Color match, thrift, shop, spend, donate, try on, put back, try on, put back. Try on, put back. The fashion industry’s gorilla glue-like grip on the pop culture of today has only grown in the last decade (and even more so over 2020’s quarantine) to rule the lives of many unsuspecting victims. Specifically, the teens of today. A new passion for fashion has developed, coming in thousands of different categories and styles which include grunge, cottagecore, alt, retro, and more of the sort, all so unique and based heavily in chemical balances and formulas guaranteed to get you looking as cool but also not-trying-as-hard-as-i–actually-did as possible.

In this blog, I would like to discuss the different types of fashion (as the styles have grown tremendously over time, and keep growing) as well as the values in the idea of fashion at all. Is fashion all about keeping up with trends or what looks good in the eyes of modern culture of the time, or is fashion based in color and cloth-type mixing? Merriam-Webster’s definition falls more towards the former, calling the term “the prevailing style (as in dress) during a particular time.” But, fashion has shown and grown to become a form of art and personal expression rather than what is right and wrong, dictated by feeling and “vibe” rather than right and wrong. Although hated and taboo to many, some people just give off socks-and-sandal-vibes, you know?

Fashion, in my life, also has a lot of quarrels with its enemy, function. Although comfort is a huge priority, I have an enormous amount of respect for the people at school wearing high heels or chunky Demonias every day – a lot of people, like my dad and most teachers, see these choices and lifestyles as dumb, but they all obviously know what they’re doing. I KNOW that these shoes make my heels bleed each day, but that’s the sacrifice one needs to make to accomplish an absolute baller outfit. Fashion climbs its way over function in and at our age, and its important to embrace the extreme self expression walking all around our campus.