by SMT

Created on: November 02, 2008   Last Updated: February 17, 2009

In the 1960's the Supreme Court attempted to define the threshold of obscenity to determine when and how something is to be definitionally stamped as being obscene. At the time a concrete definition could not be agreed upon, but Justice Potter Stewart simply declared "I know it when I see it." Such is the case the of a fashion victim; you know them when you see them. Even though it is sometimes difficult to give an exact, quantified definition of a fashion victim, they can be visually spotted as those individuals that have crossed the conventional lines and boundaries of acceptable fashion. Further, it's not particularly taxing to realize that one is suffering from fashion victimization from every piece of trendy clothing draped on their bodies.

With the passing of each season as new collections are revealed on the runway, a murky cloud looms overhead begging onlookers, trendsetters, and the fashionably notable to rummage through the designer's work to find the latest trends that they insist on plastering in magazines and on billboards as the latest and greatest in fashion. The absorbent fashion community of the world incessantly insists on whipping out looks in a haphazard manner that transform one into a misled, yet trusting fashion victim one day, and to much embarrassment captured on film by the victim's peers, the trend is later rendered obsolete as if it never mattered.

The concepts of trends and fashion victimization have always been dubious, but have gone hand in hand to form a marriage of sorts. Historically, fashion trends came one at time, ran their course and expired with the entry of a new one. In today's world, fashion trends that result in becoming a fashion victim run concurrently on the fast turning wheel of style. Simon Doonan, Creative Director for Barney's wrote "We now live in a product-saturated age where every trend that was ever invented is strangely present and permissible. Trends no longer lose their currency. They hang around like bad smells, wafting back into range every few months." Why and to what end do the fashion elite choose to pick colors, cuts, and styles that are unflattering and humiliating, only to satisfy the need to be trendy and hip, which only leads to replenishing your closet with more trends next season that are later purged?

Embracing the trend of the day with great frequency leads to uncomfortable moments caught on camera, like the over-the-top hair sprayed bangs you rocked in the 80's or the hippie/bohemian look you adopted in college because everyone else was doing it. Psychologically it begs the question why one would repeatedly; in a self-deprecating and masochistic way succumb to something that is as fleeting as a trend. Have we not learned our lesson throughout decades of ridiculous fashion trends? Perhaps it's peer pressure, or taking too much stock in what the "experts" say we should be wearing, but at what point in your society do we say there is nothing wrong with classic, sophisticated and elegant looks?

Many in the fashion conscience world insist on referring to more polished wardrobes as played out and boring, and that we must consume modern and edgy pieces to maintain our youthfulness and vitality. However, one would be hard pressed to find anyone that would call Jackie Kennedy Onassis a fashion victim. Quite contrary she has been a touted as a fashion icon in every decade and no one ever saw her leaving the house looking like one of the Olsen twins. Is there really anything wrong with dressing age appropriate in sophisticated pieces, rather than walking the streets looking like a contemporary piece of art has thrown up on your ensemble?

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