Fashion has a reputation for being superficial and shallow, and by extension, its enthusiasts are often depicted as skin-deep, status-obsessed people who judge a book on its cover. This assumption is not helped by commonly touted advice such as “dress how you want to be perceived.”
The idea that wearing a cat t-shirt encompasses your personality is silly under critical analysis. While some people dress intending to express themselves, such as “Rick Owens guys” or “Miu Miu girls”, most people dress for convenience or purpose: a raincoat for a rainy day, jeans and a hoodie for comfort, and a tote bag to grocery shop.
Whenever I post on my private Instagram story comparing two outfits and holding a poll for the audience to help me decide which one to buy, my more socially unaware male friends never fail to respond to me with a message about how appearances don’t matter and how I shouldn’t care about thousand-dollar cashmere coats.
They never fail to remind me to “stop being so status and appearance-conscious” and instead buy what, in their eyes, is an identical-looking jacket from Uniqlo.
And to that, I say thanks but no thanks. Maybe even a fuck you.
Because the frequency with which I receive these messages makes me want to pull my hair at some point. What seems like a guy “just giving his honest opinion” is a form of disrespecting another person’s hobby. It’s an innocuous-sounding way of saying that the other person’s concerns don’t matter, that their interests are trivial.
Because fashion as a hobby is often perceived as buying and wearing, the focus is on the “stuff.” But I wonder why the same criticism isn’t applied to those who fancy cars, fishing, or tennis.
After all, don’t you have to buy stuff and interact with things with most, if not all, hobbies? What’s with the privileging of traditionally male hobbies? Why do women constantly feel the need to justify their hobbies like fashion, makeup, and boybands, while men do not?
If you believe fashion is not a real hobby or that it is superficial, please evaluate your bias. As a sewist who often engages in fashion journalism and criticism, from historical to contemporary, I can say that fashion is a vibrant field that, like other mediums of art, makes you think sincerely about philosophy, life, and the world. Fashion is wearable art.
Arguing that fashion is merely about status symbols is like saying all oil paintings are shallow just because billionaires collect them for tax evasion. That is not the point of art.
Likewise, arguing that fashion only functions as a status symbol is a claim based on ignorance. Fashion does not only comprise of mass-market luxury brands. Most fashion enthusiasts gravitate to experimental works by smaller designers. Big brands such as Louis Vuitton and Dior are far from experimental because they already have a formula that works on a commercial scale.
Why do women constantly feel the need to justify their hobbies like fashion, makeup, and boybands, while men do not?
While fashion can be an expensive hobby due to higher-quality textiles such as Japanese denim, cashmere, mohair, and wool being coveted, it doesn’t have to be. Upcycling is on the rise, and all you need is a sewing machine and $5 finds from op-shops to create something that looks stunning and one-of-a-kind.
So, if anyone tells you your hobby is shallow, it may reveal more about them than it does about you.
—
This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
***
You might also like these from The Good Men Project:
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock.com
