Fashion Is for Sheep

Neither follower nor conformer be

A sheep, also known as a consumer of fashion. (Source: author)

We are not born clothed, but quickly come to need clothes. Throughout our lives, we cover our bodies with garments primarily for utilitarian purposes. We humans are both the only animals who need clothes and the only animals who have the intelligence and free will to create and select clothing. What a boon for the clothing industry!

Yet, we are not completely limited in our choice of vestments. Human societies aren’t entirely dystopian, so we usually can freely select from a variety of types, colors, and textures of clothing. What a boon for the fashion industry!

Yes, the fashion industry. I put it to you that the fashion industry is different than the clothing industry. Clothing is more on the utilitarian side — covers the body, keeps you warmer and safer. Dickies and Carhartt clothes are about utility, not fashion. Fashion can be simple aesthetics, sometimes very simple, like Garanimals from my earliest childhood.

Fashion can also be highly elaborate. It can be exciting, daring, fun, but also stupid, and…