2008/09/03

Fashion is it's own language


So, this is a paragraph from my school journal entry.  It's only part of it, but of course I had to relate it to fashion.

"I enjoy reading, but as of now I only enjoy it to a certain extent. I love to read articles that are fashion-related because I am so interested in the topic. I aspire to be a fashion designer and take great pleasure in reading anything fashion related. When I receive the Style Section of the New York Times every Thursday and Sunday I enjoy reading it. Three of my favorite fashion magazines Nylon, Zinc, and WWD consist primarily of writing. They are not your typical fashion magazines. Instead of analyzing a book an article analyzes a line of clothing or a style. They speak of the designer’s inspiration and how cohesive a line of clothing is, what connected them and the character or commonality in the clothing. Therefore every time I get them in the mail I’m full of excitement. When reading a novel I have to analyze what people are doing and usually I’m not so interested in it, with a few exceptions. But when I receive anything fashion related I instantly read it. It’s not that it’s an easier level of reading because a lot of the vocabulary used in a magazine like Zinc or WWD is embellished and advanced. Those magazines are targeted for the average 25-year-old to read and therefore are bought by the average 25-year-old woman. I used the word embellished because the vocabulary of fashion differs a lot from the standard English vocabulary. It’s full of excitement, almost like Alice in Wonderland. Everything is so intense, especially when speaking of haute couture fashion. Sometimes real words aren’t even used because there is nothing extravagant enough to describe such a work of art. When I was a child I enjoyed reading books written by Roald Dahl like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG. I loved his writing because it was out of the ordinary. He made up his own words to describe things, which usually left the reader full of excitement. It can be related to fashion articles and fashion clothing-lines because a designer is the same way. A haute couture design is out of the ordinary and cannot be described with normal English words. When I draw my own lines I often have trouble describing them or even describing how I brain-stormed them because there are no words in the English dictionary to describe its unusual elegance or extravagance. No design is the same, it’s not a t-shirt and sweatpants. Instead it’s harem pant trousers or romeo & Juliet puff sleeve assymetrical neck-lined blouses. It doesn’t really make sense written in standard English, but when put on a model or on a sheet of paper it’s something different. It’s something that’s never been seen before and can’t always be explained with normal words."

P.S. sorry for my lack of posts lately I've been very busy, I'll get back on track soon!
Photo Cred: Foto Decadent

3 comments:

hannah said...

you are an excellent writer!

i love that photo.

Kristina said...

That was a great read;)

Anonymous said...

You write very well.