Part 1: MLA Citation: Raziuddin.A (2021, June 10). There are no fashion rules anymore. The New York Times. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/opinion/fashion-what-to-wear.html
Part 2: Summary
In the article “There Are No Fashion Rules Anymore.” The main idea of the article explains how you should dress however you want. In the beginning of the two paragraphs, it says when we were in lockdown many people were dressed in sweatpants and were not wearing hard pants, and a big question was what clothes are cool right now? And the answer was terrifying and liberating but it was wear anything you want. The article states that for the past century magazine editors and designers have dictated the way people dress and that designers are no longer gatekeepers. Social media has grown many tastes in preference, such as TikTok which many people found their own interest and style. The pandemic has helped people widen their senses in what is considered acceptable dress, without feeling pressure of an audience, and thanks to sustainable fashion, fashion is no longer a rule. De Young, a professor of art and fashion history at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan says that now should be the time to try out different styles and experiment with items you always wanted to try and figure out what items in your prepandemic closet still connect with the person you are today, use this moment to figure out what you like to wear. It has come to sense that as the fashion world slowly welcomes diversity and inclusivity not all people look the same, and this leads to not all people going to dress the same. Jonathan Walford, the curatorial director of the Fashion History Museum in Cambridge, Ontario says this has led many people to be free and express themselves. He says in the 80’s he went out to clubs and would wear eyeliner and mascara and often get looks, he says that the way people judge others has fallen away. We’re entering into a brave new world, and it’s important to dress for it, which is to say, exactly how you want.
Part 3: Reflection
My opinion on the article I think it’s well put together and organized. I agree with the author when she gives out all these main points about how not to be afraid or feel ashamed about how to dress because of what others may think. I also agree that fashion is not a gatekeeper anymore and it’s more about freedom and expressing yourself. I can relate to the people who don’t have the courage to dress however they want to because I often care about people’s opinion and what others may say or think about me. For example, I would like to wear , bright colors but I think it’s to girly and mix match my clothes even if they don’t go together but think I would look stupid if I was to do that. Reading this article made me realize that I’m not the only person who feels like this. For example, when Jonathan said in the 80’s he would wear eyeliner and mascara to the clubs even if he got weird looks. I really liked this article because not only does it talked about how one specific group of people found how to dress or found confront in their styles, but it also says how diversity and inclusivity, people on social media also found their style and how they should be willing to try it even if it’s from the ground up. If I can say anything to the author, I would say thank you for giving me a slight of confidence and making me feel like I’m not alone in this.
Part 4: Rhetorical Analysis
The author’s tone is calm but also informative and trying to make you feel good about yourself. Her attitude is convincing because she gives you all these details and information about how people found their style and how you can find your style. I don’t think the author has a specific target audience. I feel like she wants whoever comes across her article to feel a certain way about themselves and their style. The genre of this article is a feature piece. The reason I think it’s a feature piece is because she’s not forcing anything upon the reader instead, she’s giving you evidence and facts to make you relate with the article. The credible source is reliable because she’s giving you other peoples in put like college professor from FIT and fashion director.
Part 5: Notable Quotables
Quote 1 “The cycle of trends has sped up to such a degree that it’s basically impossible for any one thing to really catch hold and proliferate and become ubiquitous,” said Rachel Tashjian, a style writer at GQ.
The multiplicity of options is also driven by the astonishing variety of taste preferences that have grown with the onset of social media.
“Platforms like TikTok celebrate and frankly reward people for retreating into their own niches and discovering their interests,” said Ms. Tashjian.
Quote 2The pandemic has further widened our sense of what constitutes acceptable dress. Without the pressure of an audience of peers, putting on clothing has become something we do for fun, or perhaps not at all. The planned obsolescence of clothes — already out of favor, thanks to the rise of sustainable fashion — has melted away, and in its place something truly freaky has come to pass: Fashion has become nonprescriptive.
Quote 3 As the fashion world slowly welcomes concepts like inclusivity and diversity into the fold, the acknowledgment that not all people look the same has led to the epiphany that not all people necessarily want to dress the same, either.
Jonathan Walford, the curatorial director of the Fashion History Museum in Cambridge, Ontario, suggests this shift has led to an increase in freedom in how people express themselves.
