What is Fashion Anyway?

Vanity, beauty, fashion...part of our very social fibre. I must say, sometimes it can become a tad tiresome? Yet fashion is as much a statement of of social standing as a raw display of personality.

As a student, I couldn't help noticing the variation in clothing and style that denoted what faculty you were studying under. Art students invariably wore tie-dyed skirts, and torn shirts. Some were barefoot or wore only natural fibre peasant sandals, others wore long boots under their flowing robes. Most of them had long hair, and some of them had dreadlocks,.These were called the ''bungi's''. This word is associated with free-spirited, peace-loving canabis smokers. If you dressed like that you were sure to be one.The ''jocks"', oh dear, the poor jocks forked out fortunes on designer sport-wear... Adidas, Reebok, Nike. Most of which never saw the inside of a squash-court or the grass of the rugby field. The accounting or economics students enjoyed understated and tastefully obvious designer clothing...the ones with tiny labels that were only just noticeable, but very much there. Journalism students, whose upwardly mobile natures compelled them to invest in Chanel, Calvin Klein, Guess and...help us, Gucci. Even if it was a small purse or handbag, you had to have it. The devil doesn't wear Prada, darlings. Then there were the schizophrenics, like myself, who weren't quite sure what they were (social science students never really are when it comes to fashion). We thrived on charity shop bargains, anything that resembled a slightly sixties artistry. I remember tripping in the road on my bell-bottoms (very bell bottom).

In the sixties I felt I was ''safe'', could be described as confused or maybe eccentric. Yet at least I knew that at some stage I would always become fashionable again. Thankfully, this trend appears to rear its head every year. My mothers bell-bottoms, it seems, might even last another generation.The younger you are, the more difficult it is to develop or determine a style or fashion that makes you individual. When you are young you aren't really an individual yet. Now that I am older, I'm comfortable. Possibly for the first time. I am not tied to a specific social circle and am able to explore my schizophrenia as much as I like. If I feel like being hippie, I can be and no one thinks I'm confused.

Fashion is a great money spinner and people spend thousands on it in a year, but what is fashion really? Just people trying to fit in...somewhere.