I heard on the radio that it’s “Fashion Week” in New York City; which is some kind of publicity event to get people to buy fancy, expensive clothes, the kind they design and make so well in New York. I can’t get too excited about that; I’m just not a fashionable guy (neither can I afford that stuff!).
However, “fashion” is a strong sociological undercurrent, a reality of group-thinking which we are all influenced by. I think fashion is interesting, even if I don’t always agree with the latest fashion trends.
Take eye ware, for example. I’ve worn glasses most of my life (never wanted to fiddle with contact lenses; which themselves are a fashion). Other than allowing me to see things clearly, all I want in a pair of glasses is comfort and durability (and safety; I like the fact that a pair of glasses would come between my cornea and a rock flying thru the air).
But of course, there is a social effect called fashion that determines the shape and characteristics of the glasses that are available for purchase. Back in the 1970s and 80s, the fashion in eyeglasses went towards “aviators”, big lenses with a bar over the nosebridge. Then in the 1990s, it was round glasses; big round glasses. And then in the 2000’s it was small rectangular glasses.
So here’s a shot comparing the glasses I wore back in the 1990s, versus the pair I wear today. (I recently rounded up my old pairs as to donate them to the local Lions group for redistribution to the needy). Now, why do the four pairs of round glasses look so “unfashionable” today, when they were perfectly fine about 15 years ago? Just what re-wired our brains to think that the bottom pair has some quality that makes them superior to the four above it? Personally, I thought that the round glasses provided better vision field and more protection.
But, I don’t want to seem like a geek from the past. Like my dentist. I just visited my dentist for a check-up, and God bless him, he was wearing an old pair of big plastic aviators, like it was still 1987 or something. No Fashion Week for him!
Jim, I don’t know if you remember but “way back when” sometime there was the concept
of “built-in obsolecence,” meaning that “things”–name any one–were made so as to
break down within a specified time so as to force consumers to buy more. (Now I think they
probably call it Gross Domestic Product.)
And basically, isn’t that what “fashion” is? It’s the same concept of “forcing” the
consumer to buy more. If one notices, the concept of “fashion” contains within it the
idea that what one is wearing/using now is yesterday’s news. One must very soon
“update” one’s wardrobe.
Then too, in the fashion industry (or cosmetics or any beauty products, even shampoos, etc.)
people selling the product often quote “as seen in”–fill in the name of the fashion
magazine here. I happened to notice, when one time I got a free subscription to one of
those fashion magazines that is almost all advertisements, that the people publishing
the magazine were basically the same people who were selling the products. Now what’s
wrong with that picture? How much more manipulative can the fashion industry become?
And on another totally different note: As I look at the frames you have had over the years,
I noticed the color of the frames. You called my attention to the shape of them. Then too,
there’s the size of them–from medium to large to small. How manipulative of the fasion
industry to change the shape so drastically–and even the color (from large to small; from
light colors to dark colors)–virtually forcing the person who is self-conscious about
how he/she looks (and aren’t so many people?) to buy new glasses only because their
present ones are “out of fashion.” MCS
Comment by MCS — September 12, 2010 @ 10:28 am
Ummm… Jim… You may not be aware of this, but those glasses are back in the height of edginess – retro is so IN nowadays that only an elite few can truly pull it off, but when they do, it is cooler than cool! I LOVE those glasses, and I wish I could have had a go at creating an installation from them! I am amazed that you kept them – I wish more people would keep their things nowadays. Yes, the instant culture is the pop culture of today, but don’t forget, there are always the uber hip who do not follow trends – we CREATE them! xx
Comment by spunkykitty — September 21, 2010 @ 9:25 am
ARGHHHH, I just left them at the donation bin at the Post Office!!! Oh well, hopefully someone deserving will get a chance at retro cool.
Comment by Jim G — September 21, 2010 @ 8:14 pm