchants sought ways to show off their material wealth. By altering the cut and patterns of their clothes, they were able to display their wealth literally on their sleeves and hems. The race to be fashionable had begun here, and the first fashion victims had been born. This meant, for the first time, that it was possible for clothing to go out of fashion faster that the clothes would take to wear out. The fashion victim has not looked back since. Today we are still at the whim of fashion and the latest trend. Even a brief look at the Oscars shows how clothes are seen as almost more important and worthy of attention than the films themselves. Think about for the tiny Lotus shoes, ideally three inches in length, that were worn by those women who had their feet bound in China. A bound foot was the supreme judge of a woman’s status. Being unable to walk meant quite simply being unable to work. The fashion victim might agree that these are extreme measures without even making the connection to the damage done to their feet in the name of high heels. Fashion victims through the ages have been known for their extravagant hairstyles, gigantic feathered hats and tight corsets. The fashion victim today is able to go one step further, “enhancing” themselves through measures that would’ve been unimaginable only a few years ago. By starving and deflating themselves they then stuff themselves with silicone in order to flatter the designer clothes they crave. Decoration and fashion are as old as shoes and clothes. We invest great meaning in clothing, deriving from it an understanding of status, wealth, and personality. Yet this all becomes subverted and meaningless in the world of fashion. In trying to make a fashion statement we are inadvertently losing our individual identities. A fashion victim is not really interested in expressing his/her own personality and individuality. He or she is wearing the clothes that so-called fashion gurus are tel...