Fashion's Not For Everyone - Intro
Relax, it's just a joke. Well it's actually not.
Welcome to my first ever Substack post. Here I want to explain the title and what you’ll be reading from me. You’ll also get an idea about how much I absolutely don’t bite my tongue. Fashion’s Not For Everyone will consist of one weekly paywalled, longer format written piece, and two free-to-read shorter pieces discussing poignant topics or relevant takes on the things happening in the fashion world at the time. They may sometimes be extended voice-notes or even videos. We’ll see.
So let me explain, there’s a few takes on this.
Firstly, all of fashion is not for you. You are not automatically entitled to all fashion just because someone has made it, and someone else has told you it’s cool. You certainly don’t deserve to be “trendy” at the expense of most likely women of colour in the global south, but sometimes here in England, who have been exploited to make it for you. And you don’t deserve to be “trendy” when it is costing the planet. This is probably what leads my criticism of so many brands and people shoving product down our throats online. There’ll be 100-150 billion items of clothing made this year, and you want to try them all? Is all this really necessary?
When I first thought of Fashion’s Not For Everyone, I was actually at fashion week. And while I will often sit at shows and think, ‘are this many looks really needed?’, it made me think about the role of influencers.
…Sit tight…
I have done countless fashion weeks now, and been to hundreds of shows, I’ve walked in them as a model, I’ve written them up as a fashion editor and I’ve even been paid to attend shows as “talent” like most traditional influencers do, and provide social media coverage. Over the last few years I’ve noticed a massive increase in the number of influencers there and wondered what they all did and most of all, what business they have being there? What do they actually bring?
Be very intentional with who you reward with a follow online. These people will shape whether or not you get sold to every time you open your phone. They have the ability to make you feel less worthy or make you feel like you need something new. The alternative is following people who inspire you, who teach you things and who make you think what you have is enough.
There are some incredible fashion influencers who care deeply about the clothing, the shows, the house codes and the history of these brands and can talk in-depth about clothing at a fashion show. There are many more who not only don’t know, simply don’t care. They’re there for clout, because they think this is what cool people do, so they need to be seen there, they absolutely don’t care about the clothes or the designers. Yet they’re sat front row, kicking up a fuss about not sitting next to their friends or the fact they’re second row at Chanel, while Suzy Menkes is trying to get a good view of the clothes past them. Fashion Is Not For Everyone. This part is particularly frustrating and for me there are certain aspects of the industry that do not require open-access for everyone. I think this a lot at fashion week as more and more fluff enters the room.
Here comes the counter. Fashion is for everyone. The democratisation of fashion has meant that more people than ever have almost unlimited access to the fashion industry, and more clothing than ever. Social Media opened the world up for passive viewing to whoever wanted to see it, giving overnight opinions to anyone. Formerly the most exclusive runway shows were only open to buyers and press, now you can watch it live from your phone, on the toilet. The most inaccessible brands have become available second hand at your fingertips, with repairs and alterations for clothing also available at the push of a button. But it has also meant that we have access to different styles and different people, connecting us to people who make our clothes, the brand owners and independent designers who can now speak directly to us, and us to them. Fashion should be inclusive, diverse, progressive and representative. Even at times where I think we may going backwards, we are further ahead in this regard than ever before. But don’t get me wrong there’s still a long way to go.
But fashion should also be responsible. And let me tell you unless you are starting a brand that brings something novel and groundbreaking, makes use of the existing, gives back more than it takes, or helps raise people up out of situations, then we do not need another fashion brand. You’ll read more in my next piece on this, but in many cases the best thing a lot of people can do for people and the planet, is just delete their brand, full stop.
What I believe, is when you can say to yourself that “this fashion/clothing/trend isn’t for me”, I think you’ve got to a really good place, in terms of consuming fashion more responsibly. You can watch trends come and go without subscribing to them all, and you have a much better idea as to what works for you. You can admire clothing at times for what it is, and at the same time appreciate it’s still not for you. I do this all the time. Some of the people I consider the coolest on the planet wear things I would never dream of. And that’s okay. Make fashion personal again?
My issue with social media and how it performs for creators in the traditional sense is that I am beholden and at the mercy of a brand deal for it to be financially viable. For example, I have to push a brands’ story most of the time, and maybe cover one of their product launches to make money. This is infrequent when you operate like I do on those platforms and I can’t create in the way I like to, and it be something that is rewarded in any sense. I have to make the content “Brandable”. Therefore, switching my insight into a platform like this makes much more sense. I can say all the things I want to say, in much more detail and things that often get me in trouble, and I can feel valued. The big social media platforms value creators within sustainability the least. I know this from a chat with Eva Chen a few months ago, where I sat pulling my hair out most the discussion. This also came a few weeks after I called her out for an H&M Collab. But you see what I mean, even those people are taking that fast fashion money - the heads of the platforms themselves!
I will be able to engage with you on topics that we can cover together as well as give brand recommendations to those who want them. I’ll also spend time doing investigative research to provide you with information which might otherwise be missed online or in traditional journalism. And always with my added touch of zero patience.
I hope you enjoy Fashion’s Not For Everyone. More than ever we need people to be educated on sustainability and the dark depths of fast fashion. We need to think more deeply about how we consume clothing, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to know who we can trust and who we can’t. So I hope to provide some of those insights here, and most of all I want to share the industry access that I have, in the best way I can.