The Tragic Rise of “Fashion Slop”

Some absolutely refuse to be part of the fashion slop so prevalent now, including Charles Coulombe, STM, KCSS, pictured in his daily wear.

From The Imaginative Conservative

By John Horvat

Everyone should have the right to a culture. That means a unique and authentic way of expressing oneself inside a place and community. Unfortunately, this right has long been denied.

This denial is especially evident in the world of fashion. Gone are the days when dress reflected a vibrant perception of oneself that found expression and meaning in the clothing of a family, community, region, or nation.

Fashion was a way of belonging. A mere glance is enough to perceive a person’s identity and location. Such a culture provided a marvelous richness and variety to life.

The Origins of Authentic Fashion

Authentic fashion cannot be precisely planned, but naturally appears within a community and a place. Clothing should reflect and adapt to the climate, seasons and resources found in a region. Such a development requires stability and continuity. True fashion flourishes when each person is born with the history of the place and has a natural pride in manifesting it.

This fashion also presupposed the practice of Christian virtue. That is to say, the wearers must love their neighbors by appearing pleasant and modest before them. It requires effort and even some discomfort. Individuals must consider society by following the basic rules of etiquette and good taste that help people live in harmony and joy.

Thus, authentic fashion becomes a product of the people who make and wear it. It is something distilled over time, whereby people come to understand themselves and naturally develop a manner of expressing their qualities and propensities. It is part of a culture in which individual qualities are cultivated and therefore flourish.

The Devastation of Mass Culture

Mass culture did much to destroy this authentic fashion. Mass production created the material means for everyone to dress the same. Mass media provided the role models and styles that everyone wanted to imitate to the detriment of local fashion.

Later, the sexual revolution of the sixties destroyed the norms of modesty and composure that made dress more than just a personal habit but a joyful means of charitably showing consideration for others by presenting oneself in a pleasant and chaste manner.

Soon, comfort and neglect became the criteria for daily dress. A self-centeredness entered by which clothes could be ripped and dirty, since others no longer mattered.

And the final result is that everyone, everywhere, dresses the same. It is the same ripwear, jeans-and-t-shirt combos, and bland fads that dominate anywhere on the globe. No one stands out. There is no rich vibrancy that identifies the person or a place. A mere glance at the person indicates nothing and nowhere.

The Rise of Fashion Slop

One recent consequence of this decline of authentic fashion is what one culture writer, Amy Odell, calls “the rise of fashion slop.” What passes for fashion is no longer determined by designers or even market research. It is spit out by algorithms and social media.

She reports that even fashion’s last (and most horrible) gatekeepers are fading into the background. Houses like Gucci, Dior, and Chanel are losing their influence. Designers who promoted immoral and egalitarian lifestyles are themselves being attacked by the new fashion trends.

In the world of fashion slop, even these big names are disappearing. Amy Odell reports, for example, on the clothing company Edikted, which relies on algorithms to design its products. Edikted monitors customers’ social media, fashion news, and other criteria and “spits out 300 new styles a month made cheaply in China.” Other clothing manufacturers like the $40 billion giant Shein are imitating this model to create products “slopified by backend data and internet searches.”

All this is a great tragedy. Fashion, which should be the natural expression of a people’s qualities, is now an attack upon its identity and culture. No locality can now claim expression. There is no Ohio look or Florida style. Every distinct national costume is turned into irrelevant folklore and replaced with fashion slop.

The Right to a Culture

In an age when everyone cries out for rights, no one talks about the right to culture. The people who should be the creators of authentic fashion have no voice today. Everyone is condemned to wear the anonymous blandness of algorithm-driven designs churned out in Chinese sweatshops.

These issues need to be discussed in a real debate about the nation’s future. These discussions involve existential problems that fester deep inside postmodern and post-liberal souls that yearn to be heard. It is time to give people back the joy of expressing who they are. For this to happen, there must be a return to Christian order.