What could possibly be wrong with today’s fashion?

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Deep Dive Discussion

Fashion, as the popular saying would suggest, is a statement that one makes about themselves.

So, we make fashion statements with our clothing, styles, and colors, whether we mean to or not.

Looking at fashion from this perspective, one is better able to assess the statement being made (i.e., to foster nobility or vulgarity) and thus assess its potential effect on the individual and society.

Let’s start with the casual dress code that has become the norm of the day.

This fashion can be traced back to the cultural revolution that started in the United States of America in the 1960s. The young people who were the force behind the movement had justifiably become disenchanted with the hypocrisy and veiled corruption of the socio-political status quo, and this was reflected in their deep distrust of “the Establishment.”

These young radicals expressed their being anti-establishment in their dressing, hairstyles, and fashion accessories.

Even when they subsequently matured and became members of the establishment themselves, they still maintained their disregard for traditional social norms and still rejected attires associated with these norms. As a result, suits that were once the norm of dressing to reflect respect for the work environment gradually changed into “business casual,” dispensing with the need for a tie or jacket as was the norm before. In time, the word “business” was dropped, so that today, we talk only about casual dress codes.

Next to be affected in the anti-establishment drive were occasions for which we once “put on our Sunday best,” that is, events or functions that call for showing respect in celebrating or honoring the significance of the moment. The one that has suffered the most is Sunday church services, where putting on one’s Sunday best was once a sign of respect for the sacred space and occasion, and the style of dressing emphasized reverence, humility, and modesty. Judging by what many wear to church today, it can be seen that very little or no thought is given to this anymore.

Although the rebellion against a rigid, hypocritical, and unjust social structure was laudable, it is clear that it has also fostered laxity or complete disregard for many of the norms and traditions that helped to maintain society. This has been replaced by the excessive emphasis on personal taste, which is increasingly manifesting in the fashion statement described today as “street fashion.”

However, an objective observer of “street fashion” would have to admit that it gives little or no regard to the promotion of nobility of character. If anything, it suggests a social psyche that is leading more to a lowering of standards instead of influencing people to strive for something higher. For example, “thug fashion” glorifies the criminal elements of society.

An unconscious effect of this lowering of standards is that it blunts a spirit’s intuitive sensing.

As has been presented in many articles on this platform, the core of the human being is Spirit, a non-material energy form that incarnates on Earth to learn from experiences in order to mature and grow, and eventually return to its source of origin. The spirit is endowed with a sensor that we call “the intuition”, and through this, it receives impulses that can help it navigate through its existence on earth.

Any interference with the receptive capacity of the intuition hampers the Spirit’s ability to acquire the necessary lessons for which it has incarnated.

Therefore, any fashion statement that blunts this intuition cannot bode well for the human being’s spiritual development.

A pre-dating movement, which also became part of the 1960s drive, was the struggle by women for equal status as men in all arenas of life. One of the goals was to rid the long history of men seeing women primarily as sexual objects. Therefore, it is ironic that today’s fashion statement by women declares their erotic sexuality, more so than even before. This is evident by the short, body-hugging, and skimpy clothes that have become the norm today.

It therefore begs the question of whether this modern fashion statement does not contradict the campaign by women not to be seen as sexual objects.

The argument that erotic fashion statements are simply expressions of personal taste does not negate its appeal or effect on lookers, male as well as female. An honest and objective observer may even see this argument as reflecting similar hypocrisies that sparked the earlier women’s movement and the radicals of the 1960s.

The promotion of the erotic also has a blunting effect on the intuition because it directs focus on the body’s sexual instincts.

When aroused, the instinct becomes so strong as to overshadow spiritual impulses that are then unable to penetrate through the sexually charged energy field enveloping the person whose instincts have been set ablaze by an erotic fashion statement. If, as is the case today, such a person is bombarded at every corner and daily, where can they have the reprieve to allow the intuitive impulses to penetrate?

The picture painted here may be sad, but it cannot be disputed.

Therefore, to summarize, there are three basic things that can be said about today’s fashion statement:

1 – They foster ego-centricity and promote laxity and disrespect.

2 – They encourage a lowering of standards instead of aiming for ennoblement.

3 – They strengthen seeing women as sexual objects.

But the biggest problem is that combined, they all help to erode and weaken the Spirit’s intuitive ability and thereby hinder a Spirit’s development.

The state of our spiritual development is manifest in the chaos, confusion, and ills that plague society. And this is clearly declared in the fashion statements made every day. But our underdeveloped spirit cannot assess these statements.