Indiana Nash, News Editor
In this day in age, almost every piece of information you could possibly desire to know (and sometimes not know) is at your finger tips. With this availability, you’d think the world would become some sort of utopian center of knowledge and creativity; ceaselessly churning out innovative solutions to any problem that could ever arise. However, unless I’m just not looking, this has yet to become the case. Instead, the world has grown into a place where entertainment comes easier than ever and staying “connected” to pop culture is treated like a necessity. Unfortunately, the availability of information and images has had a contradictory effect on one industry that prides itself on creativity and innovation: the fashion industry.
As a fashion major and someone who hopes to work in the fashion magazine business, the display of every designer’s line, every famous party and every model’s life-story online is something I’ve always loved and been fascinated by. There are countless runway shows with multitudes of designers and models for each season. Oh, and let’s not forget that there’s a “fashion week” for several different countries. Thousands of images flood fashion forward websites, with every blogger and fashion journalist shouting out their “picks” of the season. This is relatively new for the fashion industry: publishers and websites were not always allowed to place pictures of runway shows online. Since its first web debut, many designers have found that the new platform gives them more exposure, promotion and helps popularize their products.
Though obviously very intrigued by all the hundreds upon hundreds of new designs that sites like Vogue.com post every season, I become overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude. While scrolling through to attempt to find what I think will be the next trends or “next best designers,” I usually end up reverting back to whatever my most trusted fashion journalists or designers have decided to be their favorites for the season. In a sense, I allow someone else to choose exactly what I’m going to wear and how I’m going to wear it. This works the same way with up and coming student designers. It’s difficult to develop innovative ideas and inspirations when student designers are constantly being inundated with images that tell them “this is what is popular and this trend is what will make people want to buy your designs.”
Even around SUNY Oneonta’s campus, it seems that students are becoming more “fashionable” or fashion forward each year. But are they really? In a lot of ways, we’ve all tacked on to certain trends and since we “have those down,” know how to wear them and feel confident in their “trendiness,” we continually fall back on them. As students, this should be the time when we experiment with our appearance and our sense of style. We should be taking risks with our wardrobes now, while we don’t yet have the pressure of “being a professional” and dressing “the part.” It’s become too easy to look to runway trends for constant inspiration: fashion is all about breaking the rules. If we’re only following designers who break the rules for us, aren’t we only following their new ones?
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