How unique are we?

Today’s post is coming from a quote I came across during my required reading of ‘Fashion a Philosophy’ by Lars Svendsen and it said ‘Fashion has conquered most areas, but lost itself in the process. It is everywhere, but that also means that it is nowhere.’

This got me thinking about the idea of individuality and how unique are we? Is there really such a thing as being unique or are we all just copies that have been tweaked and twisted in some way; looking particularly at fashion and fashion styling.

The dictionary defines UNIQUE as;

Existing as the only one or as the sole example, single/solitary in type or characteristics. Having no like or equal.

So if that’s the case how can we define ourselves as unique, how can we stand out from a crowd of so many in an industry with thousands claiming their individuality. I personally feel that there are two sides to this idea. The first coming from my belief that ‘fast fashion’ is merely old trends recycled and reshaped, and therefore if that is the case, then there is no such thing as unique. Huge high street fashion houses such as Topshop and Zara have hundreds of stores around the world, with thousands buying from them daily; therefore, in a very literal respect many of us are not unique as the clothes themselves are not unique, they are made for many not for one.

The second is too take ‘unique’ as an abstract term and look at it more from the idea that fashion is about ones’ self expression and not conforming to society’s rules about what we should and shouldn’t be wearing and doing.

Diana Vreeland

Within my class today we watched a film called ‘Diana Vreeland: The eye has to travel’ and Diana Veerland completely and utterly captured my thoughts towards the idea of uniqueness, “Style – all who have it share one thing: originality.” This emphasizes to me how important it is to be who you want to be especially within the fashion industry, Vreeland had an innate sense and she knew when she had found someone and/or something worth talking about. Stars such as Cher, Barbara Streisand and Twiggy in their day were not the conventional models being used within the industry, however this didn’t faze Vreeland in her decision to use them with Harpers Bazar and Vogue; and I feel that by going against the fashion norm she stood out more, and by taking stars individual assets, her magazines became bigger and more popular than all others at the time, purely because she was original and stayed true to her fashion roots and was always willing to push the fashion boundaries and because of her bold choices, she is a true icon within the industry. Her work with Harpers Bazar, Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are second to none and her passion and influence have shaped all three to this day.

Cher - Vogue

Barbara Streisand - Vogue

For me personally I believe that ‘unique’ has lost its true meaning, particularly within the fashion industry. I feel that a more fitting word to describe ones’ style would be ‘individual’ as it still embodies the idea that people have very varied tastes but at the same time allows us to highlight our differences, for example two people could both buy a black dress (a fashion cliché, I know) but then style it with their own individual tastes, and by the end potentially have two outfits that look completely different.

To put it simply I feel that to define yourself as unique you merely just have to be yourself, there is nobody in the world the same as yourself and if you embody that into your life, with what you wear then you will always stand out.

Until next time my lovelies

Abi

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ALL IMAGES SOURCED FROM GOOGLE.