(completely unrelated picture)
There's been a post sitting in my drafts for a while about the inherent consumption of the fashion industry but I don't quite think it's well researched/coherent enough and I'm not totally confident in it. Basically what i wanted to talk about was the fashion
industry and the business of fashion. I think most people, myself included, want to get involved with fashion because of their love of good design and desire to support those creators but there is such a large portion of the fashion industry that has nothing to do with design and quality craftsmanship and more to do with producing fast fashion that can be churned out cheaply in third world countries and sold by the tonne. I find it really hard as a student earning minimal money to avoid chain stores out of necessity but also just out of convenience and priorities. It makes me feel quite conflicted... however I have found that shopping at op shops and markets makes me feel less guilty about my consumption.
At university we are constantly told to think about our careers and to start working at them now. I've been torn for a long time now between art and fashion and I think the main difference between working in either of those industries is that art seems to have more 'dignity'. It's about promoting and nurturing artists and presenting art to everyday people to enrich their lives (I know this is a very optimistic, non-comercial view) whereas the fashion industry has a small portion which I imagine is like that yet the vast majority of fashion industry jobs and the glaringly obvious end goal seems to be to sell sell sell, no matter what and to actively promote consumption through planned obsolescence/bad quality goods/ridiculously quick turnaround of trends/fashion calendar of seasons.
I don't really know how to resolve my love/hate relationship with fashion to be perfectly honest. I would love to say that I'll just save up and only buy good quality designer clothing but I won't. I have higher priorities and would rather a plane ticket than Prada.
I would love to have a job in the fashion industry but the more I learn about marketing and the realities fo the industry, the less I want to be involved in the promotion of greed(?) but I still want to help 'creators'. I may have to try and focus myself more towards the creative side like styling, magazine writing, fashion curating and even academic writing. On reflection I actually quite enjoyed writing my extended essay in grade 12 about the depiction of womens' professional roles in popular media through costuming and I would love to do a PhD thesis on a historical fashion movement and it's connections with society someday. It's thinking about and celebrating fashion that excites me which is hard when business is basically always the end goal.
/end rant
