Things Get Lost

     In this increasingly corporatized, homogenized, and all pervasive world, something, something of value gets lost.  Us, we, me, you, I, he, she, they.  We get lost.  How do we get lost?  In part because we are allowing ourselves to kowtow to huge mercantile purveyors who THINK they know what we want, and how we feel.  But, in the end, they are deeply, tragically wrong.  They are wrong because they refuse to address the reality of the Attire language; that it is ultimately about communicating to others around us, our truth, not our fantasies of ourselves, but our truth.  What the mass marketers of the world supply us is a fantasy realm, and an opportunity to hide among the throngs of humanity by wearing exactly what others are wearing.

    Of course, for some, hiding among the masses is a goal devoutly to be wished. But for others, and I would dare to say, for the majority of us in reality, we do not wish to be unseen, and unnoticed. We want to make our mark, state our statement, sing our personal sartorial song, because its a way to express the inexpressible.  We carry so much history, so many stories that we cannot effectively, in passing, give to strangers.  But by wrapping ourselves in garments that have the right set of sub-textual meanings, we can relate to a total stranger, in a matter of moments, volumes of ideas, feelings, and aspirations.  And in the end, communicating our truth to others can only help us all to get on better than we currently do.

    You could certainly argue that such considerations as apparel are small in the larger scope of what we have concerning us these days. But I see another layer here that is of great significance.  When we give over our choices to others, as we do when we slavishly buy and wear whatever we are told is cool, or on trend. Or when we copy to a fault the attire of someone else we admire, we are on a deep level saying that we don't like ourselves, don't want to be ourselves.   And when we expand that unsettling idea into other aspects of our interactions with society, its no wonder at all that we are in such a muddle. 

    We are barraged every moment of the day with input. The sheer bulk of it is overwhelming; so it becomes easy to choose the simpler route, to take the easy path of following, rather than striking off on our own course.  And it is in the best interests of those huge makers of apparel, that we wear only and always what they present us.  Its a subtle method of control, underneath it all.

    I have to admit that I'm advocating a kind of revolutionary behavior here.  When you think about what you have to wear, and when you are considering purchasing something new, think about whether its going to tell your truth, or whether its going to mask it behind a corporate shield of marketing.  Give yourself license to go farther afield, to explore and experiment.  And those explorations needn't be expensive ones.  Wander through a second hand store, or try your hand at making something for yourself.  Take back your right to speak, from those who have been telling you what to say for so long.