There is a belief, amongst boring arseholes, that fashion is superficial. I suppose it is easy to form this opinion, given that a lot of the core values of the industry are based upon an obsession with beauty, glamour, youth etc. I guess the reason that this belief has always surprised me, is that it seems to bypass the pure joy of living that fashion celebrates, and the rebellion it stokes against the often dreary, depressive factors that comprise day to day living.
When I was seventeen I went fruit-picking in the apple and pear orchards in the South Island of New Zealand for three months (!). Tripping on Acid for most of the time, and WELL AND TRULY OUT OF MY ELEMENT, I picked up a copy of Marx's Materialistic Conception of History in an op-shop. Marx argues that the basis of all laws and moral codes is the construction of a stable, functioning economy, not any innate willingness of people to do "the right thing". For example, The seven Commandments "Thou shalt not steal" was created so that people would be proactive in creating industries, because they knew that no one would take their shit (protecting the investment of their personal labour), and that if they wanted shit they had to work for it themselves and not steal it.
This had a profound affect on me. Though I had already suspected it, it sealed my belief that the best reason for living was to create Art. For, if we are not put on this earth to tally-up good deeds to ensure entrance to "heaven" (lol), and everything we know about right and wrong is built on the formation of a functioning economy, then surely the best way to spend the brief 75 years or so we have on earth is wrapping ourselves in the world we have created: Music. Art. Film. Literature. Fashion.
Okay so obviously that was a bit of a fucking ramble. My point is, Fashion, I feel, is the least superficial of all the human faculties. The reason? like it says in The Devil Wears Prada: "We Live Our Lives In It". There is not a SINGLE person on earth who is not touched daily by fashion. The first boy you kiss, The first time you fall in love, the first time you have bum sex....all of these things are connected, at the very least physically, to the clothing you were wearing at the time.
Wearing clothing is the easiest way to impact the world around you. It is the quickest way to express who you are, without words or actions. It's true that what we wear is only on the surface-a picture....but that picture can speak a thousand, million, words.....
XXXPSYCHXXX
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