How did your style evolve?

[syed]

I think the very fact that you choose to buy a specific piece of clothing means you have interacted with it at some level. There is the visceral first response, where it draws you in, and you decide to look at it close up and try it on. You feel it against your body and look at yourself in the mirror, and either it is something you can see becoming a part of your wardrobe, or it is not.

Unless you buy something on a whim, I think you usually put thought into the piece and what you like about it before deciding to go ahead and buy it. I think that is the point where the aesthetics, or the style, or the construction really take your interest. You have interacted with it and made a personal association with the garment.

You don't necessarily have to interact with the philosophy of the designer directly, but by virtue of the garment being an expression of some idea, you do so anyway. Even if you take that garment and entirely change the idea behind it, by wearing it in a completely different way to how the designer imagined, I think you are just adding another layer of meaning to the garment, and that can only ever be a good thing. It makes it all the more interesting and personal.

At the same time I am not saying that people who wear a single designer head to toe are not adding another layer of meaning, because I think clothing will always mean something unique to each person, let alone something unique each time they wear it.

[syed]

hey man, great story, thanks for sharing. It's interesting how some people come to be interested in fashion. It's also interesting that one would find refuge in fashion, story like yours is something to be usually found on body building forums.

You're just 20, don't worry too much about financials, I know some people have it all at 20, but that's just life, ignore it :). Good luck with your MA, I have a feeling that your first designer garment is not that far away.

Also, think about the reasons that pushed you into fashion. Perhaps taking care of your body and fitness before skipping on to concealing it wouldn't be such a bad idea, both for your confidence and your wellbeing.

Thank you kindly. I do have a rather odd relationship with my body. I been clinically underweight my entire life, and just trying to maintain a steady weight is a constant struggle, especially when I go through flare ups and get really ill. Yet at the same time I am not necessarily ashamed of my body. I have never really looked at myself in the mirror and hated some part of me. I know I am a heck of a lot thinner than I would like to be, but the way I see it, some day I won't be, and I am fine with working towards that goal.

Whilst fashion was a way of hiding myself at first, especially with having been bullied for so long, nowadays I think it is empowering more than anything else. I may not always have control of my body because of being ill, but with fashion I do have that control to not only express myself, but express who I want to be. Getting into fashion has actually helped me to accept myself more, if that makes sense?

[Fuuma]

seemy/johny

It is of course allright to appreciate objects due to visceral aesthetic feelings. But do you ever ask yourself questions like:

-why do I like this and not that?
-what was the designer thinking/wanted to say?
-what does that piece evokes when I look at it, is it the same when I wear it?
-If I feel like I connect with certain shapes on a visceral level is it something that is innate or acquired?
and so on and so forth

[kunk75]

^I typically purchase/collect clothes that reflect my traits/ethos/etc but definitely do not spend as much time as some thinking about the designer's intentions. More concerned with the way the clothes reflect me than with their original intent I guess.

[eat me]

syed, ironically, most of the people actually want to be skinny, so you're fitting in just fine :). Good luck with your diet.

[syed]

^I typically purchase/collect clothes that reflect my traits/ethos/etc but definitely do not spend as much time as some thinking about the designer's intentions. More concerned with the way the clothes reflect me than with their original intent I guess.

Reminds me of the Proust quote...but applied to fashion.

"Every reader finds himself. The writer's work is merely a kind of optical instrument that makes it possible for the reader to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself."

syed, ironically, most of the people actually want to be skinny, so you're fitting in just fine :). Good luck with your diet.

Haha, true. Thanks a lot :)

[Enaml]

The Death of the Author

I appreciate the story behind garments (how they take on a subjective meaning of something more than an object), but if they aren't wearable, what's the point? The two should be separated, but both impact how we purchase goods. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

edit: Also, wasn't there a discussion about this on SZ fairly recently?

[Fuuma]

The Death of the Author

I appreciate the story behind garments (how they take on a subjective meaning of something more than an object), but if they aren't wearable, what's the point? The two should be separated, but both impact how we purchase goods. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

edit: Also, wasn't there a discussion about this on SZ fairly recently?

You'll note that I don't wear much CCP and even got rid of most of what I owned...

[theaddict]

Except your grey boots...

[BeauIXI]

I would prefer to take these objects and make them mine than to appropriate a designer's entire ethos and ideal by buying into it. My body is not a mannequin on display, I choose to clothe myself in beautiful garments and I choose to soil them, clean them, shrink and stretch them. Maybe that's why I find CCP to be so appealing- everything I own from him is leather, and is around four years old. They all have a story, they've walked streets I've never seen. Something about that really inspires me. None of my items have outward logos, and if the tag bugs me, I remove it. I repudiate anything I used to wear that had a logo I don't feel strongly about. It's not about the luxury for me, I love longevity- I have a Rick Owens tank that I've worn almost every day for probably about two years. It's my favorite piece of clothing, not because it's Rick Owens, but because of its composition, and because it's become a part of me, and it's withstood the whirlwind of an ever-ephemeral wardrobe- buying, wearing, selling when I feel it doesn't jive with what I'd like to clothe myself in. You can say that I'm beasting if you like, but I must say, being such a creature feels good. I don't know what kind of holy sainthood I am expected to achieve in order to justify wearing CCP, but I'm not about to relinquish my wardrobe if I haven't reached that point. I have a CCP jacket that cost me many months of saving, and a famous blue raincoat that cost me a dollar, they both took time to feel natural and real to me.

[kunk75]

I just hope you wash the tank top.

[Shucks]

if they aren't wearable, what's the point?

sometimes the story is the point...

i find i acquire objects for many different reasons. sometimes for function, sometimes for simple esthetics, sometimes to serve me as a medium for communicating my message to others, sometimes as a vessel for carrying and preserving someone else's message. i don't necessarily always draw such a clear line between garments (or other personal objects for that matter) and 'art'.

also, my level of involvement with an object can vary very much with the context within which i was made aware of it, with its type, with the financial investment involved...

sometimes i consciously will spend a lot of time reflecting on the garment/object, other's it was a spur of the moment acquisition and will never have any deeper meaning to me. or it might develop one with the passing of time and with my own use of it...

just 'looking good' wouldn't make me happy. i do tend to enjoy myself the most when objects trigger the types of questions that fuuma lists - when things grab me and force me to think and question. and i do find it interesting when i receive some sort of garbled message transmitted to me by the sender through the object he/she created.

[michael_kard]

I was thinking of writing a really big story... But all I feel is worth writing about myself is that I started caring about my appearance when I was 12 (basically when I started going out). 5 years later, I find myself wearing Ann Demeulemeester jackets, band/Cabane de Zucca/Marc Jacobs t-shirts, shirts with Chinese collars. And some bleached/altered stuff I've played with on my own. Dark jeans during the winter, white linen trousers during the summer. I'm now 18 and everything is different yet the same. I haven't really figured out anything yet.

[Faust]

Johnny, normally I would agree with you, but at the level of fashion we operate on I tend to side with Fuuma here. I don't see the reason to spend so much money and effort on acquiring these clothes merely to look good. Surely other clothes can do that for you, while saving you time and money? I keep coming back to this when I think of beautiful women - they look good in just about anything. The same could be said for men, no? Maybe that's what Rick meant with his "exercising is the new couture" quip.

[Johnny]

I'm not saying that the only thing is for them to look good; just that they must at least make you look good (or make you feel like you do) otherwise there really is no point. It is in that sense that I think it's the most important consideration.