Opinion Piece.
Fashion has long provided a medium for us to create fictional versions of ‘me,’ as a person, identity, entity or place imagined, assumed, or temporary, but not always ‘real’ or ‘there.’
Clothes can provide a mask or an interpretation of ourselves, but one that arguably exists, resides and is ‘worn’ in the minds of others. How we might think we are dressed may not always correspond with how others think we are dressed, or what they think we are seeking to project.
This is where fashion is interesting as it can be argued that we very often trade in and adorn ourselves in psychological fabrication above and beyond physical fabrication.
So, how others see us, rather than how we view ourselves, might become a progressively developed avenue of research. This, in part, is reflected in the world of editorial, film, music and personal wardrobe stylists and consultants, or those who use clothes to co-ordinate aspects, usually aesthetic, of what they consider best projects a client’s desired image.
But, in scenarios where we believe we are playing a part in our own film, we might also pause to consider how we behave as a character or actor in someone else’s play, performance, or narrative. To some extent, this is what we already do in certain situations, such as job interviews, for example, where we frequently look to assume or project an impression that we might believe a prospective employer wants to find in us.
Social psychologist Erving Goffman, considered the author of ‘impression management,’ developed an idea of ‘dramaturgy,’ or how in life we often assume a role as an actor on stage, and through which we develop a ‘screenplay’ that establishes how we might be perceived by others.
But as in any role, it is often commentators, reviewers, or critics that report on and determine the quality of a performance, and where this performance may be argued to be instrumental to the very success, or indeed failing, of a production. Therefore, honing our acting and dressing up skills as someone or something ‘else’ may feasibly make us better, or certainly different, than we actually are in certain regards. This can prove to be a significant way for us to practice co-consciousness.
Seeing ourselves and dressing ourselves according to external perceptions of ourselves, whether formed by people we know, or strangers, or else conducted through technology, how AI will progressively begin to ‘see’ us, may prove an intriguing line of questioning for fashion.
If so, how might this practice be developed and taught within fashion design schools and colleges, and how could it be advanced as something I playfully term ‘Thaute Couture’ - a neologism formed from the words, ‘thought’ and ‘haute’ (“thaute” pronounced as “thought”)?
