Fashion Food for Thought

Here's a quote that smacked me in the face from an interview with textile artists Elif Saydam and Katie Jung in Worn Journal, contained in the middle of their answer to Tessa Smith's question "Do you see clothing as having a role in your art?" (Saydam and Jung use themselves as subjects in their photorealist weavings):

..."It's irksome to hear people claim that what they've put on the morning is meaningless, but it's equally irksome, if not more, to hear claims that clothing is a simple means of expressing oneself. Both standpoints assume that there's a finite notion of identity that can be hidden or disclosed so easily, but as we all know, things are a bit more complicated than that."

Brilliantly put. So I won't ruin it by commenting.

The Toronto-based Worn Journal is an exceptionally well researched and written, thoughtful compilation of fashion topics with none of that useless irritant, the dreaded 'Too Cool for School' hipster vibe. For those more interested in the history of fashion elements and the processes behind the more substantially creative (and therefore at times more obscure) endeavors than simple adoration and trend following, you'll want to look into this bi-annual publication. And they're not strictly academic; they have a sense of humour and they're fun, too, as their editorial features such as 'Inexpliqué' reveals. (And thank you for titling it that way so I'm not wasting time trying to decipher some clandestine meaning that isn't there and hurting my brain.)