How Bad Is It Really to Be a Fashion Victim?
Bad outfits, or good outfits, who gets to decide? Fashion is such a personal thing, but Hollywood culture makes it everyone's business. The amount of TV shows about making your outfits and being "on-trend" and lynching celebrities for wearing a certain thing or another thing truly make fashion less personal.
You can't enjoy that sparkly top on a sunny day because you are getting too much attention. You can't wear that skirt you really like, because it's not 'occasion appropriate.' There are so many examples, but why do we have so many rules for something so personal to each and every one of us? We've made this dressing on trend quite a negative thing for everyone, especially if you are not dressed in the newest designer drop, but let's be honest, how many of us are part of that percentage who find it easy to afford the latest designer clothing? Most of us have to be 'trendy' with the best that the Zara sale can offer (if we are in what some people consider lucky few). This only adds to the gap between the rich students in fashion courses and the poorer ones. If you go to a fashion specific university as I did, keeping up with the trends changing every 6 months (if you are on the lucky side and go by the actual weather-related seasons), your clothes budget better be hefty, because designer or not, you need a new wardrobe every season. And boy, there is pressure on you as a woman, especially to conform. For this, you must adhere to the idea that 1. You are a fashionable individual who studies, lives and breathes fashion, even if the only thing you can afford is buttered toast, and 2.
You have to exemplify all of your knowledge through your clothes. There is no point for your friends' group to pay for a trend forecasting app; you are a walking-talking trend. There are many implications of this pressure that inadvertently comes when studying a fashion-related degree. It comes from your peers who, many of them have those things you see on TV, from your friends who don't study what you do, but you provide the inspiration and now the knowledge and know-how. From your family usually paying the bills for you to study a crazy-creative course at a top university. Lastly, From everyone else walking by, you feel that you need to look your best, even if all you want to do is cry in the corner. Trends lead our life, they guide our practice, they are fascinating but also quite destructive. I always feel that adhering to all trends without thinking really makes a dent in your personality. It works for some people, but for most, it's just not them. It makes fashion a thing that is not part of who they are, and let's be real, we all need to still wear clothes, even after this lockdown, so why not showcase who we are through them?
So, no! There is no bad outfit in the history of this planet. There is just our personal interpretation of what an outfit should be, and if it doesn't float our boat, we label it as 'bad'. But how bad is it truly? And who are we to judge anyway? Who is anyone to judge? Anna Wintour herself (think Devil Wears Prada, but IRL version) probably isn't in a place to judge these things because each and everything you put on, whether it's your earrings or your cheetah trousers, it's your personal interpretation of a trend, an image or an outfit you have seen somewhere. Everything you put on, from the moment you can make this decision for yourself, is personal. And is it solely to make you feel good in your body, bring some happiness on a sad day, or making you feel fearless and like you own the world. And yes, people will inherently judge, don't get me wrong, I think we are built to wrinkle our noses and maybe shed some gossip here and there, but once you learn to not let it get to you, you are golden. There are no bad outfits for you from now until eternity.
In addition to the fashion victim trope of dressing 'on-trend,' we also fall into the fashion impostor syndrome. If the clothes aren't designer, they are not good enough. And let me tell you, working in fashion and seeing these things every day makes you really want them, ok? You are glamorous yet insecure because that girl who had all the items as they descended from the catwalk from your uni/office will recognize that your bag is about 4 seasons old, and your shoes are not at their first ever wear. Would this be a bad outfit? A simple faux-pas? Again, who is there to dictate what and how we should purchase (other than all the magazines known to existence, but who's counting)? But the thing is, they do. There is 'the look,' and you know something is wrong with your outfit, no matter how many hours it took you to assemble it and how many cans of tuna and toasted bread you ate to afford it. But at the same time, many people take this fashion impostor syndrome and experience feelings of 'inauthenticity' as if the sense of privilege these items are meant to confer is underserved. Is it a bad outfit then? Again, deeply personal, and they might show up with the biggest confidence there is, and you'll like the outfit just because their energy around it is contagious.
So truly, how negative is it to have a bad outfit, and who really gets to decide that? Well, I'll let you in on a secret, 'it won't be Fashion Police', but it will be your inner police overthinking things that will make an outfit bad. We live in a trend-lead world. We, of course, fall prey to all kinds of marketing and PR tactics (trust me, even after years of working in exactly that, you still fall prey to their messaging). We buy the top, skirt, trousers, shoes, and then 3 months later when nobody else is wearing it, we discard it because it's not on trend any longer. And then 3,4,5 seasons later, when the trend comes back again, we excavate it from the pile of trendy clothes we don't wear any longer and re-wear it (if we're friendly to the environment). However, there is the other side of this coin, where we really love a trend, and we make it part of who we are as humans who need to get dressed. The cut, shape, colour, or pattern becomes an integral part of how we dress and view clothes. Even if the trend has passed, we have the confidence to display our piece because we like it so much, and that trend is now an intrinsic part of our wardrobe. And nobody can contest that; ergo, it is not a bad outfit in any possible case. Thus it boosts our confidence and self-esteem that we can wear it and make it our own, and that is indeed the beauty of fashion. So, I personally think there has never been a bad outfit in the history of our existence. Still, I believe that each of us has an opinion about a bad outfit in our views and eyes. That is totally appropriate, as fashion is so personal to each of us, and if it doesn't float your boat, it just doesn't.
Written by Andra Maier
Working in fashion teaches you a lot of things, but it leaves little space for creativity outside of work, because we are ‘always available’. Having a creative space is something important in my ‘switching off’ process, and writing comes easiest, especially in busy times. I love everything fashion and food related. If I am not found writing or scribbling, I am found reading the latest fiction releases, fan-girling over Harry Potter or some pretty shoes, and writing for my blog. Being able to express myself outside of work boundaries is freeing and incredible, and honing the creative spirit is one of the main resolutions I had for 2020.
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