As a kid, my dad used to yell at me to “Create fashion, don’t follow it.” I chalked that up to my dad being an old hippie. I figured my dad wanted his 12-year-old son to shave an eyebrow or something. He did suggest it on more than one occasion. What I’ve learned later in life is that he wanted to have a free thinking son.
I struggled for a long time on developing my style or learning what that even meant. I looked at examples of utopian and futuristic media as examples of creating fashion and I didn’t like them. I don’t think that is where design is going. Tv shows and movies that portray the “future” of fashion cast it as bleak and unisex.
No content exists in a void. Every person brings their own memories and experiences into their interpretation of fashion. What may be considered sleek and clean to one person seems sterile and lifeless to another. This is one part of the futurist mentality of fashion that puzzles me. It is void of history. I love my leather jacket. Growing up, I would wear my dads around the house and it made me feel tough. Everyone carries tactile stimuli similar to this that brings back those types of memories. This won’t change going into the future. Look at the resurgence of vinyl, film cameras, and reboots of classic movies. This sentimentality of the past is not a passing fad but rather a statement of our nature.