The dumb fashionista

I have realized the fashion industry is very exclusive. The most people get to see of the industry is on television and through magazines. This limited view of the industry tends to create stereotypes concerning fashion and the people who love it. Although some of the stereotypes can be scathing, others are quite comical. \nOne of the biggest stereotypes of fashion people is that we are all derelicts who sit around sipping martinis talking about the next orgy we are going to attend. I have concluded this stereotype was taken out of thin air by someone who did not understand the passion or process of design, photography or writing. \nTo set the record straight, fashion people are not stupid. They are some of the smartest people I have ever met. When statements that undermine the intelligence of fashion people are made, it doesn't make the perpetrators look like rocket scientists. Making such a statement takes for granted the mathematical intelligence needed in order to design, pattern, draft and sew. \nMaking patterns from scratch isn't easy -- and it doesn't come easy to most people the first time around. You have to be able to calculate measurements in your head accurately. For instance, when drafting a neckline you have to draw lines that are 1/12 of a bust measurement minus 1/4, and then do 1/12 of the bust or 1/6 of the neck measurement plus 1/2 , and that is just a part of the process. \nBesides the calculations being difficult when dealing with measurements like 38 and 3/4, you have to be able to do them in a timely manner on a ruler. I dare anyone to say fashion people are stupid to a fashion design student who just finished making a tailored suit for a hunchback. The reaction won't be pretty. \nAnother stereotype I find amusing is fashion people are always dressed to impress. I remember bringing pictures home of Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors, and my boyfriend's little brother saying, "Why are they dressed like that? If I were him, I would be fresh from head to toe." I usually ignored remarks like that, because I thought, "They know not what they say." \nThen one day a co-worker said, "You don't dress up. Most fashion people dress up. The ones I see are always dressed up."\nI thought to myself, "The ones I see" -- as if he was schmoozing with these people everyday, and "they are always dressed up." Meaning every time you see them in a magazine/television, or meaning after they just got done working until 3 a.m.? Statements like this are weird to me. When people go to fashion week, they will see designers come out and take their bows in jeans, a wrinkled shirt, sneakers and with bags under their eyes. If you have ever seen a model in passing, not on the runway, they are not dressed up. In fact, I noticed the look is "I just got out of bed and decided to put on cowboy boots." \nIf you want a show, build a runway and hire a make-up artist. If you want real life, go to a designer's studio during fashion week. The grueling hours and the pressure to create a great show are apparent when you meet the photographers, models, designers, seamstresses and writers. \nOne of the most irritating and far-fetched assumptions is fashion is irrelevant and tripe. To say fashion is irrelevant is a narrow-minded view of the world. As long as the law says we have to be covered in public, fashion will always be relevant. Clothing appeals to us for the exact reason it is considered to be a tripe subject -- because of adornment. \nIf fashion doesn't matter, then go to a job interview wearing a warm-up suit. When an intern for Vogue writes me and says "jobless and creditless" college students can't afford designer threads, it begs the question, what did she wear during her internship, and has she noticed the Louis Vuitton bags, Juicy Couture sweats and Kenneth Cole coats on campus? Of course many people notice it and that is why there are internships at Vogue. To claim college students can not and do not pay attention to fashion ignores the buying power of students trying to make a good impression, or just wanting to be in style. \nTo claim nothing fashionable is going on in Bloomington is like saying the fashion shows student organizations coordinate are not worth the coverage they receive. If fashionable events weren't taking place on campus, they would not be in our paper. If fashion wasn't important, I wouldn't get letters. Economist Thorstein Veblen summed it up when he said fashion is just as important as war, sports and politics.