Ako’y naniniwala na ang bawat indibidwal ay may kani-kaniyang istilo at pamamaraan kung papaano dadalhin ang sarili sa pamamagitan ng kanilang mga damit at ng mga palamuting ilalagay nila sa kanilang katawan. Ngunit mayroon mang iisang pinanggagalingan ang istilong ito, ang impluwensya ng makabagong teknolohiya ang makapagdidikta kung ano ang maganda, uso at patok sa lipunan. Ito ang nagiging instrumento upang maihayag sa kamalayan ng tao ang maganda at pangit na fashion. Mag-aambag ito ng matindi at kapakipakinabang na konsepto sa kung ano ang nararapat at hindi nararapat sa isang partikular na panahon. Kaya nasa sa atin kung papaano ba natin dadalhin ang ating sarili at kung papaano ba natin tatanggapin ang iminumungkahi at inihaharap sa atin ng midya.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Epekto ng Midya sa “fashion trends”
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Uniform and Society
Living in a society with numerous businesses and schools, uniforms play a vital role in organizing and identifying the groups people belong to. But when can the uniform be an object of judgment or simply be unnecessary? The more privileged were able to go to school and that's probably where most people first experienced wearing a uniform. As kids, they probably didn't mind what they were wearing.
But as people grow older -- like when they step onto high school -- they encounter people who judge them negatively because they go to a school where other people think they're not getting a good education and in wearing their school's uniform, "namamaliit sila."
I am not saying that these schools should remove uniforms because of this reason, because this might show embarrassment towards a certain school. But having uniforms may also be considered a good thing. You can be identified easily and you can avoid hazardous situations like being prohibited to be in places that are not safe for you.
When we reach the point in our lives where we have to work, the presence of unifoms are still there. Some workplaces require a certain attire for their workmen, mostly for safety issues. Some go with semi-formal clothing. People judge professions by how the employees look; the guy in the suit looks more professional, more successful than someone wearing a shirt with a company logo on the back.
Although that is not always the case since some jobs require proper uniforms for the workers to be more efficient; for example, workers in construction sites or soldiers in the battlefield. All in all, I think that uniforms should be trimmed down to the identification card. For me, that is the most important part of the uniform, and is the single most important part of it. Uniforms in some areas of business can't be argued, though because it's required in the field. Firefighters without uniforms, can't have that, now, can we?
The UP fashion scene
by Edgar Felizmenio
Come as you are - UP fashion has always been described by those four words. The University of the Philippines has always been known for its unique culture and the extremely diverse blend in the members of the student population. The university is known for the freedom that it gives to its students regarding all aspects of life, from the subjects they take, to the organizations they join, to the time they choose to go to class, and ultimately, to what they wear to school.
Fashion in UP is a challenge because there is no uniform in the university, hence everyone is allowed to come in whichever preferred pieces of clothing. It is a popular notion that UP students tend to go the extreme and be as eccentric as they can be in fashion, and that holds true to some extent.
Fashion scene? It is observed that real fashion scenes exist on colleges that are inclined towards the arts, like the College of Fine Arts, College of Arts and Letters, and the College of Mass Communication. The students in these colleges are stereotypically (and generally) more creative than the rest of the student population, and the way they dress serves as evidence. These students have better artistic eyes, and it is easier for them to see whether a piece of clothing would look good with something else or not. It is easier for them to wear eccentric clothing, because these are people who generally have higher tolerance for exploration and have low regards for convention (which could be explained by the courses they take, partly).
There are fashion scenes in the CBA-Econ end of the Academic Oval as well. The College of Business Administration and the School of Economics are colleges which are clichéd as the rich colleges. The students here generally belong to the higher socio-economic edge of the social spectrum, hence giving them the money to spend for fashion. They are known to be the more “sosyal” component of the population, and so I rest the case.
It is a little uninteresting to note that as for the other colleges, there isn’t really a “fashion scene”. Most of the UP students are defined by maong jeans, and it is ironic that although UP does not require a uniform, jeans seem to be taking over.
Why maong jeans? Maong jeans are your reliable fashion friends. They are comfortable and can be worn with anything else. It is only in UP where you always see students who always wear their UP shirts and org shirts and their jeans, paired with the most comfortable footwear, rubber slippers.
This doesn’t mean to say that the way one would dress up is dictated by his college or course. Of course not. It is possible that the culture in one’s college affects one’s way of thinking, although it is also a possibility that one’s way of thinking is actually the one that affected choice in course or college. Whichever the case is, the point is some colleges happen to exude a certain style that adds to their overall image as a college.
In general however, there is a common ground for all UP students, whether they live in style or not. UP fashion is all about comfort, and subjective as it is, comfort varies for everyone. If comfort for you is to wear your dirtiest look or your most glamorous attire, as long as it’s comfortable, UP embraces that. The atmosphere in UP is so laidback and relaxed that students are able to wear whatever they want at whatever day they choose. This is why the pambahay look is so popular – it provides comfort at all times.
So, who sets the trend?
“Who” wears “what” really matters in the fashion world. Even in the world before, the discrepancy between social statuses is quite highlighted, that is, the ones below look up to the ones above them in the social hierarchy. The tendency now for the mass is to copy or imitate the fashion of those people they look up to, thus giving the “high society”, that is, the prominent people in the society, a right to set the trend in the fashion world. “What you wear defines what you are”. This is the rationality behind every fashion. Essentially, whatever a person wears establishes an implicit definition about that particular person.
Nowadays, the television (or any other type of media) is very influential already, so much as to partake in every detail of human life—including the clothes we wear. Televisions, magazines, etc. now serve as the quintessence of fashion, for it is where the newest and the latest trends are brought into being. The role of celebrities now comes into the picture; they don’t merely give entertainment and information, but they also provide standards and set the latest trends in fashion. What they wear is what’s considered “in” the fashion, especially those worn by the more famous ones including the commercial models and ads. People nowadays also engage to the works of famous designers.
The media also shows the current trends in fashion in other ways than using celebrities. The existence of the “emo” look now is so rampant, which is also currently the most popular theme nowadays. There is also the “punk” look, which existed way earlier than the “Emo” look. This particular type of fashion mainly rooted from the emergence of famous artists including musical bands famous boy bands, etc .
The Anatomy of the Emo
It is not of the author's intent to discriminate anyone.
Are you one of us?
Umaapaw sa talino, Do the brainy high, Kung mayaman si papa, Do the sossy high, Pagmahilig ka sa sports, Do the mvp high, Kung cool ka at astig, Do the rebel high, Pag solid sa bait, Do the nice guy high, itaas ang kamay -Kamikazee, First Day High
In 2006, the song First Day High by the band Kamikazee featured five different personalities of today's youth: the brainy, the sossy, the mvp, the rebel and the nice guy (as classified in the song). The song was also associated with Rexona deodorant's television ad. in the said TV Ad, each persona were potrayed by groups of people wearing almost the same style of clothing. the Branies wear preppy clothes, sossy people wear cocktail clothes on, MVP's have jerseys and other sports uniform on, rebels wear black shirts and looked rugged, while the nice guys portrays a boy-next-door type of image.
The Ad campaign was such a hit that people,particularly the youth started to associate themselves with the characters. Which of the five categories do I belong? Saan ako IN? Sino ba sa kanila ang kapareho ko ng sense of style? were few of the questions which spread most areas if not the whole country.
Aside from having an instant categorizing mechanism of the youth, both the song and the Ad campaign resulted to stereotyping the Filipino youth based on what they wear.
Thanks to Hollywood Teenage movies, the youth failed to release themselves from stereotyping. instead, they would also base their impression towards mainly on one person's sense of style. If this is done consciously, we cannot tell, but one thing is certain, fashion sense has become a crucial element of giving off impressions.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Clothes Make the Man
"The clothes make the man." We are all very familiar with this quote. What’s more, we might even be living under this motto, consciously or not. Fashion and identity - these two can not be separated. We dress according to what we think we are. And we know that people in the past did that as well. In fact, that practice extends back to prehistory. According to my Archaeology 2 professor just this last semester, when the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens met some time in prehistory, art boomed - not only cave art but also body accessories. Both human species made more art - more accessories of their own - as a way of distinguishing themselves and saying, "You are you; we are us."
"Don't judge the book by its cover", not taken literally, doesn't seem to be applicable to humans after all - when we judge or merely get an idea about a person by his/her “cover”. We humans have always been aware of fashion's vital role in establishing the wearer's identity and place.
But how do "clothes make the man"? I have been finding answers for this and here's what I found out. (Thanks to the help of the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor’s essay *)
Self-expression
People dress because of the need for self-expression.
We do not merely dress just for the sake of not being naked or just for the sake of the clothes’ functions. Moreover, if one chooses to clothe himself just for survival or utility, then fashion would not be existent for the use of different styles and designs of clothes would be of no purpose. We tend to wear clothes that we think best expresses our personality; this is greatly seen in stereotypes, especially in youth, who Charles Taylor says in his essay "Fashion and Identity" is the group on which expressive individualism has been growing stronger. A youth who identifies himself punk (and therefore acts like one) would wear outlandish fashion which often involves a lot of black and rock culture emblems; while a girly youth would wear cute, feminine clothes usually pink.
Impression
And this brings us then to the other people’s perception or impression of the wearer. People dress because they seek other’s impression and perception of them. Rhian Ramos, a famous actress in the Philippines, once said in a tv program about fashion that a fashionista is someone whose clothing instantly tells people who they really are. That’s what we want. We dress the way we do because we want other people to perceive and view us as what we think we are. In my previous example, the punk youth wants people to characterize him as belonging to the punk group.
Response
And with the looker’s impression of the wearer comes a response. People dress because they expect response from others. Once a person has established his identity (through the clothes he’s wearing) in other people’s perception, people then respond the way they think they should respond to someone in that group or with that personality. In our example, the punk youth would be looked upon by many conservative adults as hardheaded, troublesome, and well… punk. But many who also consider themselves punk would think of him as cool and may want to be friends with him.
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*Part of Charles Taylor’s essay “Fashion and Identity”
“The resulting general structure is not that of common action but rather that of mutual display. It matters to each of us as we act that the others are there, as witnesses of what we are doing, and thus as co-determin¬ers of the meaning of our action.
Spaces of this kind become more and more impor¬tant in modern urban society where large numbers of people rub shoulders, unknown to each other, with¬out dealings with each other, and yet affecting each other, forming the inescapable context of each other’s lives. As against the everyday rush to work on the sub¬way, where the others can sink to the status of obsta¬cles in my way, city life has developed other ways of being-with, for instance, as we each take our Sunday walk in the park; or as we mingle at the summer street-festival, or in the stadium before the playoff game. Here each individual or small group acts on its own, but aware that its display says something to the others, will be responded to by them, will help build a common mood or tone that will color everyone’s actions.”