Fashions' Borrowing Culture

Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibition at the MET Museum
Source: rubiamala.com

Cultural influence in the fashion industry is all too well known these days and the debate over cultural appreciation vs cultural appropriation is something which has always been at the forefront of the fashion industry. In many ways, this borrowing of inspiration is much the same.

Over the years the fashion industry and many creative directors and designers have drawn influences and inspirations from many cultures, subcultures, genres, movements and ideas from all over the world. All the great designers have done it, without inspiration a collection by any great designer would be as flat and as dull as a plain white piece of paper (although that itself can be quite avant garde and conceptual in the case of Maison Martin Margiela). Although designers list anything from countries to paintings to muses as inspiration for collections. Collections can be inspired by a subculture i.e. late 90's to early 00's Raf Simons collections that were inspired by youth subculture and military uniformity, or even a country and it's culture as Chanel's Pre-Fall 2012 collection which was inspired by India.

Of course it's not wrong to borrow ideas and then interpret them in an original way however it is a somewhat degrading when these ideas are borrowed and then it's origins are not acknowledged or challenged.

A quote that has stuck to me since I originally saw it was when Grace Coddington famously remarked at the MET ball this year: "I'd like to see some real punks in here, some real street punks. But I doubt they were invited." This is really a perfect example of the fashion industry's borrowing of inspiration from a subculture but really never acknowledging the true origins of the inspiration.

It is not uncommon for designers to borrow ideas or draw inspiration from subcultures such as punk however fashion always maintains a frou-frou reputation of being perfected and proper even when drawing inspiration from something as raw and anti-materalistic punk fashion. When an idea is borrowed, i.e. the punk subculture, and then popularised by an industry known for commercialisation the question becomes is the fashion industry effectively selling out this subculture? While the commercialisation of fashion carries negative connotations, insinuating things such as mass-marketed fashion or Bangladesh sweatshops - the commercialisation of fashion is one that has both advantages and disadvantages.  On one hand, the commercialisation of fashion allows fashion for all and perhaps even people to buy into these subcultures or ideas, however it also carries the burden of resulting in sweatshops.

In all honesty, the fashion industry really can be segregated into two types of designers, the designers who churn out pretty clothes season after season and those who attempt to break down social biases, promote movements and ideas and do so much more than just design clothes.

When designers such as Vivienne Westwood known for her punk influenced collections or Rick Owens expresses an interest in monochromatic aesthetics which are uncomfortable and out of the norm, it forces the viewer to question culture and especially, popular culture. Through their designs, designers like these, are able to break down our biases towards those subcultures or ideas which we devalue and ask the question of why. Why it is that we have those particular biases towards such things, and the influential factors behind such biases.

Inspiration is subjective however, our interpretation of the subject is objective. What I mean is this, when a garment is shown on the runway, however once our opinion forms of the garment, whether it be good or bad, our interpretation of the subject then becomes objective to us.

It's important to be inspired and influenced by culture and ideas however, more than that, its important to be able to voice an opinion, especially in the face of fashion where judgement governs all.