Chrystal Savage, Staff Writer|
Women’s Wear Daily, an independent trade journal that is widely regarded as “the bible of fashion,” recently published an article titled, “The Biggest Spring 2018 Fashion Trends From the Runway.” The article defines the 12 most common trends including haute denim, transparencies, mixed prints, pastels, and saturated colors.
A trend that was obviously absent from the textual article, but was undisputably present among the model images, was the fit of the clothing. While some exceptions must obviously be noted, a vast majority of the items were dramatically oversized in proportion to the model’s figure.
Apparel is not the only fashion item growing in dimension; handbags, towels and hats, just to name a few, are constantly growing taller, wider, thicker and deeper. This begs the question, why do we as human beings continually seek to expand, and what are the consequences?
To even begin to answer the question as to why humans seek to occupy the most natural space possible, it is imperative that we examine the nature of our beings, and how territory is defined within our society.
Living in a patriarchal nation we see this dominance exuded by men, in particular, on a daily basis, from occupying physical, political, intellectual, professional, social, and intimate spaces as defined by Everyday Feminism in the article, “From Manspreading to Mansplaining,” men typically and arguably more outwardly seek independence.
Furthermore, when compared to the rest of the world, America and other developed nations have notoriously emphasized capitalism, materialistic wealth, and imperialistic crusading.
America has been infamously regarded on the world stage as a country that cares little about the exploitation of resources, renewable and otherwise. This exploitation can also be applied to food and access to clean drinking water, items that in our society we fortunately and unfortunately can take advantage of. The fundamental size of individuals in this nation undoubtedly has effects on certain trends and practices in the states.
While many nations have been known to ban fashion items perceived to be wasteful, such as bell bottoms, our particular culture thrives on this very fabric; in America, “bigger is better.” We have bigger houses, bigger cars, bigger meals, and maybe even bigger egos. But is bigger really better when heart disease, climate change, and economic resources are a constant worry?
The consequence of this power seeking struggle for dominance, and confidence in self-sufficiency is a human race that is dramatically unequipped to adapt and evolve with the future and changing environments of various forms. While yes, oversized clothing is “just a trend,” it yearns for an origin, which can only be explained realistically in terms of science.
The fact is, culture influences trends. Traditionally speaking, imperialism, territorial dominance, wasteful materialism, referent and coercive power, are character ideologies that are of particular value within our Westernized society and influence the scale to which a particular item is planned, manufactured, displayed, and used.
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