COPY/PASTE DOESN’T WORK 

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Written by Paulina Carranza

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It's said that you can learn a lot about someone from how they dress. The clothes we wear are our most intimate possessions and the first things people notice about us. We all have a goal and a resource base that shape our wardrobe choices, how we end up dressing, and how we truly feel in what we wear. Our reasons can be simple or complex, but they are there. A person can wear something to pretend to be someone they're not, and yet that still says something about them. Your clothes say a lot about you every day, but that's a conversation only you and your clothes can understand. Clothing is a reaction, is reason, is complex, and is inevitably descriptive of a person.

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A map of the fashion of a certain place and year allows you to understand the values ​​and politics of that era. That's what makes it so powerful. The styles of subcultures and cultures don't come from a superficial place. They come from very strong values, lifestyles, feelings, and disagreements. If you were a hippie in the '60s, you risked being denied service or respect, but that wasn't going to stop the hippie from standing up and expressing what he believed needed to change. That's what moved culture in a certain way because that's the definition of rebellion. That's what those important and impactful styles did.This is very different from trying to wear the same clothes decades later in another context and clearly without their core values. Being inspired by or copying styles that were once very rebellious doesn't make you rebellious today.

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When someone is acclaimed for how they dress, most of the time it has more to do with who that person is than the clothes themselves. Jane Birkin was highly acclaimed for her basket bag. That means she dressed according to her personal needs and not according to other people's. Likewise, she would never have been acclaimed if she hadn't been Jane Birkin. There's something people like more than their clothes, and that's their life. Not anyone gets applause for using a basket as a bag, and not anybody gets their name chosen to make one of the most expensive bags ever. That's more likely to happen to a famous actress who embodies eurocentric beauty standards. That doesn't diminish her talent or charisma; it means she has an extra advantage in her life and the privilege of wearing certain clothes. Her style is interesting because her clothes tell her life story. Any outfit is interesting when it reflects the person and their genuine taste. Usually, when people talk about their adoration of someone like Jane Birkin or Lily-Rose Depp, they technically describe what they're wearing without considering that perhaps the desire to be them is stronger than the desire to dress like them. But the closest you can get to their lives is trying to dress like them. That's why we then have people lacking critical thinking skills who start doing things like smashing a brand new Gucci bag because they think it will make them look like an Olsen twin. The twins are known for using their bags for years, for their love and loyalty, not simply because their bags look worn. You can tell when someone has spent years building their wardrobe, and you can see it when someone uses Pinterest and TikTok. You can see the difference between someone who wears patches because of their sustainable values ​​and someone who wears Dolls Kill. You can see who's trying to be someone they're not and who they truly are. Everyone wants to be her, but you are you, and she is herself.

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Going back to the subculture side, it's the same even with designers. Collections like Marc Jacobs' for Perry Ellis are very poorly received. Not because people weren't ready, but because they actually thought Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain would want to wear clothes that were a copy of their anti-capitalist subculture sold at a high price. That shows the lack of research and care they gave to the collection. Taking clothes exactly as they are out of their context strips them of all their value and complexity. The idea many people have of simply taking any aesthetic from a subculture and putting it on the runway is lazy, easy, and uncreative. Clothing is inherently political, so if we study it without that sociological, human perspective, it's useless; it stumbles over itself. If a person makes their own clothes interesting because of who they are and what they do, the same applies to a designer, but it's more complex.

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It's important to remember that I'm talking about cases where the looks on a runway are exactly the same without the designer adding even a drop of personal identity. Copying is inevitable. Being 100% original is impossible, but what is the experience of the final product? For example, McQueen's S/S 1999 moment with Shalom Harlow was inspired by Rebecca Horn's 1991 installation, "High Moon." This installation features two shotguns firing fake blood at each other. Very similar moments, but clearly not identical. McQueen had so much talent and creative identity to offer that when he drew inspiration from other sources, it didn't feel like a copy, because he modified it to the point that it felt new. Runways and fashion brands are a more complex topic, but on an individual level, not everything we wear or create has to be new or unique. However, it's important to know what we consume, where it  comes from, why we consume it from the beginning, and why we do what we do. Pay attention to yourself, to who you are, your daily life, your activities, and your taste, because the language of clothing is a secret. Copying doesn't give you someone else's personality or life. Exploring is being alive, and wearing something new won't kill you, even if you regret it tomorrow. You won't find what people spend years building in an automated search. Looking for a way to be different online is just another way of being the same. Trying to find your personal style is setting yourself a limiting guide. Sitting down to think about what your personal style is is equivalent to sitting down to think about a color you've never seen before. Thinking that everyone has a unique style hidden within themselves is unrealistic. My best advice is to stop thinking about it, live your life honestly so that you develop a personality and confidence that will magically fill your closet.

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“I’m tired of people dressing for the internet, so I’d like to see people dressing for  themselves, dressing for a room. That feels more interesting for me than dressing for the internet because so much of the fashion that I know we all love was not built for the internet, it was built for a very intimate moment…” - Daniel Roseberry