A revelation story

Now, more than ever, fashion is under a microscope. What was once an industry exclusively about beauty and grandeur is now being forced to burst its own bubble. What does fashion need to do to connect with the forever changed views of this new world?

- JEB FRONDA

Let’s start with the basics of psychology. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, everyone starts at the bottom of the pyramid focusing on physiological needs to survive. We then move on to security and then climb up to developing important relationships. From there, humans soon find the need for the feeling of accomplishment and, finally, self-actualization. Fashion finds itself sitting pretty on the fourth tier as it undoubtedly satisfies the human need of prestige and recognition. Since time immemorial, fashion and clothes have been used as a statement of aspiration. But is that all there is to fashion? A production machinery that caters to materialistic needs and nothing more?

From the time I fell in love with fashion watching FashionTV on one of the obscure channels on television, I knew that it was a world of grandeur only a few are allowed to enter. But there was always a way to be indirectly be a part of it. Buying your first designer clothing was a way for you to feel that power, as if blessed by the fashion gods when in fact it, it was the mighty capitalists who exploited your weakness. This is the arena of fashion juggernauts; from luxury brands Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent to fast fashion pioneers Uniqlo and Zara. They built a veritable Cave of Wonders, where the latest season’s runway becomes the object of all our desires. While fashion brought forth some of the most gifted and iconic creatives of our time, it has also evolved into a capitalist machinery where fast production was the name of the game. You are playing with death if you do not keep up. The high speed chase to the next big thing was unstoppable until this year when the pandemic happened.