Photo by Refik Anadol
WORDS by Javier latorre, Technical Sales Manager
Fashion is a trend, a fleeting way to see things, in each and every part of our life. If we focus on our fashion style, we just have to look at the photos of our parents around 30 years ago… “Oh my god! Did they really walk around like this without feeling ashamed?” That was the trend back then, and our children will probably think the same about what we are wearing today. Moreover, fashion is as fleeting as leaves on trees, and at the beginning of each season it tells us what to wear and what colors are “trendy”, what “is in”. The barrage of this information is constant. We don’t only see it when we go windowshopping at great brands, but also on television, and now, more than ever, on the internet. Who doesn’t know Pinterest? You can find millions of photos with different outfits, with amazing models whom the clothes fit perfectly, as if they were born with these outfits on. And people buy these clothes hoping to achieve the same sex-appeal than these models show. We have to be realistic, we have to know what suits us. For instance, what if the color of the season is yellow and you are as pale as the writer of this article? Well, then you probably won’t have much in that color because you should wear what suits you and not what is trendy. And what about the trend where you wear pants but let show your underwear? I am sorry, but that is something I can’t take, I don’t feel comfortable with it. What if that day I don’t wear the best boxer shorts or they have stains? Should I walk around with them all day long? Well, I am very sorry but it doesn’t seem right. A few days ago, I saw a guy on the street wearing pyjama pants.That is also fashion, it is therefore also a trend. But I guess it is not a trend I will follow. Just because I don’t believe it fits me. I come from Spain, a country where a lot of people my age wear “uniforms” and in my group of friends I am the outsider because I don’t wear what they do. But I don’t pretend to anyway. I take something from here and there, I combine, experiment, I look for what I like and what suits this body I have best, a body that is full of imperfections, but that I have to accept to be happy and be able to enjoy life. Who said trends are meant for everyone? No one. And I don’t believe anyone pretends that. That is why I believe that we have to take from fashion what we like and what suits us, and not what mainstream brands want to sell us. That is fashion to me, personality, comfort and style, that means: stores give me choices and I take what I believe is right for me, what feels comfortable in each situation. I define my own fashion but having a look at what the world is offering me.
WORDS & Photo by julian Behrenbeck Creative Director
Before I’ll go skinny dipping into my thoughts on what is fashion to me, let me get this one thing
straight right away: Clothing is not fashion and vice versa.
I know it’s obvious, but there are a lot of guys out there, who didn’t get the memo. Luckily I did. I have always had a thing for clothing, when it came to picking out outfits to wear to school, for a day off, a night spent in town or other daily adventures. I loved and still admire playing around with what I have, what I saw on the streets, in magazines or on blogs and trying out new things. But this isn’t fashion to me. This is having fun with clothes – some stylists didn’t get the memo either – and experimenting with how you can look and finding what looks best on you.
But: When it comes to my personal opinion, fashion isn’t about finding what looks best on you or what makes you look desirable. That’s the job of clothing. And yes, it can do it very well, as we all know. Fashion to me has a more experimental and ugly impact on like everything included. Yes, clothing wouldn’t be there, if there was no fashion. But it doesn’t work the other way round for me. It’s no news to you that fashion is art. Art needs to make you feel something. It needs to question the status-quo. You have to actually use your head, while it wraps you up in something you found somewhere you don’t even remember as soon as you leave the room. Art is rougher, more out-there, more aggressive, uglier than the photograph or painting of a beautiful, but random landscape you see, every time you enter some medical center – you got me, right? Same applies to fashion to me. And the landscape-thing is clothing. It does its job, nothing more, nothing less.
I am not wearing a skirt or a dress for the purpose of changing the view on male’s fashion (I do want to, but that’s not the point right here). No, I am wearing it, because it makes other people feel uncomfortable when I enter the room. And this is some kind of power and strength you can not learn, you can not see, but you can feel and you can make it your thing.
I am not throwing some black ripped tights on me and wear a pair of black wedges to a leather skirt to be provocative or to bring the point of diversity right to your face. People like to think that way, because it is easy. Art has never been easy, neither has fashion. I am putting this on myself, because it is what I truly believe in, what can and will transport a message and my personality best.
Fashion never has the need of looking beautiful. Neither have I.
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