Monica McClure Considers the Parallel Lives of Fashion and Poetry

For this week's "Weekly Gramma" feature at Gramma Press, Monica McClure applies linguistic analysis—after much reflection—to fashion. "Fashion culture practices social listening — plugging into collective dreams; it seeks to resonate with the culture in order to influence or illuminate it. In that sense, and others, fashion is more than a language; it's poetry." More:

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I think, especially in the Western world, poetry and fashion are relentlessly subjected to mystification by various traditional ideas about beauty, with an expectation that they aggrandize and elevate whatever they touch. It's imperative that they add significance to their subjects, or give function some meaning. Poetry is commonly identified as exalted language, like the language of a prayer or mantra or proverb, with an overemphasis on aphorism — to be deep.

Or, on a more primal level, poetry is identified as language that breaks logic (it doesn't make sense, so it must mean something). Or, put another way, as language that simply registers differently than normal speech — language that's flashy. Similarly, fashion is commonly identified as ostentatious dressing. When language and clothes inspire whimsy, or are just strange enough to spark a dialogue, or seem to align with a pre-existing notion about art, then language and clothing are transformed into poetry and fashion.

Read on at Gramma.