Fashion or Fraud?

Frequently, style enthusiasts propagate the idea that fashion is a liberating and spectacular form of self-expression. Whether it’s Gigi Hadid or TV show icon Carrie Bradshaw, what you wear and how you wear it is proudly considered an art form. However, what happens when the clothes, makeup, and shoes you wear are used, not for self-expression, but for concealment?

Recently, I have been making my way through two popular HBO shows: Sex and the City and Big Little Lies. In Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw and her three best friends all connect over their love for style and men. For Carrie, the contents of her closet and more importantly, her shoe rack, are valued for shaping her identity more than anything else. Carrie’s fashion sense is so pertinent to her character that she even jokes how when she first moved to New York City with no money, sometimes she “would buy Vogue instead of dinner” because she “felt it fed [her] more.” Expressing herself through fashion is one of Carrie’s top priorities, as well as an extremely prominent character trait.

However, in watching Big Little Lies, I saw how the Monterey Bay, California idea of fashion and style takes on a somewhat different purpose. On the opposite coast, Reese Witherspoon's character, Madeline, frequently remarks how beautiful and poised her companion Celeste is.

Celeste has two blonde, blue-eyed, twin boys who dress impeccably well, and a strikingly handsome and young husband chastised for being too “in love” with his wife. Exuberantly wealthy, Celeste and Madeline dress fashionably in the latest Monterey Bay trends for elegant mothers.

However, as we soon come to realize, Celeste’s beautiful and put together public display does not represent the fearful and traumatized victim of domestic abuse which we see her as shortly after. On the outside, Celeste’s seemingly-perfect wardrobe only testifies to her success in appearing the ideal Monterey Bay housewife which her neighbors presume her to be. However, later in the series, we understand that Celeste's fashion choices are multi-faceted. She styles herself to express how she wants people to see her, and in a way which hides the marks of domestic abuse on her body.  

So, where does that leave us? Is fashion really self-expression? Or just another means to hiding who we are. Are you a Carrie Bradshaw? Or a Celeste Wright?