Fashion is constantly changing, and purports to decide what is acceptable or not in terms of appearance.  As a subversive person, your job is to ignore, challenge and transcend fashion.  Read on to find out why and how to do this.

Today I read a headline that says that “curves are back” for women.  Well, when did the pronouncements of a fashion editor ever make a woman a particular shape, able to transform like a comic book character?  Were curvy women meant to be tucked away safely out of sight for the duration of the fashion for thin women?  Are they now acceptable again?  Are women who are naturally thin now on the outer?

People with dark skin were told that the fashion was to have light coloured skin, so used lightening products to deny their very DNA, as if it is something to be ashamed of.  They straightened their hair, again to try to fit an arbitrary ideal modelled on another race.  Who told them to be ashamed of who they were?  Since when was black not as beautiful as white?

A low income woman buys a dress, wears it for a season, but next season is secretly mocked by some fashionistas when walking down the street.  Why was the dress acceptable one year and not another?  Why is the woman obliged to skip a meal to afford the latest fashion?

You can see the inauthenticity, shallowness and lack of justice of fashion.  I don’t mean the garment industry, I mean the notion that something is acceptable at one time and completely passe soon after, a judgement on the external appearances, and therefore a judgement on the person – turning them into an extension of what they look like.

Style is one thing, fashion is another.  Fashion assumes that a garment or a person should look a particular way to be acceptable.  Style projects individuality and taste, fashion represses individuality and takes away personal judgement.  Why does a Chanel suit made in the 1940s still look great? – style.

We ignore fashion by refusing to judge by its dictates, and follow what we think ourselves.  We look at something’s soul rather than just its form.  A garment that is lovingly made and has a timeless elegance is of more value than a knock off of the latest bizarre fashion trend.  A person is of value in themselves, not because they have a certain look, a particular colour, texture of hair or body type.

We can challenge fashion when we buy what we like rather than what we are told to like and when we go against the values that are pushed onto us like small children in a kindergarten.  We can laugh at the emperor’s “new clothes”.

We transcend fashion when we learn to see inherent quality and style rather than simply seeing external appearances, when we seek authenticity in anything we buy and the people we choose to be our friends and when we find what we like ourselves rather than being slaves to fashion.

Let’s get rid of the idea of fashion once and for all and pursue reality and style instead.

Tags: authenticity, Self-actualization, sheeple, subversive

This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 7:37 pm and is filed under Daily subversive tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.