Don’t Be A Fashion Vic
You’re probably familiar with the term “Fashion Vic”. You may have a vague idea of what it means, but you may not know the exact meaning. It refers to a woman (or a man) who wears whatever she believes is fashionable, even if the look is objectively ugly or makes her look ridiculous.
There’s no lack of opportunity for anybody to become a victim of fashion because, back in the 1960’s or thereabouts, fashion designers got into show business.
Beginning in the 19th Century with the first grand couturier, Charles Fredrick Worth, the mission of the fashion designer had been to make women look and feel beautiful.
In traditional Haute Couture, wealthy women were seen by the couturier himself (it was virtually always a man in those days), who assessed the woman’s face, figure and coloration and then designed clothes for her alone.
Of course there were fashion shows that presented the designer’s seasonal collection, but those lines were more to demonstrate the designer’s vision for the coming season.
If a woman liked his direction, she would go to his atelier, where they would discuss which “numbers” she liked from the collection and he would customize them for her or advise her on a direction that would be most flattering to her.
This solicitousness of the appearance of one’s customers set the standard for a century a half of custom clothing and ready-to-wear.
The fact is that designers still create their garments with the intention of beautifying their customers. If you look at the individual gowns, dresses, suits and separates in almost any designer’s collection, you’ll sometimes see something a little quirky looking, something probing for a future direction, but most of it will be classically beautiful with that particular designer’s creative touch or interpretation. Where the showbiz aspect comes into play is in the styling.
With the near-death of Haute Couture and the rise of high-end “designer” ready-to-wear, it was necessary for designers to garner more than word of mouth attention among wealthy women and a few influential “Lady’s Fashion Journals.”
The fashion show became all important and it wasn’t aimed at the retail customer, it was meant to grab the attention of the world press and media at large.
Fashion shows went from sedate settings with exquisite clothing shown on beautiful models gracefully strolling the runway to the strains of a string quartet playing “A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody,” to major theatrical productions worthy of the main room at a Las Vegas Hotel and Casino.
Beautiful garments weren’t enough. Each outfit had to create a sensation. Seasonal fashion statements moved further and further in the direction of bizarre themes. Styling of garments and model’s hair and make-up went from outlandish to grotesque. Accessories became ridiculous and even dangerous.
By the middle of the first decade of the 21st Century, models were routinely falling down on the runway in unwearable shoes that reached an apogee (or nadir) with Alexander McQueen’s Lobster Claw Shoes.
None of these clown shows had much to do with actual fashion. If you look beyond the absurd hair, make-up and accessories, you’ll see beautiful garments, exquisitely designed and executed. For all of his buffoonery, most of Alexander McQueen’s actual clothes were sublime.
A good comparison would be the extraordinary voice and talent of Lady Gaga behind such conceits as her meat gown (If that was real, it must have smelled horrible). It all was, and is, pure show biz, meant to hype media attention, good or bad, but never indifferent.
And thus was born the fashion victim or Fashion Vic.
See her in her “dying in agony” make-up, under a huge rat’s nest of hair; stumbling down the street in eight inch platform shoes. Does she think she’s fashionable? edgy? Yes, she probably does.
You’re most likely to see her in a huge costal city where social influence is minimal and people are often lonely, longing for recognition, but she can appear anywhere. She’s trying to send a message, but it has nothing to do with who she is.
I’m not going to try to analyze what causes a woman to dress in a way that makes her look strange and off-putting, but what she is accomplishing is probably the opposite of what she intends.
Not only has she chosen her look from outside of herself, she’s choosing from the wrong place, I.e. fashion shows and magazine layouts that were never intended to be taken literally.
To avoid her mistakes, let’s get back to basics - way back to the roots of fashion. It’s supposed to do two things: make you look good and tell just enough about you to make you interesting.
If you don’t put enough of yourself into your style, you’ll look oddly flat and boring. If you put too much of someone else’s style into your dressing, you’ll look like you’re wearing a costume. Any good stylist will press her (or his) client not only about preferences, but also about lifestyles and aspirations and dreams.
So, while it’s perfectly fine to read fashion magazines and look at pictures and video clips from fashion shows, the first thing to remember is that you should look at the garments, not the presentation. In most cases, the presentation is intended to attract the attention of an online viewer or someone flipping through the pages of a magazine.
The other day I was online, intending to check out the newest arrivals on a high fashion retail site. Right on their home page was the picture of a model in a very pretty white silk A-line cocktail dress. Her hair was shaved on the sides and pulled into a loop and knot on the top of her head. She wore distressed brown combat boots and she was crouched in the posture of a sumo wrestler.
Believe me when I tell you that I knew immediately that that picture was meant to stop me in my tracks - and it did - for a moment, then I moved on to New Arrivals.
What I took away from the image was that the white silk A-line dress was very pretty and I looked for it. I found it and chose it for my Friday line-up—styled with black velvet sandals and a diamond pendant.
The point here is that I did look at the sumo wrestler presentation, shook my head and then looked at the dress.
The Fashion Vic might well have bought the whole outfit and practiced hulking like a sumo wrestler when she sat down at the next party she attended.
So, when you see an online presentation or a fashion layout, ignore everything but the individual garments. Dismiss the styling. Imagine how you would style that dress.
Does it have a pretty bateau neckline? Ask yourself if you would wear your hair up to show it off in a sweet neck curve. If it has a knee-length hem, would you wear your ballet flats or high heeled pumps. In other words, imagine yourself in it.
Imagine how you would style it into an outfit. Imagine how you would use it to make yourself look attractive in it. Never buy into a fully styled presentation until you’ve analyzed each piece and asked yourself if it’s your style, if it would enhance you, if it says something about you.
If you do this, the chances are that you’ll find yourself saying something like, “I like the dress, but I’d go with red shoes,” or “I like the dress and the bag, but I wouldn’t put that gold collar on a dog.”
If you practice analyzing fashion presentations and only accepting the component parts after asking yourself if they’re “You,” you’ll never fall into the trap of the Fashion Vic.
Next week, Finding Quality At A Moderate Price.
- Gabrielle