Wanted: Post-Apocalypse Style

There can be no separation of fashion from the now; which is our current context of hurricane disaster relief, Election 2012, and the muzzled present. Muzzled because the true nature of the moment defies linguistic definition. The best way to describe the present is the collision of the private with the public; and the subsequent tension resulting from being unable to fully express the resultant physical and cognitive sensations that are a result of said collision. Fashion, whether it be daily dress, or Halloween costume, fills this gap. This is not a question of ability, rather, what this is is a revelation into the meta-linguistics of this journey. In this leg of the journey, transparency is objectionable. Yet, it is all the more necessary. Still, it cannot go unnoticed that the question of fashion is always tied to the body. For many people, people shackled by commerce, the body often substitutes as a signifier, and I wonder whether an increasingly politicized elite associate the body with something else. What is that something else? This is the reason why I, the publisher, and the author, and the academic, turn my gaze to fashion. I am a real person, who blogs, and has a life that involves keen fascination with adornment. Mine is a sloppy, evolving kind of life. Fashion is my substitution. Fashion is a demonstration of my resiliency. My resiliency is demonstrated by the jacket I choose to wear today, post the apocalypse of life events and internal events that have disrupted the simple formula of my life. I resist the urge to place a value on these simple disruptions. Are they representations of grace, or are they just simple happenings? Is there a philosopher in the house?

Dear reader: Have you had a gracious disruption; or happening that you would like to share? Send me a note with an illustration. I will post it. Do not miss this opportunity to create a happening piece of art with me.

Whether your present moment consists of reflecting on what you could have been/were/did for Halloween, or how to send aid to those whose lives have been upended by that "It Girl," Sandy, those of us who are fashion-obsessed know that how people adorn themselves during times of change and chaos speaks to our collective ability to resist extinction by creating a template of the self. The goal is to live. In closing, here my final thoughts on clothes. So, an item of clothing, in my case, today's navy-blue blazer from H&M which I am wearing whilst typing this post, is like a memory of a disjointed and subaltern past that has intersected with an arthritic present. Context is not separate from meaning, rather it is supportive of meaning, like an old friend, who is also an old-soul, who is also that strange combination of realist and magician. Fashion, that old friend, never fails. Sometimes it blows. All I need is a picture.