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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Style: Just A Trend

Posted 7:33 p.m. April 28

by Luke Willoughby
U-WIRE (DC BUREAU)

Editors Note: The author is a writer and university student in Manchester, England. The following is a special European style feature written for the Washington, D.C. Bureau of the University Wire.

Image is, most certainly, everything. An irreverent expose by Richard Morrison in The London Times style section reiterated the well-oiled notion that both sexes are willing to sacrifice a ludicrous amount of time, effort and money in the pursuit of aesthetic perfection. So how has this fascination – obsession – with appearance and apparel, evolved?

Celebrities have made an indelible mark on popular fashion culture and we all strive, subconsciously or otherwise, to emulate the glamour of Hollywood stars, homegrown idols and skeletal catwalk models. Where has the traditional male apathy towards self-deportment gone? The thin pink line has vanished, and men are increasingly preoccupied with mirror politics. Meanwhile, some women are so unnerved and bemused by the escalating male emasculation that many women feel under even more pressure to look fashionable because it is the accepted norm.

Basic economic needs are ignored in the onslaught of fashion; after all why not go without bread for a week if it means sporting the latest pair of imperfect Calvin Klein jeans or modeling a blood-restricting tight Gucci dress? Such is the ludicrous everyday dilemma confronted by all but those wealthy enough to afford. Furthermore, the search for the Holy Grail of timeless style is a futile one in the mutable world of fashion, leaving many a poor Ted-Baker donning teenager ostracized in a playground replete with Duffer or Reiss enthusiasts.

Those who refuse to conform to popular fashion ironically continue to kowtow to a social compartmentalizing their rebellion eschews, as if in warning to potential fashion deviants – beware the unfashionable! Fashion is an inescapable and endemic feature of modern culture, a warped ideology that purports to embrace all when in reality popular style relies heavily on the economic means of the specific consumer. Whereas once style was relative, merely a reflection of personal taste, now we have fashion with a capital F, and it is a truly daunting prospect.

Take the bemusing array of objects we are convinced to purchase in the name of uniformity. Regard the gradually lengthening litany of wallet-wounding must-haves; accessorized Diesel sunglasses, essential nightwear for the truly overstated, customized denim Seal Kay jeans, including thoughtfully manufactured imperfections and tears for those who are incapable of ruining their clothes unassisted.

Demand for these products ensures that the suppliers can afford to impose ridiculous prices on their products. A pair of perfectly wearable, if hardly orgasm-inducing, washed out Diesel jeans retail for a mere ?110 ($160) whilst a flimsy Burberry scarf will set you back over ?80 ($120). The popularization of haut couture elevates the standards of the everyday consumer and, as a result, more and more income is channeled into the accumulation of a designer wardrobe to impress one’s peers and co-workers. This is all part of a new cultural trend – items have been robbed of their practical use to suit the increasing consumer demand for cosmetic artifice.

The wearing of clothes is the assumption of a role or an image, and so simply by changing our clothes we can change the way people perceive, judge and interact with us. Are we really that shallow? The answer, it appears, is yes, since outward appearance is associated with reliability and professionalism by job interviewers, sex appeal to the opposite sex, and sophistication in general.

Today’s mass culture insists that everyone has an image, and this self-definition by means of fashion is entwined with the varied world of music. Rock chicks, skaters, garage nuts and R’n’B fans display their love for the music by the clothes they wear, which reflect an attitude also expressed in the music they listen to. The versatility of fashion makes social classification unavoidable, and while of course it is absurd to suggest that these barriers of taste cannot be transcended in the name of friendship, it is certainly true that we have been groomed by the Orwellian figure of consumerism to choose a clique in society and conform to its rules of style, behavior and language.

Female personal beauty needs are engulfed in the wake of a dazzling collage of male grooming products, which remove those simian nasal hairs, and unsightly razor wounds that once functioned as potent if unsavory emblems of masculinity. Men are increasingly susceptible to the lure of the high-power sun bed and manicures of the unisex salon and the improved self-esteem and success with the fairer sex they promise. Just remember it’s not make-up if it says ‘For Men’ on the box….. honestly.

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