Tim Gunn, former Chair of Fashion Design at Parsons (The New School for Design), recently said some incredibly humane things about fashion on the Daily Show. The best part of the interview (starting around 3:30 in the clip) was Gunn putting Fashion in its place:
“Fashion — I mean, I’m the first to encapsulate this realistically — nobody needs it. We need clothes, but do we need fashion? No. Fashion, when it’s good, it comes out of a context that’s societal, cultural, historic and economic and political, so it’s of a time and a place.”
Those ten seconds of interview probably made Gunn a class traitor to rigid fashionistas around the world. Was Gunn really taking fashion down a few notches, though? Or was he reinforcing something those same fashionistas have been saying for years: that Fashion is Art?
Both, really. It’s pretty widely accepted that what makes art ‘good’ is subjective. The difference between most arts and fashion — which Gunn makes clear is an art — is that fashion is constantly in our faces. It’s also social currency that’s accepted practically everywhere; a Picasso on your wall might get you into swank art parties, but a stylish outfit (correctly tailored to the situation) will always turn heads.
Moreover, since social currency’s a lot easier to spend when it’s standardized, it’s no surprise that people with a lot of it — the fashion-hounds and trend-setters — want everyone to accept their particular style as the Fashion Standard. They want people to forget that fashion is an art, and subjective.
Tim Gunn wants us to remember the opposite: that nobody worth listening to is going to shoot you for wearing white after Labor Day. Fashion’s volatile. Fashion’s negotiable. Fashion’s mercurial, and flighty, and can’t make up its mind — because there are eight billion people in the United States alone participating in (re)defining American Fashion every time they go outside. Don’t forget about subcultures, either; what’s stylish to a die-hard Goth rocker probably won’t fly with an aging Deadhead.
The point is this: do your thing. As long as you can make a good case for it — “capris make my ass look fantastic!” — you’re good to go. Anybody who says othewise doesn’t get your style, and ought to remember that nobody needs fashion — or fashion Nazis.
Genghis Philip
Gordon Levine
I interpreted the quote a little differently.
I don’t think Gunn was trying to even get into the “art” aspect of fashion, instead just just the clothing aspect and that what is available at a time represents that time period and that is why it’s important. I mean I look at a pair of bell bottems and I think 70′s, tie-dye…60′s, poodle skirts…50′s. And it’s that kind of nostalgia that makes a lot of people smile.
It’s so much more than art, because some people can look at a Picasso and have no idea who he is, further more what the picture is about. But people can look at clothes and know exactly what it is and what era it came from, because they lived in it.
Your stab at “fashionistas” is a little ridiculous. It’s a passion for these people. I appreciate their love and precision in a busniess that is a part of our every day life.
I agree. Dress how you want. But don’t criticize others for doing it better.
Gunn clearly recognizes the distinction between clothes and fashion: that clothes are necessary and that fashion is not. Fashion, to Gunn, communicates “a context that’s societal, cultural, historic and economic and political [and] of a time and a place.” How else would you define art?
Clothes are certainly “so much more than art,” because they have utility in addition to being a vessel for fashion. Fashion, however, is nothing more or less than an art form. Whether or not a person reacts to a given piece of art — a Picasso or a pair of Seven For Mankind jeans — doesn’t change its nature as art. It might make people think it’s better art, or worse art, but the piece’s nature remains unchanged.
I’m not criticizing fashionistas; I’m criticizing rigid fashionistas. (Gunn’s doing the same thing, albeit obliquely.) What’s appropriate for a situation is negotiated between everyone with a stake in it. Moreover, just because something’s inappropriate doesn’t make it bad.
I love fashion, too. I love it so much that I don’t want individual style bowing to it all the time. I think Gunn feels the same way. Nobody’s criticizing anyone for being fashionable; I’m saving all my criticism for anyone who overvalues social convention and undervalues individual style.
The Nazis did however have great fashion. Hugo Boss put a whole gorgeous aesthetic out of reach when he designed those uniforms. It gives me pause to think that a style that shines across fifty-odd years, that reaches even across horrible, awful crimes against humanity cannot be worn without hate. Is it so bad to lose a well cut suit? Of course not. But it’s an interesting thought into deep associations that fashion, like any other art, can have.
And yet farmers (We need bad) get paid very little, these fashion jerks get millions.
While I’d like to grant this premise, Unknown, you’re only talking about small family farmers. A majority of our food is grown/produced by large agrocorps and they get paid just fine. Where are you getting this idea that we ‘need [farmers] bad’? We have so many that the government pays some farmers NOT to grow things.
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I personally can’t wait until society realizes how petty and narcissistic we are being in our never ending quest in search of cool and gives up fashion entirely. Didn’t we learn in kindergarten not to judge books by their covers. Fashion is only skin deep. What matters is who we are on the inside and as long as we are functional and well-kempt, WHO CARES? Get over your coolness people and embrace your humanity.