Fashion Is Folly
Fashion is folly-Don't be a victim
The very word "fashion" sends images into our heads of flashbulbs lighting up the catwalk at trendy fashion shows and scantily clad models parading clothes that sometimes seem ridiculous and outlandish. Designers are applauded as their creations set the fashion world alight. These are the clothes, we are told, we all soon will be (or should be) wearing. Some call it art, some call it fun, and some call it just plain folly. The fashion victim doesn't care what you call it, just as long or she or he can buy it.
Pity the poor fashion victim, drowning in a sea of labels and expeditions of shopping madness. The words accessorize' must have' and this season' sends them into a frenzy of spending and witless confusion. A fashion victim may be the anonymous type trying to blend in with the crowd of may be more flamboyant, flaunting their hopeless condition. Most likely, all of you in this classroom today have tendencies to be victims of fashion.
Fashion raises eyebrows and, most of all, credit limits. Fashion is literally a two hundred billion dollar industry. It is also an industry of unbelievable contrasts. It reaches from the designers, models and manufacturers, through to the fashion press. It includes scandalous conditions of the sweatshop where garment workers slave for laughable amounts of money. It reaches out through the retail outlets and finally to us, the consumers.
Real fashion victims cannot get enough of fashion. The phrase was coined to describe those who live only for the next trend. It describes those whose appreciation of fashion means a compulsive shopping habit. Whole sections of the media exist to alert the fashion victim to who is wearing what. Spotting the next trend is a multi-million dollar business.
Fashion thrives on publicity, be it from London, New York, Paris, or Milan. The names of designers and their precious labels are...
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