Fashion as a Tableaux Void...

This runway shot from New York Fashion Week by Sergey Dolzhenko/European Press Agency captured a brilliant idea - the blank canvass of the female.  The photo accompanied a NYTimes article, The Sun Never Sets on the Runway, about how Fashion Weeks have escalated in venues, lengths and number of places. 

Our adornment makes statements. Of our culture, our community and our place within it, our statements of individual uniqueness and our class.  Dressing is an act of art and communication.  Your outfit makes a statement in a language all of it's own. 

I've never sat in a Fashion Show, but I sat in an audience last week (no photos allowed) to see the Acoma Pueblo Indians dance their Feast Day dances.  All dancers carried or wore evergreen boughs.  Each woman's outfit was the same with variational flourishes.  Same for the men.  The paint signified meaning, the noise makers symbolized group participation and harmony.  The hand rattles even held meaning.  To me, I didn't understand the language of the dress beyond knowing that conformity within the group was more valued than individuality.  Regardless of where you are, playing the game of reading the language of the dress is an interesting game in cultural signs.  Santa Fe or NYC: can you spot the tourist?  Atlanta: Can you determine the class of the person?  Think of your own place and what you wear to reflect your place in your community, your belonging and your individuality.

My children make statements of their own and they sometimes don't fit into my own cultural and social frame. Or they push me out of my own frame (having girls will do that).  Even these things - my understanding or misunderstanding of the clues of dress -- indicates the change of signs, the inability of symbols to be stagnant.   In Atlanta, pearls are the conformity symbols.  In NYC the status marker is the handbag, or, for men, leaving a suit sleeve unbuttoned to flash that it is tailor-made. 

 

Comments

[nyc starlet]

fashion is more than expression!
fashion is confidence! it's letting everyone around you know that they can go ahead and judge you! fashion is beyond what you put on, it's everything you want to say but can't. fashion lets you wordlessly declare 'I"M FABULOUS!" without being a total tarthead, because nobody who is truly fabulous will ever actually speak of how fabulous they are, duh.

fashion is givenchy
fashion is dior
fashion is louboutin
fashion is lanvin
fashion is ysl
fashion is passion!!!!!

yeah yeah yeah, who you are as a person and your character matters and is important.....but only to those you know, only to those you keep company with....fashion lets you be known by the rest of the world, by the strangers you pass on the street,- they'll remember you...they'll know who you are, and we all want to be known.

[Hattie]

I was thinking of this when I met a friend downtown who was all dolled up in a print dress with a picture hat and carrying a huge bouquet she had just bought. I was wearing my usual dress t-shirt, the one without the stains, cutoffs, and my best flip-flops!
Does send a message. I was there to run errands but she was having an experience.
But I know this is not trivia.

[Janet]

I have never been fashionable except for a brief time in the early 80s when I went for a hybrid punk/Flashdance thing. I have learned what style of clothing looks good on me, and right now that style is not available in stores. So I have 3 dresses for "good." The rest of the time I am in jeans or shorts depending on the weather.
I fully expect to be a complete embarrassment to my daughter throughout her teen years.