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The Antelope

The Antelope

The Antelope

College-age fashion, in the wardrobe of the beholder

antelope+issue+9
antelope issue 9

KEEGAN FRANCL
franclkl@lopers.unk.edu

While scrolling through Facebook yesterday I couldn’t help but chuckle at the comments underneath a Vogue advertisement. Supermodel Kaia Gerber sporting Moschino’s Spring 2020 Ready-To-Wear dress with an artistically designed guitar strapped to the front of the dress. The whole collection reminded me of Pablo Picasso.

The comments were along the lines of, “What has the world come to?”, “No one would wear that in real life!”, “Who is the designer and was he on acid?”, “High-fashion is so ugly these days!”

The ironic part? Moschino’s brand is mocking the fashion system while still profiting from it. Franco Moschino used shows as theater and humor as marketing. Moschino’s brand is all about freedom from ideas of propriety and the wastefulness endangered by trends and rules. 

People seem to forget that fashion is a form of art. Designers have used runway fashion as a means of conveying a message often in the form of a protest or simply describing the national mood through their collection. Just like Nirvana was famous for going grunge on the government, famous designer Raf Simmons protested against society and government through his collections in the early 2000’s. It was so well received and controversial that designers all over the world adopted the grunge/punk look which mostly consisted of unfinished material falling off the models as they marched the runway like dead animals.

 Just like our music, the tone of voice we use when we write, our Instagram aesthetic, the food we like to cook, and how we style our hair — the clothes we put on our body’s describe who we are as a person. Your style could be so strong that you’re lumped in to a stereotype. You wear flannel and Timbs? You’re a hipster. You wear a fresh pair of Jordan’s, some baggy jeans and a jersey with the tag still on it? You’re a UNK athlete. 

Or maybe you just don’t care, and you’d rather be comfortable. So, leggings, a giant sweater and a pair of white tennis it is. It’s easy to bum it out when everyone else is doing it.  

I was recently asked by some English students what the biggest fashion trend is at UNK. 

Some LuLu Lemon leggings and a Savage Ruthless hoodie? We don’t really do trends unless we’re sporting our new Fashion Nova bodycon dress on the weekends.

Hey, I get it. I like to be comfortable, too. It took me to study abroad and see how the average European dresses every day to realize American’s dress like rag dolls on a daily basis. Returning home, I threw out my entire wardrobe consisting of remainders from eighth grade. I wanted to redefine and feel better about myself. 

There are actually studies that confirm that what you wear changes how you perform. Like it or not, your clothes are a form of presentation that communicates volumes about you as a person. Research also shows that dressing well impacts how you think. Professional dress, one study found, increases abstract thinking and gives people a broader perspective. 

Sure, we feel “safe” wearing our favorite high school track t-shirt and skinny jeans every day. But fashion should never be safe. Even mainstream fashion. You wouldn’t be caught dead listening to mainstream music, so why isn’t mainstream fashion just as cliché?

Your clothes tell us who you are. So, what’s your story?

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