Current events and affairs that aren't necessarily "newsworthy" but still of interest.
Clothing firm Nordstrom castigated for $425 mud-coated jeans - BBC News
A US clothing company has been mocked on social media for selling a pair of $425 (£330; €390) jeans complete with "crackled, caked-on muddy coating". The jeans are described on Nordstrom's website as typifying "rugged, Americana workwear" and "hard-working action". But critics on Facebook are scathing of what the company describes as its new design of "heavily distressed" jeans.
Clothing firm Nordstrom castigated for $425 mud-coated jeans - BBC News
bbc.com
Looks like rich people glorifying the working class to me.
The thing is, everyone had the same reaction when they came out with 200 dollar jeans with tears and holes in it. And the style still sells.




Interesting. I'm curious if the "coating" lasts--or if the jeans get cleaner the longer you wear them. Heh.
I remember being in elementary school and my dad going off the rails bc I wanted to wear jeans with holes in them. (To him, it was a breach of etiquette.) My practical mom's response was "it's just fashion and it doesn't hurt anyone." I agree with my mom. People often spend money on a lot of things that are kinda dumb; I'm sure I do, too. (And as someone who often has legitimately dirty jeans, they look pretty cool that way, so I get it. ☺)
It's true, fashion often glorifies a working class aesthetic (denim, plaid flannel, billed hats, and Doc Martens), but it swings the other way just as quickly.
I agree to an extent. Yes, fashion is fashion. Yes, it also works the other way around.
But the way I felt throughout school where rich kids chose to wear clothes that looked ratty like mine, while I wore whatever the hell I had because I had nothing else, I'm sure feels a lot different than being rich and watching poor people imitate you.
Now I'm mostly indifferent to it. Mostly. And that's because I'm not poor anymore. There is still a little pin pick of resentment when I see stuff like this anyway. Just remembering that I felt kind of mocked.
Ah, I'm sorry that was a thing for you. I get it. I grew up rural and poor, and went to a high school with city kids who had a lot. At that time, everyone wore higher end and logos, so I'd go to thrift stores for approximations. In retrospect, I feel lucky because it took away a lot of the power of fashion to make me feel insecure. (If a poor kid could dress "rich" then the hierarchy of brand had to be total bullshit.) But the creative possibility of style outside of the fashion industry excited me, and I went on to work in vintage and write about fashion for years.
I guess what I'm saying is I think many people feel excluded and frustrated by "fashion", often because it reminds them of being young and not fitting in and how much that mattered (and shouldn't have). Those feelings linger for years and it sucks. Fashion gets a lot more fun when it doesn't matter.
I’m not out to convert anyone. After years of working in and around “fashion people” I still shop thrift because I think it’s more interesting than brand. I still think the industry end of fashion can be a nightmare. I just wish we could all get to a place where clothes are purely self-expression and not a test or a club. Because, you know, we have to wear them most of the time. ☺
I agree, that some people may feel like that, sure. I can't really speak for them.
What I can speak about is that the idea that fashion kind of exists as an almost standalone thing (for lack of a better word) to examine is definitely an incomplete picture. It's also a picture that lends itself, unfortunately, to many conversations that allow people to lean towards the "you're making it more serious than it is, why doesn't everyone just get over it" types of arguments. Which kind of sucks. I guess if I consider how much fashion exists as more than just a creative outlet, it becomes clearer for me. It's not just a matter of brand names and social status or an implied bitterness about some hard financial times ( I still don't purposefully look for brands to buy so I wouldn't be the prime audience for converting anyway) it's also a matter of opportunity. (Sure you'd like to get a better job to help yourself out. You'd like to go to the interview. You'd like a raise. But you don't have clothes for it. Figure it out. Or you lose out.) It's also a matter of culture (using fashion to connect stylistically with your ethnic and historical roots is a way of getting to know who you are). It's a matter of growing up watching others seize upon these opportunities and connections to culture and then watching them turn around and use the same medium to passively claim they hadn't those opportunities all along or even to appropriate your culture.
It's a whole host of things. So I guess, based on that, it is more than just a lingering feeling in my eyes. It's a stamp on ones personality and on ones life that one is almost forced to ignore because no one really likes to acknowledge that the opportunities, the connections, and maybe less importantly, the judgment never actually goes away. Adults actively, but much more quietly engage in all of these things. Sometimes in a harsher, more pointed manner.
The reason why one, such as myself, might become indifferent to things like this popping up in fashion, besides a change in circumstances, would be because, plainly, no one cares if you were hurt and no one cares if they are hurting you. It's a strange thing.
Yeah, no, you're right. I never meant to imply fashion exists in a vacuum. I'd certainly never tell anyone to "get over it." Because clothing is inescapable, it would shortsighted to think fashion couldn't affect people in myriad and complex ways. From culture and body image to (the totally arbitrary and subjective notion of) taste and age, it holds enormous power even as it's dismissed. I think your observation of fashion-as-privilege is one people don't consider enough.
And you're right--judgement hardly ends after high school (far from it). I was just getting at the idea that for many it's a period of heightened self-awareness and vulnerability, and the scars we accumulate there are deep.
It's also true that representations of wealth in all aspects of media have become pervasive, and fashion has swept in on that tide in a way that is increasingly insistent and oppressive. I have often argued that representations of wealth (including fashion as status) need to be examined through a similar lens to, say, representations of gender or culture. We need to ask what we're normalising and how it effects the people left out.
As an aside, thanks for your thoughtful reply. I feel like you are always ready to engage in real discussion and it's great.
I definitely forgot about gender. I'm honestly not educated enough about it (?) to say anything without foot-in-mouth syndrome taking over. But yes, gender is a huge target of oppression when it comes to clothes now that I think about it. I just fit so neatly into one side of a binary, that I really have to challenge myself when thinking about it, which I guess, is a privilege in itself maybe?
And yeah I'm always trying to engage with others online. There are some people who I kinda have given up on, unfortunately 'cause they get unnecessarily mean. And the anon vs. actual username mixture definitely has its downsides despite its good intention. So it's hard. But I really try. I think if there is an environment where we're ok with adding our two cents, imzy might stop bleeding so many users. It's one of the many theories I shift back and forth on.
Yep, it's complicated. I worked with a small publication (since closed) that strove to touch on diverse aspects of dress--culture and history, of course, but also topics like non-binary gender representation, body image, and ability. It made me aware of how much I hadn't considered (and how my own experience affected my perception). I def have blind spots.
Online interaction always feels precarious. It's less outright meanness that deters me, but rather what seems like the inordinately high probability of being misunderstood. As such, I get tense about having opinions online. ☺ But I feel hopeful about Imzy and its mandate to create the kind of environment you describe.