Style as Slow Fashion

Fashion is a distinctly fast social phenomenon. Unlike political ideologies, religious movements, or business markets, most fashion events are measure in months rather than years or decades. It is also a very forward-focused social phenomenon. Pundits in other industries rarely predict how the world will think in the coming years, while in fashion it’s a competition to decide the trends of next year’s collections.

I think that this is one reason many people feel disenfranchised by the fashion industry. In politics, for example, the leaders discuss the merits of today’s opinions and decisions. This leaves the individual free to take in the information, make a decision about their position, and then contribute to the ongoing dialogue. There is plenty of room for inclusion and participation in the contemporary discourse. On the other hand, in fashion, the leaders set forth what the trends and “acceptable ideas” are going to be for the next season, before people begin to engage in that season’s dress. This, of course, is somewhat necessary because of the lead times needed to manufacture clothes, but it still removes the average person from the equation. One is simply left with the decision to “agree” with the expert trends, or not. Very rarely does an individual have significant influence over what is perceived by the media (and the shallower of us) to be in fashion.

On the other hand, I argue that the concept of style can be interacted with by the everyman. The concepts of style, like fashion, do change over time in significant ways. What distinguishes style from fashion is the timeframe over which these changes occur; decades, even centuries. While the individual still doesn’t have control over what the societal conception of style will be, because the style encompasses so many smaller fashion cycles and ideas, they are able to engage, pick and choose from a large array of ideas to form a personal style identity. This parallels politics, in which the main platforms are governed by party control, but each individual builds a persona political identity by selecting positions on a number of issues.

This is the reason why so many people claim to be stylish, but not fashionable, or claim to be concerned with style more than fashion. Fashion is often exclusive and requires selling your soul a little to fit in, while style allows for (even encourages) individualism within a set of reasonable bounds.

As an idealist, I’d like to see the world emphasize style more than fashion. This would relieve much of the stress associated with the fashion industry, especially among young people, who often feel pressured to behave as the stars do. How to do this, of course, is not at all obvious.

-Barry

I wrote a follow up post on this topic, in which I explain that interior design is doing a good job of emphasizing style over fashion.