“No Favored Frocks”

Do you think we are becoming more culturally conversant in fashion? Do you find yourself needing to bridge that gap less often?

I definitely think we are more culturally conversant in fashion. Certainly the prevalence of it on television has helped a great deal. I do think that there’s still a belief that it’s this separate and distinct and somewhat trivial aspect of popular culture. I still think that some people find it very hard to consider it as a million dollar industry, a global industry. I think sometimes they find it difficult to have a nuanced conversation about its influence on the culture. I tend to think that people see it in terms of either its bad or its great.

I also think that sometimes there’s still that hurdle of the runway, where fashion is at its most intense, at its most saturated. There’s still this irresistible urge to select the most outrageous photograph, either from the runway or some person walking into a fashion show, and to use that as the representative for all that fashion is. To me, that would be as if a photographer went to a baseball game and found the guy that had his face painted and took that photograph and used that as a representative of a sports fan base.

That’s why I think fashion still has a lot of catching up to do in the way that it’s culturally perceived. Some of it the industry brings on it self, because it can be over the top, ridiculous, extreme, exaggerated, and all these things. At the same time, I don’t know that a dedicated sports fan is any less over the top, extreme, and bonkers.

I might even say they’re more so.

I have never witnessed a brawl break out at a fashion show. I’ve seen a lot of things happen, but brawling fashion hooligans, I have not witnessed.

I loved this interview between Robin Givhan and Adam Wray for REDEF; she has such a warm, humane take on the fashion industry, and that comes through so clearly in her writing and when she speaks. I highly recommend reading the interview, and also everything she’s ever written, in that order.