Going Vogue

I recently read an article on the website Thought Catalog entitled “Clothing Stores Guaranteed to Make You Feel Fat.” The article covered American Apparel, A.P.C., Opening Ceremony and Dior. The author lamented the tragedy of his recent shopping experiences: he felt that the employees at the above stores made him feel overweight. He gets back at these retail workers by referring to them as “malnourished” and observing that, at American Apparel at least, they wear a “D for ‘I sucked Dov Charney’s dick.’”

It should already be obvious that degrading anyone based solely on their weight is reprehensible. But the last thing fashion needs is a wisecracking writer with little appreciation of fashion projecting on the girls at American Apparel, who apparently subsist “on a text message” and a “line of coke for dessert.” What’s at stake here is huge: body image issues are so big in fashion that, unfortunately, they often overshadow the actual clothing. The conversation surrounding fashion’s current direction has drifted away from design and onto image, not of the clothes, but of the people associated with them. The message is overwhelmingly negative: you probably don’t and never will look good in nice clothes, and the people that do are drug addicts or sick or hate everyone else. That negative conversation shuts down the dialogue surrounding what makes fashion important and relevant. Fashion is an art form, has influence on the formation of culture worldwide, and has the ability to do the exact opposite of what the blog’s article was advocating: creating an empowered identity through self-expression that often precipitates confidence. If the author had any respect for fashion he would think twice about publishing that Dior is bringing “anorexic boys back in vogue” and encouraging “heroin chic” — and then leaving out Dior’s even more prevalent love of athletic men and the label’s gorgeous gowns donned by both slim and curvy women.

An article supposedly about clothes is more focused on reinforcing fashion’s ugly reputation as exclusively catering to the cold-hearted and dangerously skinny. In fact, the fashion industry is so much more influential and accessible than that, and it’s time that those of us who claim to follow it start advocating for its resurgence as a means of positive communication between artists and the public.