Fashion, Business and Bad Ideas

There’s a running theme of my blogs which indicates that I’m not really a big fan of “fashion” and today’s episode doesn’t break the tradition. I’d compare my relationship with fashion to the behaviour of that of a sine wave...but actually spend time more time troughing than peaking...how would you draw that mathematically? I don’t know. Anyway.
So, today’s outrageous and bold statement is the following:

Fashion is about business, not ideas.

Contrary to popular belief, fashion is actually quite conservative and doesn’t really embrace new ideas. Conservative. Ironic, isn’t it? What with all those exposed nipples and such you would think that fashion was about being free and liberal etc.

Now let me explain. Have you ever watched a fashion advert and thought “that doesn’t really make sense”? Stop worrying that you’re a philistine and don’t understand it because you’re not cultured enough, it’s not actually supposed to make sense. It IS however, supposed to make you feel something, or connect with something, or make you want to be something, even if those things are shallow and/or dirty...welcome to the business of fashion, or at least, how Elenany sees it.
I recently had the privilege of having a chat with the director of one of the best fashion PR companies in London who told me straight, “Honey, fashion isn’t interested in anything controversial or political or religious, it’s shallow!”.
Ohhhh, so THAT’s why everyone uses sex to sell their products and rely on a celebrity wearing their stuff to raise their profile, rather than the actual quality of the idea of the garment itself. Rather than evolving culture, it just reflects and rides off the credibility of other arts.

Example: remember when Jordan wore Juicy Couture and it got really popular? I mean, come on, velvet tracksuits? What was that all about man?

So how does Islam and Muslims and modesty fit in to an industry that uses sex to sell its products? It would seem that it doesn’t. Or, it would mean the focus of the products would have to be on good product design, that is embraced at a grassroots level. It would mean that the design of the actual garment was paramount, and the marketing aspect was secondary; contradictory to the standard process. And where the marketing aspect was introduced, it would mean that the methods would have to be credible, rather than sexual. Kind of like the stuff that Elenany does. Thank you.