Throughout the past few weeks, the media has graced us with various pictures from the fashion weeks all around the world.
Citizens of big cities, such as London, Paris and New York were inhabited with an influx of modelizers, fashionistas and big-name designers for the special biannual event.
While I was excited to see what the designers would debut for their autumn/winter fashion lines, I found out that some of my friends here in San Diego were unimpressed.
[quote]“Why does it matter? That stuff is for the one percent and rich people,” one of my friends told me.[/quote]
Another friend told me she just didn’t get fashion and why it mattered. After hearing the comments of my peers, it then struck me.
Many Aztecs and people in general are unaware that fashion and its importance impacts us everyday.
Fashion is bigger than you think. It’s more than the expensive foreign-named brands that you see walking across the runway.
When you see someone walking down the street, you automatically judge them based on the clothes they are wearing. If you were to see someone sporting a San Diego State sweatshirt out at Target, you can easily identify that that person as a student, alumni or supporter of our school.
If you see someone wearing red bottom Louboutin heels, you automatically assume that person has money. Or when we you someone wearing tattered, holey clothes, you assume they are homeless or unkempt.
A cop’s uniform is his or her fashion statement, which notifies us that they are the authority of the law. A doctor’s lab jacket eases us that everything is going to be OK.
Fashion can also be an identifier of an era or time in history. There have been historical moments that we can identify just by the articles of clothing that were worn. Americans will never forget the blood-stained pink Chanel suit that first lady Jacqueline Kennedy insisted on wearing after her husband, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The suit became an iconic symbol that marked the end of the Camelot era. The suit is so well known that it is now stored for public view in the National Archives.
Fashion tactics have also been used negatively. The yellow star that German Jews had to wear during Nazi Germany’s reign was not only a way to pinpoint who was Aryan and who was not, but it was also a fashion statement that the Nazi regime imposed on Jews. And even though the famed designers of fashion week make us question why their salaries are so high, we should not shun them for the brilliance of their craft.
[quote]Coco Chanel once said, “Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions” Fashion is an art that is a lifestyle and a culture that should be appreciated as much as a striking Picasso or a well-written body of literature.[/quote]
If this sounds familiar, then that’s because it is. These fashion designers we see on the cover of Vogue worked hard just like we do here at SDSU to achieve our dreams.
This semester happens to be very important in regards to being fashion-conscious for certain SDSU students.
Because many seniors are graduating and other students are interviewing for summer internships, we have to keep in mind that something almost as important as your resume is how you present yourself. Many interviewers pay close attention to how well-groomed you are and how flattering your clothing is at an interview, according to U.S. News.
So yes, I know that whatever Donatella Versace unveils at her show will be something that most students at SDSU will not be able to afford or even have a place to wear.
I know that Kanye West’s obnoxious rants about leather jogging pants and Givenchy’s $15,000 dresses can make the fashion world seem narcissistic and stuck up. But once we take away the immense headlines of fashion week and realize that the basic concepts of fashion are connected to history, art, the way we live, and the importance of landing that dream job, then we can understand why the need for fashion still exists.
