Fashion – The Everyday Mona Lisa

With hand on your heart you pledge you don’t give two hoots about what’s hot, what’s not, you never follow the trend and you are your own individual.

Bollocks.

Fact is, if you are hippie, goth, alternative, skater, retro or anything else that comes under a title, at some point in the last 100 years your look has been seen waltzing down the catwalk in Paris, Milan, New York and London. McQueen bought us goth, Galliano did skater and Louis Vuitton is permanently vintage. Let’s also not forget that history repeats and what is in the shops now is only slightly varied to what was in the shops 30 years ago.

Fashion is--and this might come as a shock--a walking piece of artwork. At some point in all our lives we have secretly admired or criticised a perfect stranger’s attire. Without giving it too much thought we are walking portraits of the modern time. What we wear depicts the mood we are in, what our fears are and probably most importantly, what we want people to think we are.   So why does it seem so socially unacceptable to choose Fashion as a full time hobby but yet so hugely smiled upon to collect pieces of artwork?

Seems a little odd as even the most alternative artists claim to be their own people but yet, their clothing and accessories (even the choice of a radical hair colour!) still put them in a category which at some point was considered “The In-Thing”.  Warhol, a filmmaker and painter was commonly linked to one of the most famous icons of our time and for decades we have been copying the style of Edith Sedgwick. The little black dress famously designed by Coco Chanel and recognised worldwide draws a very similar comparison to Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Both encapsulate the symmetrical picture of perfection.

By no means at all am I even beginning to suggest that every being across the planet wakes up every morning and frets over what shoes will go with which skirt. I am more challenging the thought that Fashion is a perfectly acceptable interest to have and be obsessed over. Unless you plan on being a full time nudist you have sold part of your soul to the world’s largest organisation: Fashion.  So next time you go outside, have a look at the walking portraits around you and take a minute to consider what each one’s story is because they are, The Everyday Mona Lisa.

Original (‘rid3in’l) adj. 1. Pertaining to an item of clothing you haven’t seen before in your parents’ or grandmother’s closet. 2. Describing a situation when you are in public and people have no idea what you are actually wearing.