Lost in Translation - How Fashion is losing its meaning

Lucas Sobczak 101195390

Sarah Hood

Journalism: FASH 2082

October 28, 2019

Lost in Translation - How Fashion is losing its meaning

            In recent years it seems that everyone is taking their stake in the fashion arena. If you were to ask a majority of the Instagram generation who their favourite designers are, you would hear the likes of Virgil Abloh, Heron Preston, or 1017 ALYX 9SM. These are just a few of the several tastemakers that the today’s consumer buys into for what comes with purchasing their garments, the attention and recognition. The raging popularity of these labels transformed the once friendly platform, where you would share photos of your meal with filters caked on, is now the home to influencers flexing their expensive poorly made garments in order to out-do the next. The toxicity of the bourgeois mindset has led many, once prestigious, luxury houses to conform to meet the demand of this new consumer. In a sense, fashion has lost its’ identity. The modern fashion admirer is left to question the ethics of mainstream designers and the industry has turned its back on the history and craftsmanship popular fashion houses embraced to create their legacies.

An area which negatively affects the industry would be streetwear. In 2018 Mark Bain from Quartzy, an online media source for pop-culture, defined streetwear as being, “...a niche, upstart movement, its signatures—casual clothes like hoodies and tees, graphic logos that seem made for the Instagram age…” The vague category in fashion, where aspiring designers are set to grab their piece of the consumer pie. Street wear was once a reflection on youth and hip-hop culture where luxury’s logomania designs laid this niche’s foundation. Those part of this group would buy into the culture one brand embodies without needing to live the presumed lifestyle their consumers tended to live. This shift in consumer behaviour began to gap to divide between the upper echelon of society and the middle market and unifying the class system. Young creatives began to see opportunity by mimicking and simplifying the practices luxury houses were using to expand their market. The age of the logo begins.

Attending school was once the way someone chased their dreams of becoming a designer. However, this is no longer necessary. To be someone successful in the industry is to be someone willing to put capital towards an idea. With the addition of a good Instagram following and some clout, today’s designer emerges. The product of this formula has led to an oversaturation of industry movers who aren’t doing anything except to reap profits from the misled consumer. Millennial industry movers, such as Off-white and Supreme New York, have found much success in both the western and eastern parts of the world. The steps these labels take in the path to recognition comes at the consumer’s expense and is transparent through the lack of idealism and quality in the clothes that monopolize Instagram’s explore page. Designers no longer design with purpose of deep expression, rather for economic gain. Too many designers saturate the market with false truths, neglecting purpose or meaning. Business of Fashion Columnist, Eugene Rabkin in 2018 stated that, “We have entered a state of pure postmodernism, where anything goes, and nothing means anything anymore.” Rabkin’s statement expresses how meaning and connection cannot be forced. Designers once made people look at a garment in new ways. Form, structure, and environmental influences once conceptualized great design.

The number of individuals expressing artistic concepts make it difficult to highlight persistence when the market is flooded with commonalities. In an interview with Eugene Rabkin in 2018, Ann Demuelemeester, renowned designer and graduate from Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, was asked about intangible elements in her work. Demuelemeester took her jacket off her back and began to explain how a seam and certain cut reflected the fragility and imperfection of man and how she literally cut meaning into her garments. Ann Demuelemeester highlighting her design process and her conscious effort to portray the imperfection and fragility of man, displays her ability to create garments utilizing destructivist methods. The complexity of artistic principles used in today’s designer lackluster in comparison to those like Demuelemeester. Perhaps the new generation no longer values the design process or quality of garments, rather, the marketability and influence of the final product holds greater importance.

Times are changing and new generation no longer values the artistic integrity within garments. They are no longer moved by intangible details, but instead influenced by social trends. The change in fashion may have a simpler explanation. Perhaps fashion is evolving rather than changing. The couture era of putting meaning and valuing form is obsolete and society would much rather spend their money on representation through logos and graphics. It is difficult to understand where fashion will end up as it is constantly changing, however, it is evident that unless more individuals create dialogue about quality and craftsmanship, fashion will lose its meaning.