Great read, although I wish it were longer. As a 30-something dude in Bed Stuy who has grown to live and breath fashion gradually over my years living in nyc, i'll say this: The motivation is both multi-faceted yet simultaneously very simple, as I'm sure it is for the vast majority of people, regardless of identity politic. Fashion is yet another form of self expression from which to harvest joy by solidifying or being malleable with one's identity. The instantiation of that joy certainly includes getting noticed and appreciated by others (read: savoring that double take from the hot woman strutting by on a sunny Saturday in SoHo), but it also includes the personal joy of feeling that one's decorations are aligned with one's sense of self, as well as the jubilation of trying something new and discovering a side of yourself you didn't know you loved.
In the end, it's a form of play. And for me, play is the antithesis of suffering.
Great read, although I wish it were longer. As a 30-something dude in Bed Stuy who has grown to live and breath fashion gradually over my years living in nyc, i'll say this: The motivation is both multi-faceted yet simultaneously very simple, as I'm sure it is for the vast majority of people, regardless of identity politic. Fashion is yet another form of self expression from which to harvest joy by solidifying or being malleable with one's identity. The instantiation of that joy certainly includes getting noticed and appreciated by others (read: savoring that double take from the hot woman strutting by on a sunny Saturday in SoHo), but it also includes the personal joy of feeling that one's decorations are aligned with one's sense of self, as well as the jubilation of trying something new and discovering a side of yourself you didn't know you loved.
In the end, it's a form of play. And for me, play is the antithesis of suffering.