Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Chapter 1: My Philosophy of fashion

I believe it's time I consecrate an entire post to my Philosophy of fashion.
Many of my friends have started asking me what's the possible relation between
Fashion and Philosophy, as this could easily appear as two contradictory
worlds and views. I've been a Philosophy student for too long now,
 and you all know it's easy (if maybe ineluctable) to start applying your newly
acquired knowledge into your everyday life and experiences.
My relation to fashion is as primary as my relation to Philosophy.
Since I can remember, I've been haunted by the fundamental questions
of philosophy: Is there a beginning of the world or has it always been there?
What does nothing means? What happens after we die?
I discovered at a pretty early age that we, as human beings (adults included)
were in no position to answer to this questions.
Religion did its best, but it failed certainly. As disappointed as I could be
at the impossibility to answer to this questions, there were some other
ones that could somehow find an answer. Right and wrong,
Good and Evil, Moral Philosophy. My parents gave me
a very classic and fundamental education on universal values:
modesty, bravery, sacrifice, generosity, love and compassion.
My father repeted constantly that elegance, in its very first signification,
meant "knowing how to choose". So, I guess
that's where fashion comes to mind. My father always considered
my mother as an elegant woman, because she knew how to choose.
We were a middle-class family, with a limited budget for clothes,
and still I always managed to be nicely dressed. So I guess,
I would say that I actually have a philosophy of fashion,
and it would be trying to be elegant. And this means, trying to do
the best with a budget. In the end, fashion, as life itself, is all about choices.
Moral choices are based on a certain knowledge, but with fashion
(as in art) there's no universal law. There aren't rules for what is beautiful or hideous.
And then, I would have to stick to Kant's views on aesthetics. Beauty isn't a property
of the thing itself, but a subjective feeling, that it's nonetheless universal.
When you see something beautiful, you actually experience
the feeling of beauty, and at the same time, you are certain that is HAS to be
beautiful for everyone. Fashion, as an art, is the capacity of creating
beautiful clothes that succeed to express this universal subjetive feeling called Beauty.

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