By Ed Keenan and Matthew Shepherd
Fashion: The industry, the styles, the magazines, the concept. There is no doubt that fashion affects everyone on some level—but what the hell is it?
The insanely quotable and always dressed Oscar Wilde once said that “fashion is when the fantastic becomes for a moment universal.” He had a point.
Perhaps it is the momentary nature of fashion that makes it elude definition. The Oxford dictionary says fashion is a “popular style at a time or place.”
Fashion is, by nature, ever changing, whimsical, transient.
Fashion has a huge presence in the collective unconscious: “I don’t really think about it—try a reference book,” says Jim McElvy, an attendant at the Ryerson Library Reserve Desk.
A Ryerson security guard, spotting the always stylish uniformed look. says simply “I can’t answer that.”
Is fashion a tool of conformity? A vehicle for personal expression? An interesting socio-political phenomenon? An irrelevant triviality?
Some Ryerson students have had their view tainted by what they see as an out-of-touch and elitist fashion industry.
“It’s a bunch of people who are phony and pretentious looking at the art of wearing clothing,” says Jarrod Hoogendam, a first-year business student.
Conversely, some Ryerson students see fashion as more of an expression of individual style.
“(Fashion is) culture, a science, lifestyles. An expression of the inner self,” says Nevin Bradasevic, a first-year geography student.
Dana. Howe, who was on campus to take graduation photos thinks fashion is a combination of the personal and the societal.
“It’s a person’s way of interpreting, an aesthetic way of fitting in and being attractive. It is shaped by the trends and public opinions of the day and by a person’s personality.” Howe says.
Some people’s definition of fashion verges on the absurd. Jen Vowles, a second-year RTA student, for example, simply defined fashion as: “JEANNE BECKER, BWAH-hahahahahaha!”
Of course, there are lots of people who simply don’t care.
Computer Science student Trevor Callaghan probably spoke for a lot of students when he said fashion is “Not a hell of a lot. I’m not into the fashion thing.”
Humph.
Please see our “Nobody’s Naked” fashion supplement, pg. 11-16
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