I am so sorry I was gone most of the day (I was at the Chicago Bears vs. Carolina Panthers game, go Bears!) because a lot of great discussion is going on! Thanks to Virginia Postrel for her entertaining comments on my blog’s mesh of academics and fashion. It is nice to know that in our modern age a girl can be into philosophy and fashion and that is ok! Maybe feminism has more triumphs than we think.
Today my topic is *community*. I was inspired to do this topic by several posts written by Final Fashion and Fashiontribes’ intriguing post on celebrity, publicity, and its relation to a fashion line’s success . In our fast paced, image oriented, celebrity driven world the cachet of a brand is driven by the potential of a name or the ability to be promoted. The real talent required to be achieve excellence in fashion is neglected when celebrity will do just as well. The mathematics of the fashion business that Lesley at Fashiontribes describes is disturbing but true, leaving the real designers out in the cold. No one wants to be a great seamstress or tailor, they want to be a celebrity designer. I think part of that desire comes from our complete lack of appreciation for the finer points of design, either because we can’t afford them or because we are dazzled by the glamour of brands and the celebrity behind them.
I think this has occurred because we have become divorced from the mechanics of life. No one understands where their food really comes from, we don’t build our own houses, we have a vague notion about cotton and wool but no real connection to the processes involved in getting the clothing on our back. As someone educated in the Waldorf Education movement, I came to appreciate the value of knowing how everything we took for granted got to us. I have posted in the past on the value of knowing how to handle life’s little inconveniences, even when they are taken care of by modern life and I think that idea still stands.
You see fast fashion (places like H&M) and fast food aren’t ideas that are so different in essence. Final Fashion talks about the importance of mending and having clothing that lasts. To me that means having fashion that really nourishes and supports your life, just as high quality food nourishes your body. No one questions the value of good food. Fast food has done enormous damage to our nation in terms of factory farming, expanding waistlines, and poor worker culture. In the end, fast food has destroyed the community of food; that whole chain of farmer, grocer, cook, and everyone else involved that used to make their living helping to feed your family. Because I want to support my community and because I believe food should be more than a quickly produced meal made by illegal immigrants, miserable animals, and factory farms, I have been a supporter of CSAs (community supported agriculture) farmers markets, Co-ops, organic farming, free range animal farming, and fair trade practices. Though we must keep in mind that many people cannot afford quality food and that saddens me, in the same way that most people cannot afford quality clothing. These are issues we must deal with, but think the parallels between the two problems of fast fashion and fast food are clear and perhaps some of the solutions as well.
Thus I wonder if we in the fashion world cannot learn a lesson or two from the Slow Food movement. Do we need a *slow fashion* movement? Is it time that we as people in the fashion industry, we as consumers of fashion, we as people in the community of fashion decided to come together to appreciate the finer elements of the art of making clothing? In that sense we need to be more community minded in the fashion world. Not in that well once you are in the biz you can network, know the right people, make connections, blah blah blah. No, I mean a serious concerted community effort to appreciate the mechanics of fashion, from the way our fabrics come about to manufacturing involved to the design process, on through retail and sales. I don’t know yet if I an envision what slow fashion really means but I think we can all appreciate the ideals that underpin it. Let’s appreciate everything that goes into our clothing, have less of it but make it better. If we do that with food we might even be able to fit into better fashion as Americans! The community of fashion shouldn’t be the same as as the scene of fashion. Let’s make fashion less *scene* and more *community*
I wholeheartedly agree. I saw your post on Clusterfuck Nation… I’d like to participate–but as things have it have to go visit an ill relative this next week… but I’ll try to participate from there, i’ll be bring me laptop.
All Best,
fizure
fast food = fast fashion. Great idea!
This reminds me of when people learn I know how to sew and they sometimes want me to make some kind of custom item for them. When I was a little younger I was dumb enough to say yes. They don’t understand that we have to go through design/development… that fabric bought retail is expensive… that it will probably take two fittings at least…. that I need a few days to work on it (about a week to fit it into my crazy life). They have this kooky idea that so-called “home sewing” is cheaper than fast fashion and shouldn’t take that much longer then fast fashion. They don’t get that I spend time drafting and sewing the first prototype, making changes and sewing yet again. And then when I hand them the bill (fabric, other materials, hours, overhead) they scream bloody hell about the price. (The cheapest tops I do I charge at least a hundred dollars… and those are for the simplest knit tops).
This is why I only work for designers now. At least they have a clue that I’m actually working and deserve my pay, not magically waving my magic wand and charging them the shaft…
Now that I’ve ranted, I want to cry over fast fashion. Is it a good thing that the poorest have access to fashion? Or is it a bad thing that the rich now have access to cheap fashion? And what will everyone do when there isn’t any cheap fashion anymore?
Saw the funniest post from a guy on Papierdoll’s blog about Black Friday Blogging. This thing is really taking off, who knows it might really work.
It is a dilemma isn’t it? I can’t afford the good stuff, or at least I tell myself I can’t but I adore fashion. I have always puzzled over seeing little African children in Mickey Mouse tee-shirts in the middle of the Savannah. With an ever growing planet how does everyone enjoy quality? I guess my answer is have less. Instead of having a million disposable pairs of shoes I have my one pair of trusty Prada pumps (I even write odes to me them) that will last me through the years. The trouble is we need to be able to budget and save for our clothing, as a credit card nation obsessed with having it NOW I think that is difficult for us.
Dana, I saw the post on Papier Doll! hysterical!
Thank you ladies, your idea is one that is long overdue. Good Luck! =)
Glad to have your support Sam! Spread the word! Let’s stop the insanity!
The fast food approach to fashion really has created a world of “fast fashion” mass-chains, disposable fashion & and young design talent left with two choices:
1. Put your design dreams on hold – possibly permanently – and work for The Man.
2. Reconcile yourself to the possibility of bankruptcy if decide to brave the risky waters of the independent designer.
Yikes.
http://fashiontribes.typepad.com/main/2005/11/tk_black_friday_1.html
In preparation for the office Christmas party (yes I know it’s not for a while but I’m a woman and excited about it) I decided to buy a funky designer outfit, I’m a girl and that’s what we do for these things. Whilst shopping around online I found on the Debenhams site the most gorgeous purple feather embellished jersey dress and a green knitted frilled shrug to go with it, and as it’s getting a bit chilly, I thought I best buy a honey sheepskin scarf and now my outfit is complete and I am going to look divine all thanks to Betty Jackson. I have never seen her clothes before but now I have these clothes she’s one fashion designer I shall be watching out for on my regular clothes shopping trips.
You appear to be arguing that everyone should understand where their clothing comes from and appreicate good quality.
This is a noble aim, but I wonder how practical it is in the real world. Do you feel that you understand and appreciate:
– how the electricity industry works, from generation to transmission to distribution
– how your refrigerator works
– how clean drinking water is delivered to your house, from collection to delivery
– how sewage is removed from your house
– how to design enjoyable central city areas
– how to design an energy-efficient building
– how to design effective environmental regulations
– the principles behind the design of robust bridges, roads, buildings
– traffic engineering, e.g. where to place the roads, bridges, etc
– how the internet works
– the pros and cons of health care decisions
– what’s happening in the Middle East
– etc, etc
Our lives are just too complex for everyone to know about everything that is happening. Something is going to give for every one of us.
I think a basic appreciation is important, and by basic I mean understanding the world around you.
And actually yes I understand how an awful lot of that happens because my education (Waldorf) was centered on just those sorts of question. The ones I have less understanding of are environmental regulations and the Middle East (though I am pretty up on my politics). And I am not brighter or more intelligent than your average person, I am simply the product of a very complete education that is made for regular children. Trust me on it, Waldorf education gives you a much more complete and holistic view of the world
Something has to give yes but just because we can’t understand every last detail doesn’t mean we shouldn’t know some of them. I believe in a top-down approach. Give an appreciation for the connections and the big picture and then when you have interest and time fill in the details
Stepping right up and standing shoulder to shoulder with Final Fashion. Yes; one woman I know found out I sew, and was affronted when I said, “No. I do not make Halloween costumes.” Most of the time, these days, I just show my teeth at people and say, “You can’t afford me,” because it’s God’s honest truth. They’ve all heard, back in the dim dark days of Home Ec, that It’s Cheaper If You Sew It Yourself. That’s yourself, folks, and these days, it’s generally not true, but it sure as heck isn’t true if you want something custom made. I was grumbling over a coat I’d made which needs some refurbishing, and I’d only been wearing it, let’s see, one two three … seventeen years. In the worst weather Philadelphia can offer. And it still looks very sharp indeed; it just needs a little upkeep, and it will look just as sharp for the next seventeen years, during which I will definitely be wearing it.
It is good that the poor have access to cheap fashion; I’m not so sure that it’s good that the rich have access to cheap fashion. And I don’t know what “everyone” will do when there isn’t any cheap fashion any more, but you and I, Final Fashion, will still be stylin’, because we make it ourselves.