"Perhaps I’m indulging in a bit of my usual anti-intellectualism and insistence on the casual/lowbrow here but I find it, uh, more than a little bit preposterous to suggest that the fact that we can think critically about fashion means that we ought to do that ALL of the time, or that appreciation of some aspects of fashion somehow indicates that our criticism and analysis must be posturing, or that the fact that some aspects of fashion conflict with other issues I am passionate about somehow invalidates either of those. Enjoyment can certainly lead into a more critical, open-minded conversation about related issues, or even be read as empowering or a reclamation precisely because of the perceived oppression — and I feel like plenty of the blog comment exchanges on many of my posts illustrate this on a very basic, casual, conversational level. Is it not more effective to think about and dissect societal issues when we are also interested in the topics, and is it not more effective to strive for change within channels which reflect our personal interests or even our career expertise? I would maybe even go so far as to argue that a feminist interest in fashion could be reclaimed in the same way that other stereotypically “feminine” tasks (baking, knitting) have been reclaimed as not only feminist but inherently somewhat subversive and thereby function as a way to access and understand further attitudes towards gender.
Because I do love fashion, and I do think it’s fun, and I don’t find it entirely anti-feminist. I like fashion for all the reasons everyone likes fashion: I love texture and colour and form. I love the social connectivity of it, both the positive (how many friends have I made based initially on being attracted to each others’ style?) and the problematic (how many people have I dismissed, cruelly, because of their clothes? why do we feel uncomfortable when dressed inappropriately in a social situation? what are the ways that race and class boundaries are also defined, illustrated, and enforced through style?) I love playing dress-up and I love costume (anyone who has seen me gleefully putting on lipstick and teasing my hair and parading around in 18 different outfits before leaving the house can attest to this) and I love the effects that presenting myself in certain ways has on my personality or mood that day. (High waisted skirt and glasses and noisy heels? BUSINESS. DON’T MESS.) Beyond that, I am a compulsive mental pack-rat of cultural and social references, and I completely get off on compulsively mentally pack-ratting the names and images of clothes produced by the designers who recodify, concretize, and commercialize those references into garments, in ways that are sometimes beautiful or brilliant and other times hideous or problematic.
And I find that concretization and recycling of references to be, honestly, inspiring and thought-provoking in an associative and creative way; in addition, I find the problems with them to be an extremely accessible pathway to examine and think about the larger social issues which are actually at play there. I like Rad Hourani’s designs, Tisci’s Givenchy, and Rick Owens’ man-skirts because they look nifty and are beautifully made and convey an aesthetic which I am drawn to — and I like them because it calls attention to the ways in which gender binaries are enforced through the convenience of such a polarity in runways, production, and marketing and whether or not their collections successfully challenge anything there. I like Balmain’s leather jackets because they’re effing gorgeous and remind me of all kinds of ass-kicking female characters I dig, but also because they call attention to issues of overt female sexualization, body image, problems of military inspiration in fashion, and what exactly is going on with the rise of “fast fashion” and what it means that an exact copy of that jacket is on sale at F21 two months later after being produced in questionably legal conditions by a some underpaid underage third-world laborers. These things are not entirely mutually exclusive, and I think we ought to give everyone a little more benefit of the doubt for having a casual or aesthetic interest in things which are also problematic - or, rather, to re-frame all these perceived conflicts not as a means to invalidate or dismiss, but rather as channels for conversation, constructive criticism, and understanding."
p.s. this is really pretty. and "yellow" is one of my favorite indulgent songs. i only listen to it when im feeling super ridiculous. but for some reason listening to a cover doesn't have the same effect of supreme romantic angstyness.
p.s.
i love clothing that makes getting undressed difficult. being harnessed or strapped or laced into something. its kinda like....sometimes i feel outta control...but poetry keeps me in line (the goal of making it and knowing more about it...etc) but then in order to achieve poetry, i have to become unwound in myself...and explore and understand all the realms of crazy....so then...my control becomes my insanity...and all the single minded obsessive channeling of myself into a state of chaos.... and the complicated ritual of lacing up the fluid lines of the body into a piece of boned brocade? the invention of something by humans that trains the body into an altered state? the organization of flesh?
poetry is the corset equivalent
?
anyway, i want the naked bit of s&m nothing posted above. its beyond beautiful. and i am beyond broke.
my other best story!
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