In a message dated 9/23/2005 11:16:23 A.M. Mountain Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
I've never been quite sure who Olivia Newton John is, but I don't think I really want to know. I think she has something to do with music? but I don't listen to modern pop or rock or rap music, whatever the thing is now. My opinion is that if you don't understand MTV, VHS, Hip-Hop and the whole youth music culture your are probably incomplete in your assessment of what is going on with "fashion" in our culture. We no longer have one fashion which everyone tries to copy within their economic class. We have a fascination with youth sub-culture and you won't get that without music videos, etc. on these channels. There is a world culture now, like never before. We are truly becoming a world village with exchange of styles reinterpreted. Look at the Tokyo street culture for a creative take on Western fashion. The couture houses no longer dictate fashion. It comes from everywhere. Has anyone else noticed the recent fascination with death? What's up with that? Fashion, however you define it, has always been a reflection of the cultural and sub-cultural hegemony in Western Civilization. It's often referred to as "Zeitgeist". Meaning it can only flower in the historic and socio-political environment of its time. So if something is, indeed, revisited (and it's never exactly the same), how is that reflected in what is going on in the culture? Sorry to be so effusive, but I am currently teaching a class I have labeled "Clothing as Metaphor" which deals with this specific issue. I just spent three hours in that class discussing war and emancipation and its relation to fashion in the 20th century, so am interested in the thread. By the way, if anyone is interested, we are using Fashion as Communication by Malcolm Barnard as a text. I am looking forward to the additional discussion. Cheryl Odom College of Santa Fe _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
