Fashion is not frivolous! Alexa Chung on a quest

When it comes to the fashion industry the general public does not take it seriously enough. This quote from Alexa Chung is exactly how I feel. She is right when she says that people are dismissive of fashion in general and think of it as frivolous. That’s what I experience sometimes when listening to people or see their reactions when this subject comes up. The lack of knowledge on this subject or even disinterest, which might lead back to the influence of parents and teachers, may have something to do with this way of thinking. Model and tv personality Alexa Chung teamed up with British Vogue for a documentary in an attempt to change the negative stereotypes of fashion.

Personally I have never thought of fashion as frivolous, because I always knew that there was much more to it then what we see on the outside. In all my life I have never been someone to just look on the surface of things, because superficial is not in my vocabulary. Common sense is. Meaning I don’t look at fashion in a superficial way and I don’t treat it superficial either. Sure there are lots of superficial types in the fashion industry, I won’t deny that. But those people mostly like to keep up a front for the rest of the world or simply don’t know the background of fashion itself. They just like to portray a certain image of fashion. An image that often leads to people thinking that fashion is frivolous. Let me tell you: it’s not!

What is the documentary about?

In this documentary of Alexa Chung called “The Future of Fashion” she tackles subjects like positive body image, diversity and feminism in the fashion industry. She also asks questions like: How to break into the fashion industry? How to become a fashion designer? How to become a fashion buyer? To get these answers she talks to people from different disciplines and levels of the industry. We get to hear from designers like Christopher Kane, Paul Smith, Molly Goddard and creative directors Clare Waight Keller of Chloé, and my personal favorite Olivier Rousting of Balmain. These designers talk about their personal stories and what kind of work actually goes into putting together a collection before it hits the runway. All very interesting if you want to get a glimpse of the real story behind the scenes.

My personal opinion

As someone who have followed fashion and doing research for years, the information about the fashion industry in general was not new to me. Especially now that I am part of the fashion industry itself, I have seen first hand that fashion is art, it takes hard work, a knowledgeable professional team and you have to be serious about it. What I discovered from this documentary and find very interesting is the Applied Psychology in Fashion and Psychology for Fashion Professionals courses from the London College of Fashion. They offer these courses as the only one in the world. Like the head of the course say: “fashion is psychology because it’s about human behavior”. Her goal is to produce graduates who can help make the fashion industry more ethical, more caring and more sustainable. Hooray to that, right. Besides nutrition and fashion, psychology has always been a field that interested me. So seriously gonna look into this course. Furthermore I liked hearing the stories and opinions from the designers and other people in the fashion industry. Very inspiring! Truth is fashion is changing and you can either get with the program if u want to be in the game or be out and forgotten. So I think Alexa did a very good job on her quest for fashion to be taken more seriously and meanwhile find out the future of fashion.

For those of you who like fashion, maybe following fashion for a while and reading/ following my blog, I have a feeling that you agree with me that fashion is a serious industry. If you have been secretly thinking of it as frivolous or sometimes questioning the seriousness of it all, I do recommend watching this documentary. Even if you know people who think this way you may wanna share this post/ video with them as well. Enjoy watching!