One of the best descriptions of fashion
I've ever heard came from Alan Watts who said something to the effect that fashion
is a race to see who can be the first to conform. Peer-obsessed adolescents beg
to own the same brands as others and aspire to get more friends on Facebook. Social networking is a fashion, one that's
here to stay, like a tattoo. Latin modus, meaning "way, aspect, manner,"
is the root of Italian moda, or
fashion. When I was a teen, long before SMS's
and Iphones were invented, the "in" look was called "Mod,"
coming from modo, Latin for
"just now." Which reminds me, an
American once put ice cream on pie and called it "Pie à la mode"; soon
restaurants all over the U.S. claimed to have been the first to serve it. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. At the same time, there may be a thin line
between envy and conformity. Keeping up
with the Joneses--imitating one's neighbors and trying to top them--is a
foolish aspect of being fashionable.
Lately, spending millions and millions of dollars on a single piece of
modern art seems to be the up and coming fashion among billionaires. Today they will purchase at any cost what
others have deemed valuable. Critics,
designers, entertainers, and high end advertisers grease the wheel of
conformity. Television advertisers,
those glorified barkers who appeal to the average man, woman and child's
subconscious, push everything from cars to toys to vacation hot spots. They convince us we want certain hair products
and ready-made foods; they even induce us to patronize certain businesses. MacDonalds is starting to advertise overtly in
Italy; little kids are already hooked.
Even popular dog and cat breeds come and go, much like shoe styles. I can remember when the fad 
was Dalmatian dogs,
after the movie. When it comes to
clothing, globalization has curtailed textile and garment production inside
Italy. It's getting harder to be elegant,
considering the inferior quality of imports. If only our now chic athletic shoes weren't
made by Asian slaves! Obesity in the
West, a growing problem--no pun intended--has created a whole new line of
fashion, a trend currently unfolding in once trim Italy. When I was a teen, obesity was uncommon even in
America. So was fast food. We girls had to wear skirts and nylon
stockings to school as dictated by a dress code. Anyone who wasn't "in" was "whipped." Not only were there fashion bullies, some of
us also had to quarrel with our parents about skirt lengths and hair. Kids today have no recollection of the uncomfortable
days before the unisex look, when young schoolgirls had to wear garter belts
daily, undergarments 
considered sexy today.
They don't even remember when bra straps were not only vulgar but also
taboo. Females from less permissive
societies must battle in order to be hip by Western standards. In Italy some Muslim girls have already been
murdered by male relatives for dressing like Westerners. Trousers seem to be favored among Western students
of both sexes today, a major breakthrough in comfort for females, in my
opinion. Fashion trends can be down to
earth, even liberating, and sometimes good for the planet and other living
things, as in jeans, faux furs and scooters. On the other hand, trends can be as silly as
the emperor in his new clothes, as in Viagra for young men and surgically
enlarged lips for women. At its very worst,
style is a greedy despot that cares nothing for test animals in cosmetic and
pharmaceutical 
laboratories; feather and fur-producing creatures; factory conditions;
or the environment. Smart parents teach their
kids to reduce, reuse, and recycle. They
remind them often that the people in the ads are actors and models, that they
are being used to sell something, not to give life meaning. We all need to remember that life is about
relationships, not looks and things. Let
the copycats waste their resources, season in, season out. Let them entrust their bodies to the plastic
surgeons and tattoo artists. The people
they want most to impress may not even notice their efforts. Why?
Because they may be too busy concentrating on their own race to
conform. The non-conformists, meanwhile,
will carry on like classics, maybe even be copied on occasion, if only because they
are original. UN’AMERICANA A VENEZIA
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