Oppression and fashion
It seems these days most things are inter related; it seems quite irrational that the oppressive conservatism of society reduces things to casual cause and effect, however, in my opinion things are very much connected intricately. For example people would ordinarily not relate history or class to fashion. So when it comes to fashion what exactly is it that drives us to find new ways to cover our shame. If we go back a bit and see why exactly clothes were invented, we can see it is through something very human. Clothes in a hunter and gatherer society, were used a source of warmth; being naked is something in society that exposes how innocent we were as humans before mainstream society. We did not see nakedness as a shameful thing. However in modern times we see that walking down the street naked would be something absurd and humiliating. So why exactly did we think to ourselves that clothes or garments would cover our shame? As humans it seems it is dehumanizing to not wear clothes. Yet tribes for example the Mapuches in Chile and the Amazon natives do not wear clothes, but togas. I imagine this is because they are conscious individuals, untouched by the consumerism of economically developed countries. So as a matter of fact it seems that to be naked is perfectly normal to these men and women of these tribes. So it’s society’s adaptation to the mentality of society, or do we really believe in our minds that we are more civilised. The fact of the matter is that these societies are equally as civilised, ‘civilised’ in inverted commas, because just like there is no such thing as standard English, there is also no such thing as being truly civilized. Because it is true that imperialism is brutal therefore real civilization is destroyed in the process of trying to civilize a race or humanity. But let’s go back to fashion, seeing as it does exist. What is fashion; well you’ve seen how society wears clothes, and why they do. But this must be a metamorphosis or some kind of synthesis of a reality that pertains to the direct reality in which we live, and then taken further like most things are in capitalism, to a degree of mass consumption and production. The consumerism fetish makes clothes a commodity which goes beyond necessity. But let’s not jump too far ahead of ourselves and say clothes should be all the same, or something ridiculous like that. Clothes are an expression of our individuality. But clothes can be turned into a fetish like anything else. For example black rappers who were gold teeth, and huge chains with clocks. As a black man I feel that the chains that rappers wear are more a metaphor than anything else. The oppression of a generation of black people; so that means that black people are still oppressed; could you take chains to mean the physical slavery of black people. So the chains represent something to do with oppression. If we look at London, we see that hoodies are a fashion of the youth. But they are demonised for wearing these hoodies. So we automatically invent a code in our minds of what fashion represents. For example if your hood is down you are a civilian, and if your hood is up, well you get the point. Is fashion being turned into a fetter by the police, to oppress the youth, we can see immediately see how fashion can make you an outsider. But fashion is like music which can be interpreted by anyone to mean a million things all at once. Take tattoos. People with tattoos are sometimes cast away from society because they break with the norm. So it’s hard for them to find jobs. So is fashion a way of people saying I’m an individual and I want to show this through what I wear; but it can go as far as becoming ‘what you wear is what you are’. I believe fashion is interconnected with society itself. But more than that it is an expression of freedom; we shouldn’t be looking for the latest trends but something which represents our minds and souls.

Juan Rivas