Anti-Fashion Autobiography
I've always been a sucker for biographies and history in general. Sometimes it's fun to look back at one's own life and look for patterns and such. So here's a reflection on my life and fashion.
I often enjoyed dressing up as a child; cowboy costumes, wigs, etc. Part of that is due to the family videos we used to make over the holidays. I'd be the cowboy, have to save toddler Sage from Thomas the train coming down the wooden track, as she had been "tied" to it by the evil villain (mother) sporting a sharpie mustache. I'd have to put on a show for the camera and lock mom up in the cardboard jailhouse. Wonder what happened to all that footage?!
The true roots of my fashion adventure began in middle school. Somehow I came up with a goal to wear as many different colors at once as I possibly could. It's a little foggy now but seems like my record was 13 colors. I'd wear mismatched shoes, socks, vibrant pants, shirts, hats, I think I even went as far as mismatched gloves in the winter. It was a sort of game I started to play. As a fun side note, a kid by the name of Jonathan Bigelow even made up a few jingles about a few pairs of pants I would wear. He'd sing them to me every time I'd wear those pairs. Wish I could remember how they went!
Entering high school; I moved on to stage two of my fashion adventure, dropping the color phase. One day I sat down and said to myself; fashion is ridiculous, even stupid, so I'm going to create my own anti-fashion (no joke I actually did sit down and plan it). From that moment forward I spent numerous hours at thrift stores trying to find the ugliest outfits possible.
A few examples: the pink turtleneck, and from our band photos, the granny nightgown thing (never really knew what that thing was) with pink leggings. I'll have to track down more photos, as I can't seem to find any of my photos in dresses. Which brings me to the next item. Crossdressing. Well, I never really thought of it as cross-dressing. I had no desire to be a woman or any such thing. It was merely for fun. To stick with my goals of challenging the fashion norms and adding to my anti-fashion, I often wore dresses to school. Even made it into one of the yearbooks in a dress.
At some point about mid-high school, I began my tie-dyeing love affair. Or phase three. Color came back. It's terribly satisfying taking a boring white shirt and making it wildly colorful. For some time, even still, people call(ed) me the "Tie-dye guy" for wearing lots of tie-dyes. Here's a fun photo of me teaching the Koreans about tie-dye in an English class on my mission.
The sixth phase has begun only recently. I've never considered myself to have good fashion. However; I have come to appreciate others that do have good fashion. It's really a shame that more women don't wear dresses these days. I totally get that pants, leggings, so on, are more comfortable and even convenient than dresses, but man, women look so great in dresses. They really do the female figure justice. On the same wavelength, It's also a shame that men don't dress that fancily these days either. My favorite period of men's fashion is unquestionably 17th/18th-century fashion. Think King Louis and Versailles. If I could dress that way every day, I would. But it's just not convenient these days (or probably ever). My favorite class I've ever taken at college was my History of Costume Design class this past semester. Fascinating to see how styles change, and what influences those changes. However, the sixth phase is really about design. I've recently discovered sewing. Well not really, but recently have begun the adventures of making/modifying my own clothes to make them more extravagant and interesting. Here are a few of my most recent projects.
I still haven't escaped my mistrust and mockery of fashion trends. But nowadays I can accept and appreciate fashion like Haute Couture as an art form. Fashion can certainly be a means of expression for the wearer, as well as the designers. But "Following fashion", always having to stay up with the styles and fit in, is so absurd to me! I like wearing clothes that are fun; a breath of fresh air, a deviation from the path of boring everyday clothes. Seeing as my favorite quote is still Oscar Wilde's remarks on the fashion industry: "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable, we have to change it every six months", I doubt I'll ever take fashion too seriously.
I often enjoyed dressing up as a child; cowboy costumes, wigs, etc. Part of that is due to the family videos we used to make over the holidays. I'd be the cowboy, have to save toddler Sage from Thomas the train coming down the wooden track, as she had been "tied" to it by the evil villain (mother) sporting a sharpie mustache. I'd have to put on a show for the camera and lock mom up in the cardboard jailhouse. Wonder what happened to all that footage?!
The true roots of my fashion adventure began in middle school. Somehow I came up with a goal to wear as many different colors at once as I possibly could. It's a little foggy now but seems like my record was 13 colors. I'd wear mismatched shoes, socks, vibrant pants, shirts, hats, I think I even went as far as mismatched gloves in the winter. It was a sort of game I started to play. As a fun side note, a kid by the name of Jonathan Bigelow even made up a few jingles about a few pairs of pants I would wear. He'd sing them to me every time I'd wear those pairs. Wish I could remember how they went!
Entering high school; I moved on to stage two of my fashion adventure, dropping the color phase. One day I sat down and said to myself; fashion is ridiculous, even stupid, so I'm going to create my own anti-fashion (no joke I actually did sit down and plan it). From that moment forward I spent numerous hours at thrift stores trying to find the ugliest outfits possible.
At some point about mid-high school, I began my tie-dyeing love affair. Or phase three. Color came back. It's terribly satisfying taking a boring white shirt and making it wildly colorful. For some time, even still, people call(ed) me the "Tie-dye guy" for wearing lots of tie-dyes. Here's a fun photo of me teaching the Koreans about tie-dye in an English class on my mission.
And yes I did have my parents ship me materials to tie-dye on the mission. Always a good P-day activity. Also had my district acid dye some pillowcases as part of our district meeting once (tied the process into the lesson of course).
Phase four. After starting college at UVU, within the first week, I came to the conclusion that the school had in fact been designed with fashion in mind. If you look at the hallways, they stretch out for vast distances. Almost all hallways having chairs lining the side walls, set up just like a catwalk! I always enjoy people watching from those seats. I also quickly came to observe that 90% of students can be found wearing black, blue, or white clothes on campus. Conservative stuff. So again it became my goal to brighten things up; add a drop of color to the sea of boring. I used to joke that I was the easiest person to spot on campus at any given time. And in my pink suit coat, you can bet I was.
It was in the mission period that the fifth phase began: taking note of other's fashion. Koreans have impeccable fashion. Rather reserved, especially compared to my own styles, but elegant. You rarely ever see a Korean out in sweats, or grungy clothing. They're almost always dolled and dressed up. Serving in Gangnam, I crossed paths with many fashion models and well dressed wealthy people... Gangnam style. I absolutely love the clean-cut, semi-formal, well-groomed Korean "dress code" that seems to be largely prevalent throughout much of the country. They're always dressed up. Skirts, dresses, nice blouses, frock coats, shirts, and ties. Or when dressed down, still nice clean sharp outfits.
The sixth phase has begun only recently. I've never considered myself to have good fashion. However; I have come to appreciate others that do have good fashion. It's really a shame that more women don't wear dresses these days. I totally get that pants, leggings, so on, are more comfortable and even convenient than dresses, but man, women look so great in dresses. They really do the female figure justice. On the same wavelength, It's also a shame that men don't dress that fancily these days either. My favorite period of men's fashion is unquestionably 17th/18th-century fashion. Think King Louis and Versailles. If I could dress that way every day, I would. But it's just not convenient these days (or probably ever). My favorite class I've ever taken at college was my History of Costume Design class this past semester. Fascinating to see how styles change, and what influences those changes. However, the sixth phase is really about design. I've recently discovered sewing. Well not really, but recently have begun the adventures of making/modifying my own clothes to make them more extravagant and interesting. Here are a few of my most recent projects.
Guess I like adding flowers to things. A dress I sewed for my sister.
At this point, I'm almost frightened that my wardrobe is going to expand drastically. It's fun to make your own embellishments to or create entire garments to wear. My philosophy for this phase (which has been my goal for a few years, just actually doing it now) is: there are lots of incredible and fantastic fabrics out there, but not many interesting clothes. For example: pants. Pants usually come in black, blue, tan, with a few other solid color options. But you hardly ever see pants in super cool psychedelic patterns or other interesting fabrics. So I'll just have to make them myself.I still haven't escaped my mistrust and mockery of fashion trends. But nowadays I can accept and appreciate fashion like Haute Couture as an art form. Fashion can certainly be a means of expression for the wearer, as well as the designers. But "Following fashion", always having to stay up with the styles and fit in, is so absurd to me! I like wearing clothes that are fun; a breath of fresh air, a deviation from the path of boring everyday clothes. Seeing as my favorite quote is still Oscar Wilde's remarks on the fashion industry: "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable, we have to change it every six months", I doubt I'll ever take fashion too seriously.
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