Why fashion matters.
Why does fashion matter? With the countless social and environmental issues that abound from the fashion industry, would we be better off if it didn’t exist at all?
This is obviously incredibly impractical and is highly speculative. Yet, posing the question about what would happen if we removed the fashion sector from the tumult caused to people and animals and planet, leads us also to question why fashion matters.
I always come back to this question, when I’m creating or when teaching. We talk of “sustainable fashion” as a good thing, as a get-out clause, though realistically nothing us humans do is sustainably good. As long as we’re here extracting and using, without consuming in a beneficial way, then we’re inherently unsustainable — or, sustaining negative impacts. Yet, we’re also inherently creative, problem solvers, doers. We’re also innately self-actualising — and fashion greatly matters for how we process ourselves and the world through this.
So here I’ll pose a few reasons why fashion matters, despite its destruction.
There is actually a book called Why Fashion Matters by Frances Corner, a previous head of London College of Fashion. It aims to give you 101 reasons why fashion matters — except there is no order to it, it’s completely out of touch in terms of language and perspective, and each of the 101 things is a statement of something rather than indicator.
For instance, #1: The Couture Laboratory speaks of haute couture’s importance for heritage, French economy and artisan livelihoods, which is fair enough but it’s not like, “without haute couture, X and Y would/wouldn’t happen”. #2 Closing the (Plastic Bottle) Loop speaks of the importance of creating closed loop systems if we’re to use “old” materials for textiles. Firstly, why is this point two? Secondly, it doesn’t cover any issues within this issue, such as origin of the “waste”.
It was written in 2014, so granted “sustainability” was a niche topic, only spoken of in a bubble. Yet, this book is about fashion in general, not sustainable fashion, and so the direction (or lack thereof) is jarring. If I were to write it, I’d first cover the psychology of why fashion matters.
And so that’s what I’ll do, just in blog form.
Basic needs.
I love this diagram, of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Simple yet complex. I first came across it during a Psychology A Level and then used it in my MA research and in teaching to explain why I believe fashion to be an integral aspect of human nature. I was considering whether familiarity of materials would enable first our basic survival needs to be met, then psychological because we feel comfortable and nurtured, and finally self-fulfillment due to our decision-making involved in the styling process.
My argument was that without familiarity of materials, we’re untethered, so to better induce a desire of eco-consciousness towards what we wear, we needed to meet all of these needs: basic, psychological and self-fulfillment. My thought process was that all the early Homo sapiens dressed themselves to ensure basic needs were met, and then through time we find archaeological remains of decoration. They weren’t doing that for physical warmth or protection, but to show their personality, or to belong, or to show prestige.
We lose a possesion we’re utterly familiar with, or it’s damaged, and we’re distraught. Those materials — and the memories imbued in them — are part of us. So without them, what are we?
This is my first point then about why fashion matters: It confirms that we’re here.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
The pyramid diagram that shows we must first fulfil our physiological needs before others of safety, belonginess and love, esteem and finally, self-actualisation.
Privilege.
It should be stated up front that I concern “fashion” and “clothing” as separate entities. These days we speak of sustainable fashion, ethical fashion, fast fashion… even if we’re describing clothing from the high street. Generally, “fashion” is used as an expression of clothing that we’ve purchased knowingly, perhaps for style.
If I was asking the question of why clothing matters… it would be pointless. We know clothing is there to protect and warm and hide us. And yet it’s not as if we distinguish between what clothes are there to cover these basic needs and what clothes are there to cover the more psychological needs. Clothes are clothes. Unless they’re fashion.
Perhaps there’s a conversation here about entitlement and privilege. Would an unhomed person say they were wearing fashion? Probably not. I’d have to ask. Though I’d surmise they first require their basic needs to be met, and so they wear clothing. Us folk, with some sort of security and abiliity to take time writing or reading a blog, would wear fashion. We’ve bought it from somewhere, specifically chosen for something decorative it offers us. Historically, this divide has always existed. Fashion was for the rich, and that’s how we get haute couture (‘high fashion’). Even when clothing comes low quality from a high street shop, it’s still been paid for with some sort of income, and so we deem it as fashion.
So fashion matters as an indicator of privilege. It’s not necessarily a good reason as to why it matters. Like, it doesn’t feel good to say that fashion is only for certain people. But that’s how modern society works. Clothing is distinctly a visual descriptor of who we are, and if we’re not able to get over the hurdle of meeting our basic needs, how can we fathom moving on up to cement our higher positioning? We purchase fashion to be seen and to show.
Point two then, is that fashion matters because it highlights our privilege.
Images: 1. The Callot Soeur showroom in 1910, draped with furs and lavish furniture [Source: Sherilyn Decter]; 2. A scene from the 1995 film Clueless showing Cher and Dionne dressed in the higher-range mall fashion of the time [Source: Google Search].
Cultural narrative.
E-commerce and new markets led to a greater accessibilty of so-called fashion, and the industry now is arguably led by the public rather than the brands. Trend reports based on street style had become a thing labels looked towards for inspiration (along with straight copying from indie labels) with ready-to-wear being a cheaper offshoot for the major luxury brands. The narrative that brands called the shots on our style grew obsolete.
The oft-referenced ‘New Look’ from Dior was a cultural narrative in that it controversially gave women what they wanted before they knew they wanted it, or indeed believed they should have it; but, what people want now is already out there. With relaxed trading quotas, ability to exploit overseas manufacturing, quicker turnarounds and also the prospective ability to purchase online, what use was it brands spending time and resources coming up with fresh stuff when they could churn out copies of existing things and still turn a profit.
With everything being so similar, and us being so many, we have to find a way to showcase our individuality. Perhaps this is where I give a nod to cultural appropriation; where brands abuse the stories, history, materials, skills, ideology and motifs of a culture not their own for profit. With all of this so readily accessible online, and limited regulation to protect culture, how can a person legitimately hold on to their cultural identity, their narrative?
Images: 1. MaxMara “ethnic print” dress plagiarised traditional designs of the Oma ethnic minority group, SS19 [Source: Traditional Arts & Ethnology Centre]; 2. Kanta Keepers at Ghana’s Kantamanto Market [Source: The Or Foundation].
I’d posit then that fashion — true design — matters here to combat the sameness and the misappropriation. Without a diversity of designers and makers forging their personalities into cloth, we’d just be a sea of the high street. And this extends to countries deemed Global South, because if it weren’t for those entrepreneurs battling on amidst waste colonialism, ensuring protection of heritage practices and cultural narrative through their businesses, folk there would be wearing just what we’re wearing in the Global North. It could be they want to; I’m not saying they shouldn’t go for jeans and t-shirts, but there shouldn’t be an eradication of cultural dress due to being forced to operate in that way.
It’s somewhat disheartening that fashion schools are producing designers that can’t do any of the other bits, like the textile knowledge and pattern cutting. Yet, having so many fashion graduates is useful for the industry because it means there’s always an influx of new ideas, with cultures intersecting and intertwining. There’s hope that the major retailers may see a demise, some day.
The third point is that fashion matters because it provides diversity of ideas.
Images: 1. Bethany Williams uses materials such as deadstock to both infer and support commentary on social justice issues; 2. Phoebe English experiments with low-impact methods of production including utilising offcuts to create the studio’s pieces; 3. Carly Heywood's collection, "Black Beasts," analyzes the speculation, exploitation, and animalization of the Black body throughout history; 4. "Hood Dandy" from Katiuscia Williams researches the complicated aesthetics and politics at work in the depictions of African-American men in the post- Civil Rights era [Source: The New School; photo Stevens Añazco].
The opening quote of the book is possibly the only bit I find pertinent, so I’ll repeat it here:
Fashion matters. To the economy, to society and to each of us personally. Faster than anything else, what we wear tells the story of who we are — or who we want to be. Fashion is the most immediate and intimate form of self-expression. — Introduction from Why Fashion Matters by Frances Corner.
I could continue. I could obviously speak more to the importance of the fashion industry to all economies. And the offshoot industries on this industry, and their benefit to economies. Aside from fibre, fabric and garment manufacture, there’s all the sales and taxes and tourism that provide jobs and infrastructure. There are many statistics about the economic benefit, though I’ve found them to be limited in scope and not contextual (e.g. not particularly focused on fibre growing) so I won’t include here.
And realistically, it’s not the small independents who are winning here. They’re the ones adding personal and cultural pros for fashion, while those making money off the industry are destroying these elements in the face of “boosting the economy”. It’s the delight of creating, experimenting and physically making, plus the satsifaction in someone else feeling joy from what you’ve done, that will keep a designer-maker from continuing even when bills aren’t able to be paid. This is the importance of questioning why fashion matters. If we rolled over and let the monotony continue bulldozing, we’d both lose and be lost.
Thank you for reading.
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