Fash-ong

"Oh, I'm not into fashion"

I often find fashion being so often written off as 'shallow'. For some, fashion is too focused on appearances, too concerned with the surface. But if that’s the standard for critique, shouldn’t we question nearly all forms of art? Architecture is celebrated for its grandeur. Film is admired for its visual storytelling. Both are deeply tied to aesthetics and excess, yet they’re rarely dismissed as frivolous.

I believe, the difference often comes down to gender. Fashion has long been coded as feminine, and with that comes a long history of being undervalued, and therefore is perceived as less serious, less intellectual, less valid. Meanwhile, more “masculine” arts like architecture or industrial design are granted legitimacy and seriousness, even when they actually also revolve around spectacle, style, and surface.

But fashion, too, is art, when meaning is put into it. Like any creative medium, it has the power to tell stories, challenge norms, and express something deeper than just 'looking good.' A garment can carry history, politics, resistance, joy. It can be deeply personal or widely symbolic.

To reduce fashion to vanity is to overlook the intent, the craft, and the cultural dialogue happening through clothing every day. Yes, it exists on the surface, but its meaning goes far beneath. Fashion deserves to be seen for what it truly is: a powerful, expressive art form that reflects who we are and how we move through the world, through our bodies and what we choose to layer them with. It’s not just about what we wear. It is about what we say when we wear it. And that’s what makes it powerful.