Clothing And Clothing

Fashion and clothing, although often regarded as close relatives, are not one and the same. They have at their roots contrasting goals and therefore very differing sociological consequences. Clothing is a necessity, material production, accessible and its ultimate purpose: functionality. Clothing is found in any cultural group or society where people wear clothes. Fashion however is an excess, a symbolic fabrication constructed by an institution, for a purpose other than to simply clothe the body. Fashion is a carefully manufactured cultural phenomenon. It is a system which exists differently depending on the cultural context and has symbolic value exhibited through the use of clothing as its medium (Kawamura, 2004, pp. 1-2).

Fashion is a capable advocate of social change. However since the phenomenon of fast fashion began to take hold in the 1980’s, what it seems to advocate is the speedy disposal of cheaply made and quickly replaceable garments (Fletcher, 2008, p. xi). Where once we used to remake, mend or darn to extend the life of a garment, todays lifestyle is more likely to see us condemn stained or torn garments to landfill, costing little time or money; we may even just have become bored with them. A Dutch study from 1998 found that the average lifespan of a garment was 3 years and 5 months, spending just 44 of these days on the body and washed 20 times in its lifetime (Fletcher, 2008, p. 75). These figures have undoubtedly reduced in the 16 years since this study, seeing as we now consume 4 times the number of garments that we did 30 years ago, an average of 4.1 items of clothing per month (Siegle, 2011, p. 8).

Fast Fashion, and in some situations ‘McFashion’ (Annamma Joy, 2012, p. 276), is the commonly used phrase to de...

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...d the body, in a bid to obscuring the boundaries between body and cloth (Quinn, 2002, p. 143). She has the capabilities to push fashion beyond all boundaries laid down by conventionality, embracing, as Miyake did, both multi-functionality and world influences (Quinn, 2002, p. 147). As a graduate of philosophy, specialising in Eastern and Western aesthetics, she is mindful of the relevance fashion holds as a construct of identity, therefore and began to use clothing as a means of exploring themes, ideas and issues not usually associated with fashion (Quinn, 2002, p. 144); “I want to suggest to people different aesthetic values. I want to question their being” (Quinn, 2002, p. 143).

Dis-assemble the intrinsic rules of the fashion system and construct their own interpretation. Proposing the west re-assess it’s their concept and definition of fashion and of beauty.