recent thoughts part four

The past couple weeks, I have been spending quite some time on narrowing down ideas for my intervention.

Being that fashion is a driver of my project, I have been focusing on ways to identify areas of fashion that can be incorporated into my research. Areas such as psychological, emotional, physical, etc.

The problem that I have been facing is that not everyone cares about fashion, how do I target my stakeholders appropriately?

Well, a recent conversation with a friend blew my mind and unlocked a new perspective for me. In the past couple weeks, a question that kept coming to mind is if fashion can be considered a subconscious practice?

I asked my friend, “why doesn’t everybody care about fashion?” Her response was incredible. She suggested that there are many layers that exist to it. For example, “If someone does not like the color yellow, there can be an underlying aspect to that. Maybe as children they were bullied by people who wore the color yellow. Or maybe they associate that color with a particular fashion style from a group that did not accept them at a younger age,” explained Rinu Ogundeji.

Immediately, my thoughts turned to my mom and dad. My mom came from a middle class background while growing up in Queens, New York. Coming from a family where both her parents worked in fashion, she received “upscale” clothing from a young age. As a kid myself, I remember being inspired by the way my mom coordinated her outfits. Over the course of her whole life, she has always cared about the way she presents herself, and I believe it comes down to the roots of when my grandpa was working at Saks Fifth Avenue, getting his daughter elevated styles from a young age.

My dad came from a lower class background. Growing up in India, he had limited resources to experiment his fashion style. It’s interesting because over the course of his life, he never got interested in fashion. After I began my journey in the fashion industry at the Fashion Institute of Technology, I remember having so many conversations with him to help build his personal style. However, at the end of the day it came down to the same thing. He was not interested. It built curiosity in me to understand why my mom was so interested and why my dad was not, separating gender roles as a part of this conversation.

After Rinu explained that to me, I felt a shift in the way I view fashion. I searched on Reddit, “why do people not care about fashion?” and the answers were not surprising. Some people suggested that they preferred comfort. Immediately some questions came to mind. I was curious to understand more about their childhood. Was there something uncomfortable about their childhood that led them to prioritizing comfort? Or possibly, did they spend their primary and secondary education in a setting that restricted fashion experimentation or only allowed uniforms? If not, what was that point in time where they realized they do not care about style and prefer comfort?

It’s interesting because this conversation with my friend reinforced that fashion is a subconscious practice. There is a reason we are attracted to certain garments, shoes, accessories, etc., and its quite fascinating with how much our childhood has to do with that.