The Fashion Industry Is Our Hopes and Dreams

I need the fashion industry to live. Stores, clothing, trends, advertisements, photos, magazines… They are my lifeline, my saving grace. People mock the fashion industry as petty and superficial, but really, it’s not.

The goal of the fashion industry is to sell people a better, improved image of themselves. That fancy rolex? It represents that man’s dream to be a top broker on Wall Street in the next few years. That evening gown? It represents that woman’s desire to walk the red carpet for her dream role in a movie. That little pair of baby shoes? It represents that woman’s dream to raise a family and have a happy life. That trendy shirt? It represents that girl’s desire to fit in, even when everything else might be going wrong in her life. Fashion is a lifeline. It shows what people really feel, how they act, or how they want to be shown to the world. What you choose to wear, how you choose to express yourself, that is your decision. It’s your choice. In a world that’s very unpredictable, where anything can happen to you at any moment in time, knowing you have a choice of how to dress and how you want to look means everything. As the queen, Coco Chanel, once said, “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress. Dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”

We are reading the Great Gatsby in school right now, and I've always admired Gatsby for reasons that not many people do. *spoiler alert* He dreams up this whole idyllic future for himself, one where he has Daisy again, one where he can live happily in his mansion with the love of his life and have no cares in the world. He doesn't just sit on that dream and wait for it to come true though, he acts on it. Jay Gatz reinvents himself as Jay Gatsby, first by his look and personal image, by his speech, and then he builds himself a whole new world based off of those first building blocks.

It sounds crazy, but I can see fashion doing that for people. You can go into any store and you see faces lighting up when someone tries on the perfect dress for their date that night, or their power suit for their first day at a new job. Clothes, new or old, offer someone a chance to take up a new personality, or change their lifestyle. Every time you try on a piece of clothing it's offering up thousands of memories you might make wearing it. 

I might be romanticizing the whole idea of fashion, but to me that's how it works. Looking through my closet I remember so many special times and people that I don't remember on a daily basis. I guess that's another thing that fashion does, it serves as an existing reminder of the past- that what's done is done, and that there is a whole trove of times waiting to be experienced in these clothes in the future.