True Fashion Versus Disposable Fashion.
What is true, unadulterated fashion in its most impeccable form? Fashionable pieces that withstand changes in culture, season, and popular demand often retain their timeless and flawless quality. One of the most understated luxuries of today are those timeless pieces that define the characteristic elements of fashion, the true “trends” that are revived throughout the ages. Many brands in the fashion industry are made for disposability. While they are crafted for ease of accessibility to the general public, they are devoid of timeless relevance. Their inspirations are as shallow and ephemeral as the likes and dislikes of those who bred them.
What we have lost in this disposable realm of fashion is the real value of fashion, as well as the unmatched standards of stylistic inspiration. Many of the most prominent fashion designers of today glean their inspiration from things that are untouchable, undiluted, incorruptible, and sometimes, formless. And that is why they have managed to maintain such relevance in the world today.
Design Inspiration
Quite often, the clothing industry responds rationally to real world issues. But quite often, the environment serves as the supreme fount of inspiration. A fashion designer can take a seemingly insignificant quality, and translate it into textile brilliance. Texture, in any form, can provide fodder for creativity, helping one to echo dimension and tangible character in whatever they design.
Many leading fashion designers, who have secured a reputable status, adopt an equally abstract approach to generating timeless pieces. Something as abstract as an oasis, or even nature itself, can be a boundless source of inspiration and creativity. The colors, textures, and nuances of nature cannot be constrained by time or shifts in preference.
A simple quality or characteristic of the physical world can serve as a creative response to nature, but also, a mirror into one’s innermost self. One particularly distinguished designer was quoted as using “reflective” as her presiding source of fashionable inspiration. This would account for the immense timelessness that has pervaded her most fashionable collections. A reflective quality is unscathed by cultural movements, demographic distinctions, and ephemeral likes and dislikes. Reflection is the mirror through which we see ourselves, and others, and ultimately, that is what fashion is about. This is an idea that can endure through years and seasons.
And of course, one of the most basic sources of stylistic inspiration is a concept with which we can all identify, namely romance. The whirlwind in romance can be just as enlivening for the everyday person as it can for a fashion designer. And encapsulating romance into fashionable pieces can allow a designer’s relevance to persist through time.
