Recently there's been this thing about the "Fashion being Shallow" debate. Thought that I would like to state my point on this. And this is kinda just writing what I'm feeling right now and comes directly from my brain, so it may sound kind of rambly and incoherent.
I read somewhere, "apparently on a free Singapore fashion newspaper", that its publication is a guide to looking good. Is fashion just about looking good, really, seriously? If so, then I wouldn't call it fashion, but more like impressing others. Is fashion all about putting on a short dress, wearing the sluttiest heels, just because you think that men would be interested in it and women would think that you look good? I mean if so, then I think that's why many of our common folks see fashion as shallow and superficial. They just don't realise that fashion is more than putting on a beautiful facade, just for the sake of impressing and pleasing others. Their perception of fashion is just limited to materialistic women, gay men, and short mini-dresses that are priced extravagantly. And that's why many of our common folks just don't take fashion seriously. "Fashion is just a game for the rich. There are more important stuff like saving the cat on the tree or watching Jersey Shore or cleaning your nails." Bleh.
I remembered showing one of my friends the Comme des Garcons Fall '09 collection. Comme des Garcons is definitely not your regular conventional beauty of short, sexy clubbing bandage dresses. She thought it looked really weird and gave me the "just-who-in-the-world-would-wear-this" look. Well, to others, collections of Comme or Yohji or Rodarte may not be their regular perception of beauty but to me (yes, I admit I did not really like both at first when I "got" into fashion, but that was a thing of the past), they are just what I want to wear when I have the money. I shall not go on about how smart the Comme Fall 09 collection but that was the first collection that literally got me thinking.
Fashion to me, is all about expressing your inner true self to the world. For the past few years, I was wearing what people thought looked good, following (stupid, crappy) trends and it sorta changed in the past year or so. I just hated the feeling of being constricted to the man-on-the-street's perception of beauty, especially in Singapore, that if you wear just your Docs out, people will stare at you like you have a growth on your feet or something. (Thankfully, I learnt from Tavi that if someone stares at you, I should just stare back at them and make funny noises like snorting. HAHA.) It's like the past year or so, I kinda understood what I wanted to do and have been really crazy, doing stuff I actually enjoy like playing dress up and just styling crazy outfits (which may be weird to the common folks but to me it is kinda awesome), planning to do weird stuff (like dyeing my hair greyish blue. Hello, school rules, you suck.), and they kinda made me happy. Sometimes I wish I was born a Japanese or maybe lived in London or stuff like that, where people are much more liberal, but that would just mean that I would be actually succumbing to the pressure of the common folks to be like the common folks. I love unconventional beauty, but I do sometimes love conventional beauty (but more so on the former.) But the thing I enjoy the most, is to be able to feel what others like Tavi or Susie Lau are expressing through their clothes and not being afraid what others think of them, and I hope I would be able to do that and people may be able to appreciate what I wear. Wouldn't life be more interesting and fun if you go down the street and see people with their own take on fashion and personal style?
The same argument goes with blogging. I just don't feel like blogging stuff that people might find interesting, I blog what I'm feeling, I blog what I like and want others to like. Finding your own identity and just being who you are without pressure from others, that's was kinda like the starting point of this blog which I felt I couldn't express it in reality sometimes. The virtual world is my escape.
Fashion can make someone look good but if the main purpose of you wearing clothes is to just to impress others, I would say that you're just another hipster kid who's just trying to fit in. I'm not saying that people should wear Comme or Yohji but is that what you're feeling, then wear it. You can too wear H&M and Target and would be able to express yourself through the clothes.
Fashion is too, not shallow/dumb/consumerist/superficial. If you think that way, then shouldn't music and art be considered shallow/dumb/idiotic, since fashion is too expressing yourself except through clothes. To me, it's the best way to let my inner self out because I'm not the one who can paint a picture at whim nor very good with lyrics and words. Fashion is fun/exciting/awesome/thought-provoking and people outside this billion dollar bubble just do not get it. Seeing this industry as a way of ripping off twelve year old kids and their parents and those who support it as a materialistic bunch of misfits: it is kinda funny to see how the haters are too as shallow as they make the fashion industry to be, just because they have never truly step into the world they deem as shallow.
Where others might think it's ugly and weird, I might love it. People may say that I'm probably having a rebellious streak in me, but I think I'm just who I am.
