Why Fashion Matters

Oscar Wilde

Fashion has long been the stuff of fairytales – ‘of dreams and illusions’ as Karl Lagerfeld so aptly put it. Escapist, volatile, self-expressive, unpredictable and undeniably beautiful, it epitomises a quintessential human need to create and for that creation to be noticed. In 2010, fashion had never more captured the zeitgeist. Some characterise the fashion world as narcissistic, insidious, and terribly vacuous, some laughingly complain that it has no place in the ‘current economic climate’. But the cold hard reality is we love fashion, especially for extravagance, even its very ephemerality. Nothing rivals the rush of blood in purchasing a new item, be it Chanel clogs, or a perfectly-fitting pair of jeans. No one is immune to the magic.

Fashion as an art-form has blossomed in recent decades. Our constant desire for something new, daring and original has led to more accessible fashion– barely a week after a catwalk show success, high-street stores have created their own affordable version of a coveted piece. Gone are the days of single trends, we have choice and diversity, affording greater creativity in styling. This creativity, coupled with clothes-swaps and vintage thrift shopping means that in the face of a ubiquitous tenor of despondence, we maintain an exhilarated delight in dressing and expressing ourselves. For it is in fashion, and implicitly all art forms, that we save ourselves from the banality of human existence and affirm that there is more to life than mere routine.

Oscar Wilde proclaimed that ‘all art is useless’ in a maxim that paradoxically glorifies art. Uselessness is desirable; art is separate and somehow above practicality, and there is more to life than utilitarianism. The same can be said of fashion. Whilst it is gloriously frivolous and fantastic, it is ultimately powerful. In opening my wardrobe I rediscover the hedonistic, carefree girl of crop tops and denim shorts, beach-tousled hair and salty lips, or the demure sophisticate of a contoured blue dress from the school leavers’ ball, all tears and assertions of lasting love. Fashion is fantasy and mystique shrewdly woven together. In reality, I could not keep up the allure of such an elegant dress. For this reason, come London Fashion Week with the buzz of excited anticipation surrounding designers’ latest varying creations, we will be the ones with the last laugh.