It’s been long since runway shows have achieved a ridiculous touch to them. They are not really about fashion anymore. They are about advertising, extravagance, money and networking. In fact, a single fashion show attracts more attention than a year of print advertising, which results in sales and profit. Fashion shows are what people usually think of first when they speak of fashion. Funnily, such shows are as far from the real fashion as they can possibly be within the general framework.
And yet fashion, in its primary meaning, is an important part of our lives. It should not be understood as following the trends (boyfriend jeans or jeggings anyone?), no matter how ridiculous. It’s also not reading every issue of Cosmo or changing your entire wardrobe every season. It’s rather developing and understanding your own style and achieving excellence in it – pretty much like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex & the City.
In fact, if you dig deeper, you will see that fashion shapes our character and often serves as a tool of self-improvement and self-development. At the very least it contributes into the development of the following spheres.
Developing creativity
Clothes are often a way to develop and express one’s creativity. Careful selection of parts of outfits, combining things that don’t seem to go well together at first glance, cutting things up and changing them into something else – this contributes a lot into creative thinking and creative abilities. Step by step, a person learns to discover new solutions and find new exciting ways to use same old things.
Expressing oneself
It’s no wonder that Goths choose black – they want to emphasize the gruesome nature of this world. And it’s just a single example. While self-expression through clothes is one of the simplest forms of such expression, it is available to anyone. A casual Friday can tell a lot about how a person feels inside and how they see themselves in the world.
Creating an image
Accept it or not, first impressions are created by looks, rather than the richness of the inner world. It’s not by chance that HR people expect candidates to wear at least smart casual clothes to their interviews. With skilled use, clothes can contribute significantly into the creation of public image and making a lasting impression.
Supporting personal freedom
If you look at photographs of Iran made in 60s, you’ll see women walking around in knee-length skirts, their faces not covered with anything, smiling happily at the camera. Now that landscape has changed significantly. With conservative forces taking over the country, women lost their freedom of clothes choice. Why? Because being able to choose the way you look is one of the fundamental freedoms that should be respected. Depriving a person of such freedom means limiting her rights and exercising control over her.
We might not understand the importance of fashion until our right to indulge in it is taken away.
Backstage images captured exclusively for DESIGN SCENE Magazine by Fashion Photographer Benoit Auguste during Paris Fashion Week Fall Winter 2017 shows. Images feature behind the scenes action at Redemption fall winter collection showing – discover more.
