“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” ― Coco Chanel
Fashion. With a Masters education in the field, often I have been questioned as to why one must study Fashion and how frivolous it appears in comparison with its counterparts in the community like Architecture, Industrial Design etc.
Fundamentally, what makes Fashion different from the rest of the of disciplines is its ever-changing nature. Generally speaking, in one’s life, we tend to buy at least a 100 outfits, maybe 10 tables and just 1 or 2 houses. The consumption of Fashion in comparison with the other two fields is very high and fast in this sense.
The need to come up with fresh ideas and novel designs every other season is apt for a student who enjoys change – enjoys movement – enjoys creating, rapidly. Of course there are timeless pieces like the Little Black Dress, the crisp white shirt-blue jeans combination, your mother’s pearl string, the classic Trench, traditional south silks that are essentials for everyone’s wardrobes but for the most part of it, fashion is about innovation, about creativity.
Being dynamic in nature, fashion as a medium enables one to understand periods and time frames in history. From the clothing worn by people, it very utterly simple to guess the era it belonged to. The Flapper style of the Jazz Age in the twenties, the new look by Chanel post war in the forties, the Decade of Decadence in the 70’s which was very androgynous – Power dressing for women…women in pantsuits, women at work. Fashion is a beautiful chronological tool to measure evolution.
In this sense and in my opinion, Fashion happens to be the only field of design which operates very proactively in the Zeitgeist of our times keeping abreast with the cultural and social changes in society.
Fashion also has a deep psychological effect on its user, which is very personal. For some, it gives acceptance, for others its gives confidence. A mood lifter and an ego booster – what one wear speaks of how one thinks; it is an extension of one’s personality and therefore the study of Fashion has a lot to do with society, psychology, anthropology, and culture.
Today, the field has various creative aspects involved, if one wants to make it a career choice; from Fashion bloggers to stylists to photographers to critiques and of course designers – it has an overwhelming eco system in itself offering tremendous opportunities.
