On, IT'S IN. Gentra-Scrapping
EXPLORATION 1 in 2 PARTS
Fashion as an INSTIGATOR FOR Gentrification.
Fashion is the image we create for ourselves in the eye of the public. What we wear dictates how we feel... socially, physically, and emotionally. It also dictates how we interact with our surroundings. It is one of the most malleable forms of self-identification and representation available to us, and it is something that we get the opportunity to make a-new every day.
Fashion is also contagious. We see, we like, we buy. We are informed by what surrounds us. This is how things fall into and out of … “fashion”. America, as a social consumer, is capable of and to blame for stylizing materials and does so in quick iterations, commonly recognized as “fast fashion”.
Those responsible for constructing trends in fashion have recently begun to turn to modernizing “out-of-style” fashions to produce in-style compositions. Something that used to be “in” was once popular for some reason or another, so if we “bring it back” with a new flare, it’ll surely be hip, once again. Thus, we’ve turned the clock back and made fashionable the idea of second hand, repurposed clothing. So much so that we’ll even go as far as to buy “new” that was designed and constructed to look “old”... Essentially purchasing first-use clothing designed to look like second-use scraps... an interesting phenomena. Though formerly considered in bad taste, America has discovered style in intentionally looking “not put together,” a concept of reverse effects.
This type of “fast-fashion”, fast for it's temporality, is dangerous for a couple of reasons.
First, it creates a system that normalizes over-consumption. While outside the realm of gentrification at face, over-consumption contributes to gentrification in the way that it systemically favors higher classes of wealth.
When things fall into and out of fashion at a quick pace, and when mass quantities of people are choosing to participate in this market, we are left with heaps and heaps of undesirable and out of style clothing. All to fill our closets with the next set of trash.
Second, it out-buys a style from those who used to only be able to afford it. When there is a market for previously undesired clothing, the resale value of that clothing can become competitive. In the same way that the wealthy control other markets, such as in housing and technology, their power reigns in this case, too.
This also breaths understanding into the juxtaposition between the "second-hand" store and the "vintage" shop: affordable resale versus high-end resale. Aestheticizing the idea of resale creates division amongst the markets that feed these two types of consumers.
To illustrate this a bit more… let’s talk about the nuclear jean jacket. Time shreds holes into the true 80s jacket with the Grateful Dead logo stitched on back. The image of the jacket outweighs its origin. The aesthetic of the old culture which could be represented by the jean jacket has been exploited and is now the desired aesthetic of the masses. We are stripping our styles from their meanings and creating hollowed cultures in their refestation.
Jessie Yu brings more clarity to this held theory in her blog titled "Thirty Seventh" -
"Sure, they may fit the definition of “cool” created by elite fashion designers, but the problem is they appropriate the socioeconomically disadvantaged. Just as neighborhoods are gentrified and cultures can be appropriated, the same has happened within the fashion world. Fashion is the constant search for the next new, the expressive ‘different’."
Fashion as an IDENTIFIER OF Gentrification.
There is another interesting conversation going around about the effects of gentrification on fashion and fashion on gentrification. This argument discusses gentrification as a process of theoretical “waves”.
The first wave of gentrification is often composed of the creative type; traditionally regarded as those who seek locations of low rent but also those who desire the stimulation of an urban environment. In the case of fashion, these designers move in to low income areas in order to produce pieces typically sold to a wealth category higher than their own. Here, the fashion designer is both a victim of and instigator for the gentrification of their residence, as they provide the market with a product that targets a higher income level than the one that they localize.
This triggers the second wave of gentrification. A higher class of wealth. They seek the products and cultures constructed by the current inhabitants. They seek to be a part of the constructed ASTHETIC, which has been marketed to them by the existing lower class. Their exploitation instigates a continuity of displaced residents.
What does that aesthetic LOOK like? How can you trace it?
Though it is forever impossible to identify a category of people based upon what they wear, as following the non-heteronormative has become just as traditional as following the heteronormative, there are few key identifiers that seem to trace back to gentrification of a location, as discovered in the following collection of material compositions..
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in order to find your way to documentation of materials and styles of the NEW locals. Just like fashion is, Gentra-scraps are temporary. Today's list is different from last months and will be different from the next, too. Each, though, speaks to the greater idea of a fashion culture doing a disservice to the exploited/ less wealthy.
What's the take away?
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to discover the value of being cognizant of our aesthetic and fashion decisions and how they might affect or feed into a demising system.