New World for the Brave

For the skeptics and those too lazy to be imaginative, here are a few facts about fashion and the different kind of world we must accept we live in.

Fashion design, true fashion that is, not just clothing design is meant to be culturally and socially relevant. Just like art, true art that is, not just empty visuals.

Anyone who is seriously interested in fashion design has to acknowledge the fact in order to design well, you must go above and beyond beauty or shallow aesthetics. A great designer must understand the women and men who they are designing for and the world they live in. Designers must not only take into account silhouette, textures, color, styling, popular culture, subculture trends, accessories, merchandising, mobility, technology, our modern fast paced lives, but also the concerns of these growingly savvy consumers.

Fact: People today are demanding information about the products they consume.
You can't make a loose sketch, pick some trendy fabric, pay 2 cents for some mother of 8 to sew it up over seas, expect her to be cool with it,  ship it to your local retailer and expect people to throw down a stack of cash while they call it "fabulous."

People want well-designed products.
They do not want products that have been overly processed with the following:
Chemicals (such as the bleaching, sizing, degumming, and finishing toxins used in the textile industry).
Cheap and cruel labor.
Visual trash.
Media-grown expectations.
Immediate gratification.
Fame-hungry mediocrity.


 Consider that when you think about luxury.



Sure there are people who have seen this genuine consumer trend and have tried to make money off of it without actually partaking in true ecological practices. But there will always be people who would do anything to get ahead, make a buck despite the means, and take advantage of people and their beliefs. Take look at what's happening on Wall Street, smell the greed and desperation. This does not and SHOULD NOT overpower and shadow those who have an understanding of what's truly at stake and have made investments in the developing of better practices for the collective.

Although you made be fed up with advertisements promoting all things  "green" isn't it like throwing the baby out with the bathwater if you disregard the movement altogether?





Sure, there are a lot of contradictions with the sustainable movement in fashion. Such as the fact that designers have 6 different collections going out every year. How do you promote sustainability when every new collection delivered to stores basically poses the previous as aesthetic waste? Why design things with an expiration date when you could design things that with time gain value?

We have problem here, because this mean we must fight what we know, what they have taught us and all those who are either in denial or too busy trying to get noticed. Design must be rethought. We do not live in the same world we knew five years back. There is a recession (economical and cultural). We must take advantage of this opportunity to do things differently. Because we can't keep adding 2+2 expecting to get 5. 


Lets use our heads. Intelligence is the new black.