Wednesday, January 23, 2008

thesis- some thoughts

A conversation over a glass of wine with a fellow classmate this evening got me thinking about my thesis again. It keeps getting pushed aside by dental work and home improvements and PBS specials on Mormons, but the truth of the matter is that it needs to be started, and soon.

The thing that has always brought me to fashion theory and clothing studies was not my interest in what was put on the runway by a designer in such and such season and which socialite wore it to so and so's wedding, but in how people dressed to challenge such conventions and the interplay and interaction between the challengers to fashion and the makers or wearers of high fashion. Don't get me wrong, couture clothing is beautiful and i see both the designing and the construction of it as a fine art, but to me clothing and its meaning are of a particular importance to understanding a society and individuals within a society, how they see themselves and how they are seen. Specifically the way the meanings become diluted or changed through mass communication mediums.

A side note: one of the reasons I have been dilly dallying about my thesis is because I don't want to pick something I will get about halfway done with and get bored of, I also want to pick something I feel is relevant and legitimate and meaningful on multiple levels.

So, I came home and painted my nails black (with Coco Chanel brand black nail polish!- oh irony) and have decided this. I might not have a topic completely yet but I would like to write my thesis on the codification of anti fashion through mainstream press. I am leading towards focusing on the late 80s and 90s and perhaps on teen and "lower brow" publications (i.e. not Harper's Bazaar and Vogue).


2 comments:

Court said...

I wasn't sure what antifashion meant, so I read this nytimes article on Doc Martens and I read this line: "In other words, Dr. Martens might finally be unpopular enough to be popular again." And I think I get it now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/business/media/03adcol.html

julianna.rose said...

that is funny because the last timei was at my moms i went tearing threw my closet looking for my old docs only to discover they got donated.