"...the Internet is not merely a parallel universe of self created identities and opportunities, but is a 'dark continent,' a place where people 'more and more live rather than in the real world.' This is not a coincidence. Feeling that you are on multiple channels, and not understanding anything clearly, seems to be a condition of modern life, and each of us deals with it differently."
- Cathy Horyn quoting Barbara Vinken in today's New York Times Style and Fashion section
Tucked in the corner of today's Fashion section of the NY Times is an interesting article about the difficulty the fashion industry is having pushing creative boundaries in a world where few boundaries still exist. She writes, "the Internet offers people all kinds of ways to express themselves- through blogs, e-commerce, photographs and videos. To be sure, some of it is not worthwhile, but the Internet represents a world that is livelier, more daring and actual than what currently takes place..."
something to chew on...
interesting article.
ReplyDeleteThe author perceives that traditional mediums of the fashion industry's aesthetic conversation (magazines and runways) are impoverished. Then she points to the alleged potency of the parallel world of digital communication.
Fashion once served as a beautiful way to both hide and reveal our bodies in the service of human relationship and community. In this mode fashion is rooted in the complex interplay of body and soul in interdependence with other individuals and the earth (climate, vocation, geography, etc).
As such fashion promotes not only self-knowledge (we understand our body's glory and shame in our dress) but it also serves the way we relate to one another. When self-knowledge and human community fall into disrepair fashion will also lose its potency. Hyper-sexuality once added the spice to the fashionistas. However, now it appears they are bored with that as well.
I wouldn't hold out too much hope for the parallel world! This digital conversation, driven by pixelated 2-D representations of humanity and the earth, holds even less potency than the once glamorous world of sexualized fashion.
Root fashion in the body and the earth if you want to touch the soul.
love this...oh so true and easy to get caught up in. thanks for sharing.
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