Telling stories through fashion
Image: Bauhaus costumes, Triadisches Ballett by Oskar Schlemmer. Staatsgalerie, Germany
The patterns on a vest or the lines of a suit are telling of the wearer’s personality, but more than that, fashion exposes unique stories in its presentation, production, context and history.
Fashion can be overt or subtle in the ways it reveals these stories. Moreover, it can also refer to the production of the garment; the artist’s background; the depiction of an era; or a genre or trend. Fashion’s stories can be chronological or all-encompassing, found in the details, or part of the conceptual DNA of a piece. A runway show, for instance, is a procession of outfits and looks that stages the maker’s style; the collection’s aura; or the season’s feel. The runway is a setting for fashion to present its story as an event or a time-based performance.
Fashion, like photography or graphic design, is a medium that exists on a gradient from functionality to aesthetics. Its primary purpose and focus is typically form: fashion can be seen as utilitarian to our everyday, but it can also be regarded as art. ‘High fashion’ is the term used to distinguish the expensive and high-end from the norm.
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