Haute Couture

A little more light hearted this time... Perhaps.

Fashion.

What is it? Where does it come from?

If you want either of those questions answered, well Wikipedia may have just opted to become your new best friend. But let’s be a little less conventional.

Why do people create fashion and continue reinventing it once they’ve established a final piece?

To answer this question, I went ahead and did a brief form of research and by that I mean spending 10 minutes on googling trying to become on expert on the fashion industry without the faintest of prospect in the matter.

The fashion industry, alike many other consumerist industries in our current society, has lately been driven by the media. All forms of it. The fashion industry lives off people and their reaction. And wherever a large group of people are concerned, the media deem it fit to wriggle their way right in.

Kendall Jenner recently hit 30 million followers on her Instagram account for anyone who wanted to know and I’m sure there are plenty of us that did want to and already knew that piece of information. You’ll deny to liking her but the truth is, you wish you were her. You wish you were part of her cool model crew so that you could wear all that Chanel and Estee Lauder and Versace and Balmain. Fashion is one of those things that everyone thinks they’re taking part in to be individual but the truth is, you’re only as individual as the 7 billion other people around you.

So not very much really.

Fashion has become an obligation. Intellectual and somewhat hippie people may turn their heads and criticise mainstream fashion choices and blame society for this, that and the other but fashion has simply become a necessity for a lot of us. It defines us in ways we refuse to have it define us. Fashion emphasises culture, gender, social class and your belonging to a group. And before anyone jumps down my throat, yes, I’m aware of gender neutral fashion and the beauty of the diversity spectrum.

As much as we hate them, school uniforms are a form of fashion. Work uniforms are a form of fashion. It defines us and segregates us and I don’t mean that in a bad way. When you’re wheeled into a hospital after God knows what injury, you want your doctor with the stethoscope hanging around his or her neck with their white coat and smile. You certainly wouldn’t entrust your life to a doctor dressed like they were about to walk into a meeting with Karl Lagerfeld.

In the cringiest of senses, fashion doesn’t need us; we need fashion.

 A few decades ago, the body size deemed as fashionable is seen as being overweight in our current society. In another few decades, maybe they’re will be a different form of regulation. Fashion defines change. Fashion is the reason Harry Styles decided he’d wear his hair in a bun while Zayn Malik appropriated the top knot and all of a sudden half the male population of the world did the same. Not a single one of them will admit to following either of these men in their fashion choices but they’re all guilty of it. Fashion is the reason pixie crops suddenly became a sign of defiance and new beginnings and beauty because Miley Cyrus pulled it off so greatly after splitting up with Liam Hemsworth (we’ll leave the Wrecking Ball thing for another post).

Fashion is the reason most residents of the western world all own at least one pair of skinny black jeans and a leather jacket. Fashion is the reason Vanessa Hudgens is the queen of Coachella. Fashion is the reason Sarah Jessica Parker wore that bizarre hat/head piece thingy at the MET Gala this year and many people actually thought it looked good.

Fashion is the reason we don’t dress like Queen Elizabeth I and it’s also the reason we all still secretly want to steal Kate Middleton’s wedding dress.

Fashion is fun and it’s relevant. Yes, it’s annoying when it’s so hard to keep up with what’s current and what’s not but in a world that is so different, there are very few places you can go wrong. Especially not after Lady Gaga came into the scene. There really is no right or wrong in how you express yourself. Surely there are cultural and religious barriers in some cases but no one other than yourself has the right to criticise your fashion choices. If they do, chances are there are a million ways you can catch them out on a not so cool choice they’ve made somewhere in their career of fashion statements.

The key to owning what you wear is being true to yourself. Don’t dress in something just because Cara Delevigne looked good wearing it. Dress in things that make you happy. If it happens to be Cara’s dress, so be it. But don’t go out of your way to be someone you’re not or for the sake of making statements.  In a world of such attention seeking individuals already who bring enough hate upon themselves, you don’t need to go out of your way to be problematic.

You don’t have to know the difference between Dolce and Gabana and Armani. It’s not an obligation. You just need to be happy. And if that happens to be by wearing the pair of jeans that Rachel from 'Friends' wore almost 15 years ago, let it be.

‘Do you, boo. Do you.’