Dancing Towards Greater Diversity at Fashion Week

Eden Miller was the first designer to show a plus size range at New York fashion week and I responded with some scepticism (or perhaps... restrained optimism would be more accurate). Well at Paris Fashion Week, designer Rick Owens decided to use an American college step team rather than models to showcase his clothes. His show, and his eschewment of the usual tall, skinny models, has won him considerable praise and and some decent press coverage too.

Read about it here... and then watch the video here...

So I'm upgrading my optimism levels from restrained to gentle.

Familiarity and Otherness

I found this article on Turkish fashion to be really fascinating. In articles like this there's always this delightful interplay between familiarity and otherness. These women live in a country and a society vastly different from my own. Yet when reading the quotes from women about how they want to dress attractively in flattering clothes, the sentiments expressed are very familiar.

It is often stated that clothes allow an individual to express their unique personality and identity. But this article serves as a reminder that clothes also express group identity. By wearing thick-rimmed glasses, or all black, or designer labels, we associate ourselves with the plethora of other people who style themselves in similar ways. For the women in the article, how they choose to dress is a way for them to demonstrate their identification with a particular conservative ideology and membership of a global religious group.

I always tell myself that I dress for my own personal enjoyment but it's interesting to think what group membership I am, perhaps unconsciously, trying to identify with through my clothing.

Also - check out the photos from Istanbul Fashion Week!