"L’ exactitude n’est pas la vérité." -Henri Matisse
So there's fashion on the runway - which let's admit, a lot of which is couture and is pretty much unwearable by the average civilian. (Unless of course you are Lady GaGa - how much fun is she??!) But then there is also fashion and trends that happen right out on the street, in the day-to-day culture, that may not be necessarily styled or created by a designer but by the person themselves. It's their own personal look. However, even when someone thinks they are being unique, most often someone else dressed that way already - that same day or 14 years ago. Take a look at this intriguing exhibit of photographs called "Exactitudes" (a contraction of 'exact' and 'attitude') by Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek. They compiled photos of strangers in London, Paris, Praia (Cape Verde) and other countries over the last 14 years and then put them together to show that great minds think alike - whether it's 2010 or 1996. You'll see amazingly similar looks on many different people. After looking through the collection, it seems that what we may have come to call 'trends' are actually identifiers of a movement or a genre. For example, it's not always the case, but when we see someone in head-to-toe black, we think 'goth,' or someone in tie-dye and flipflops, we think 'hippie.' Other times a similar style running through a group of people may be merely a symptom of function: suits for a job search; suspenders to hold your pants up.
Certainly the photographers reinforced the stereotypes simply by the way they titled each grouping i.e. "pin-ups" and "emo's." The point of their work was to categorize each person by the way they look and therefore illustrate their similarities. But, does the way we look give people the option to pre-judge who they think we are? So are these trends or labels? Are we really asserting our own individuality if we embrace one of these looks? Matisse's quote above roughly translates to "precision is not the truth" or "the truth is greater than the details." Maybe that really means: what you see isn't necessarily what you get. So if I want to dye my hair black (goth) and wear red lipstick (pin-up), a tie-dye shirt (hippie) and a pair of Vans (skater) that doesn't mean I'm a Goth Pin-up Hippie Skater. That just means I'm me.
What item in your wardrobe really symbolizes you and has carried you over the years and through the trends? A cable knit sweater? A pair of jeans? A scarf?
