Fashion and capitalism: a thread. I've worried a lot in my life about whether liking fashion is something a leftist can do honestly. All the 'FaShiOn is A BuSInEesS' talk is esp depressing. It just uncritically reflects the values of the powerful.

If the capitalists can control our shared imaginative space (art), then they can control what's possible, which is why they have such a tight leash on designers - the people responsible for imagining the future and implementing it. They determine the possible and must be fought.

Yes, fashion is deeply enmeshed with consumption and capitalism. But fashion (defined here as a formal system that introduces new styles of dress on a regular basis, as a way of manifesting the future) can rise above this.

The art/commerce argument in design never dies. Ideally, design should operate as some kind of framework that blends the strengths of science (tech), commerce and art. Our design world is complex but not beyond our control, given effective communication and management.

There's nothing inherently incompatible between economies and communities organised thru some dynamic blend of anarchist/socialist principles and a fashion system that promotes localised, artisanal clothing design that reflects upon society and anticipates change (as an artform).

I want designers (etc) to be able to survive while dedicating themselves to their craft. Many, many more of us exist than the current system can care for. Beyond some kind of UBI movement, which may be coming, this requires reduced production and a change in consumer mindset.

The problem is not aesthetics. The clothes are fine. It's a question of (self?) governance, and of how the media chooses to cover fashion. There needs to be a much fairer balance in coverage between money makers and experimentalists. We need space to think and reflect on clothes.

Looks like it's time for creatives who are stuck as subjects to the fashion industry to take responsibility for the mediation of their work. Let's see more collaboration between creatives, cutting out the middleman, and forming the infrastructure to support one another directly.

Re: governance. Some people want to submit to authority in life. Let em, I guess, just make sure those hierarchies are contained and resisted. Peer-to-peer support works better imho - unions, mutual aid, etc. Maybe an oath we take, like Doctors? Unregulated fashion hurts people.

Every single aspect of the fashion industry is rotten with hierarchy and abuse. Radical action is required, not polite platitudes. We have to kill industrial fashion so that an alt, non-hierarchical, punk fashion might live. Nuke it from orbit. -