Dress for modesty. One of the subjects learned in fashion theory. But now that Kim Kardashian was filmed and photographed wearing a Burqa on her recent trip to Dubai, who knows? A sociology teacher could give one heck of a lecture on this. Learn more about fashion theory read The Sociology of Fashion.
Andrea Saltzman, architect, founder of the division of Fashion Design in the Architecture department of the University of Buenos Aires and author of the innovative book "El Cuerpo Diseñado" (The Body Designed) writes: "Since the beginning of civilization the human body has been one of the most fertile canvases for artistic expression and for the communication of concepts. The decoration and ritualization of the body with paint, a form of body modification, is spread throughout most of the world´s cultures dating as far back as the paleolithic era." Saltzman continues: "When Charles Darwin investigated primitive cultures in the XIX century, he found that there was no territory, from the North Pole to New Zealand where the natives did not color their skin or use tattoos. This includes the people who lived in extreme climates, as in the south of Argentina. The inhabitants used hardly any clothing at all, as if their need to adorn, beautify and modify the significance of their skin was more imperative than bundling up."
This touches upon one of the focuses of fashion theory as described in a previous post on Petit Poix. Clothing design is inspired and treated as just one more layer of the "self". Our skin surface is treated as clothing. The line between clothing and the wearer is fuzzy. Julie Rose worked as a tattooer for two decades and now designs in fiber. This is probably not coincidence. In design the arts intermingle, cross into each other and as with tattoos and clothing, the lines are not defined. She states:
"I thought that if and when I stopped tattooing, I'd go back to painting or drawing, but neither of these art forms calls to me. Working with fiber, like tattooing, is tactile in nature. Tattooing isn't just "drawing on skin." When one tattoos, one has to stretch the skin, hold it taut, hold the person, touch their skin. People also have an odor, both good and bad, as does fiber. Fiber feels more alive than a canvas or a piece of paper. It demands that one respects it's nature, as does working with skin as canvas. " In her blog Everything is Interesting Julie gives a wonderful brief insight into the industry and culture of tattoos. How to Become a Tattooist (A Quick History) and Why You Should Not Get a Tattoo.
In a fashion school one of the core courses is, or should be, sociology. There should at least be a course that touches upon the sociology of fashion addressing the issue of, "Why do people dress?" To jump from that and how it applies to a career in fashion design is simple. Why would people want to dress in YOUR clothes? The space in between is merely marketing. To sell clothes you market to the socio-psychological reasons why people dress in the first place.
Why do people dress?
One answer might be: "Because they are cold." That´s a good answer. Long ago, man learned to stay warm on chilly prehistoric nights by crawling under a leftover animal hide. Perhaps at some point he realized that by tying strips of skin together his fur blanket stayed on better. But that does not explain why he began to carve bone, antlers and ivory into adornments. Why at some point did primitive peoples divide into a diversity of cultures with tattoos (a form of dress within the skin), scarring rituals (a form of dress from within to the outside), hairstyles, piercing or other body modifications, body and face painting, nail designs, traditional clothing and perfume? Yes, even perfume is considered a non-visual "form of dress". Fashion is the more recent phenomena of cultural dress. Occasionally a classic will emerge, such as bluejeans or the little black dress. For the most part fashion is everchanging, sometimes at ridiculous rates, not static as is the case of traditional cultural dress. There are several established focuses in fashion theory as to what creates fashion. These are based in the social sciences - anthropology, sociology, psychology - as well as cultural studies and history.
Modern Anthropological: Man posesses an innate instinctual propensity for adornment and dress.
Protection: Clothing choices change based on extremes in weather conditions.
Modesty: To cover sexual organs. To avoid sexual attention from the opposite sex.
Sexual Attraction, Seduction: People dress to seduce a mate.
Zeitgeist : Fashion responds to social and political change. The miniskirt for example or the bra burning protests of the 1960s.
Trickle-Down: Fashion develops in the upper classes and the lower classes aspire to it.
Trickle-Across: Fashion develops in any of the social classes and transports to the others.
Anti-fashion: Dress which is indifferent to or explicitly contrary to the popular fashion. This often cancels itself out when a rebellious style of dress becomes popular and thus becomes "fashionable".
Symbolic Communication: Dress to send a message about how you feel or who you are.
Postmodern: Man defines and redefines himself through dress in order to survive in a metropolis.
The Harvard University paper, Why the Devil Wears Prada: The Fashion Formation Process talks about some of these. My personal view is that first theory, the modern anthropological theory is the precursor to all the others. And that these are all true. Fashion is merely a western world term for an industry which is created out of man´s most innate instincts to "fill in blanks". At some point in the evolution of man from ape a desire to fill in blank spaces developed. They drew on cave walls (home decor?), they covered themselves, they pierced and adorned and tattooed. Psychological and biological spaces needed filling as well as physical ones and all these were expressed in their form of dress All forms of art and engineering and rituals spring from there.
