Fashion: The Change You Wish to See in the World

What are you wearing right now? Are you comfortable? Do you like the way you look? Do you feel like yourself? I only ask because recently I’ve taken my answers quite for granted.

First, I should mention that this isn’t some trick rhetorical questionnaire, let me assure you. But my interest on the subject was peaked because I have silently and rather subconsciously noticed the rise of certain fashion trends, the Urban Outfitters corset included, which makes me curious about the purposes of fashion, historically and in our modern context, and their reclamation. Fashion appeals to me because of its tradition of being shocking, accepting, and ultimately brilliant. I wear what I wear because it suits me. I admire having a connection to culture, and representing myself and my identity with my style and personality. However, for the vast part of history, women experienced a rather different version of fashion— one defined by oppression and society’s expectations rather than their own empowerment and utility.

The thing about reclaimed fashion trends is that most of the time when they peak in popularity no one bothers to remember why they came back in style at all. In my eyes, bringing back corsets and turtlenecks and floor-length skirts and dresses is a statement. It says, “look how far we’ve come, and how lucky we are to be able to freely wear these items when women decades before felt forced to, out of a concession for extreme social pressure.” A long time ago, when corsets were used to make a woman’s waist inhumanely thin, their role in “fashion” was solely to work behind the scenes in order to make the real clothes look better on the subject. Turtlenecks and long dresses touching the floor made a woman mysterious; a modest and prudent prize to be won by whichever man was seeking her as a wife. These notions about fashion being a freeing and unique work of art have not been around forever, and truly only rose in the last century. Out of rebellion.

The Google definition for “fashion” is “a popular trend, especially in styles of dress and ornament or manners of behavior.” Google’s definition noticeably does not include any of what I mentioned earlier in reference to fashion’s meaning to me. This is partially because, despite whatever preconceptions we have about the power of style and dress in expressing yourself, fashion is about popularity. The fashion at the time of authentic corsets was about what everyone wore, what was in style. The “fashion” was not for women’s sake, empowerment, or even enjoyment, but rather to look a certain way in which to attract a husband or simply just to fit in. Corsets and turtlenecks were uncomfortable, stiff, and had actual health detriments to wearing them. But they were popular, and fashionable nonetheless, because most of the trends appealed to men, and consequently appealed to the women seeking marriage.

Unfortunately, as terrible as this might sound, the tendency for fashion to be exploited out of a desire to falsify identities and conform to the norm, has not entirely disappeared from our own culture today. Women still wear impossibly high heels, which bind and blister their feet almost as much as corsets did then. Similarly, men still dominate our fashion industry. According to an article and survey in Business of Fashion, “last year, a BoF survey of 50 major fashion brands revealed that just 14 percent were run by a woman.” Despite the fact that, in 2014, “85 percent of students who enrolled at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology were female,” men are still at the top of most fashion companies running the show.

But even though fashion in a historical context seems to be this dominating force of evil, there is another dimension to it. The same agent of culture that helped invent the wheel, had a hand in breaking it too. For every unfortunate and ill-purposed fashion trend, there are new trends that reject and replace them. I understand why Google defines fashion by popularity. For the most part, it is what’s in style and what the majority of people are wearing. But, trends don’t happen overnight. A few, maybe even just one person, had to start the movement to break away from the spine-warping corsets so that today we have the privilege of reclaiming them for ourselves-- for the women who couldn’t wear what they wanted. This dichotomy of fashion, in my opinion, is the very reason we celebrate the industry. Its role in reform, rebellion, and political activism has made fashion a force to be reckoned with, and for women and men everywhere looking to defy society’s expectations of them, there’s an outlet. Despite the fact that many men still head fashion industries created by women, and that stiletto shoes and spanx are still abused to adhere to a falsified image of what women should look like, there is power in choice. The freedom to truly express yourself is a beautiful thing. Because not everywhere in the world it is possible, and because not everyone in history could afford to, we should never take it for granted.