I took a long deep breath of stale air in my 2 x 2 and rolled out of bed. After trying to focus on whether it was still Thursday or Wednesday, I saw clothes sprawled across the floor, along my chair and each garment in my closet hanging on for dear life. Instantly, I began to see that fashion is not the revered force since the debut of the clamouring fashion houses: Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and trailblazer Coco Chanel that it use to be. The awkward freezing of time, gripped me with apprehension, but I brushed my own queasiness aside and proceeded to cleanse my mouth of dried air. After leaning over the counter for a couple of minutes, direct questions began to filter into my head: Do you think that we are getting passed the blinding metallics? Or is it the grandeur presence of fashion, do we want it to be more tame and attainable? After quickly surveying the trend of retail and its following, fashion has hit a decline in the prowess over the masses. To conjecture that fashion is dead could be folly, but to say its dormant, maybe more fitting.
The consumer of the 1800’s and new millennium have not changed in quality, but they have changed in demand. Today people want more for their euro, yet pay less for the stitch. Our times have changed from travelling in bulk to the nano. We want it to fit everything either on our hip, our pocket or our briefcases. The world has become a microchip and everything that does not fit into it, is slowly being faded out of existence. Fashion, once upon time filled little girls and boys fantasies of walking down catwalks, being seen in front of the “celebrity,’ the glamour, that has become known as trend. However the growing demand for identity and know who you are, is eroding from the trend of being the follower to: YOU BE YOU.
With the advent of: “Project Runway,” and “Top Design,” a new era of I’m my own designer is forcing the leaders of fashion to slowly comply to becoming the follower of fashion. Though the fashion houses voices are crisps as an English breeze; many of its loyal customers are blocking their ears to the noise and believing they know what works best for them on a cheaper dime. This backlash has led to a staid path of: “Haven’t we seen this before?” If we rewind three seasons back the Victorian Romance era had splashed its chiffon buttresses and S-BEND corsets, with exuberant ruffles everywhere. For the time being we were pure again. We felt a new “it” happening. Moreover, the re-emergence of going back to basics is a signal to all that its time to reform [ not revert back to boring lines ], but to change the market from the upper crust to a whole pie.
Though we want to deny it, fashion is a elitus sport, that only those with the biggest budgets and strongest following remains the aplha-male or female. It only begs the question is fashion ignoring the change, or is it trying to adapt to the metamorphosis that could eventually deplete fashion of its following? In the 1900’s the French had a saying: Belle Epoque or Beautiful Era. Women were consistently presenting themselves in lavish hourglass clothing, ornate corsets, however women became more mobile, independent thus demanding a change from the S-Bend corset to a more high-waisted Paul Poiret's high-waisted line of clothing. This inadvertently forced fashion to adapt to slimmer lines.
Change is unequivocal. Whether we adapt or care to be part of that that change can be our downfall or uprising. Fashion will always be the playing field for: “The Big Idea.” We also need to realize that fashion reign of power over the minds though strong is waning. As we move further into a generation of more consumption; we are also faced with having to think green. Though fashion is adjusting easier to thinking green and becoming socially conscious, it has to now dance between earth awareness and keeping above trend. After writing this article I’ve gone from a bowl of cereal, to shorts and socks to jeans and a T and I think its safe to say, that though we hate fashion pretenses and rules; we will always love the fact that we can get dressed up once in a while and pretend that we are queens and kings in a court with our ball gowns, bowing gracefully with the wind forever blowing in our tresses.

BY JONATHAN REED