“The fashion Industry is ultimately a fickle load of nonsense”

I was asked recently by the Dubliner magazine in the Evening Herald if I’d like to take part in the Dubliner Debate on the notion that “The fashion Industry is ultimately a fickle load of nonsense”. It was published a fortnight ago and garnered quite the reaction from some of their facebook fans. Here’s what I had to say in case you missed it. Would love to hear your thoughts so feel free to weigh in…

By Darren Kennedy

“You want a career in TV and Fashion? You’ve got a first class honors degree in International Business, why would you want to do that? Get a real job in the bank and make something of yourself?” Or so the conversation went when I announced my career intentions to my folks. Fast forward a couple of years and it’s interesting to see how times have changed. Many fashion houses are bucking the global economic trend and faring far better than our ‘respected’ banking institutions. Take Mulberry for example where profits have quadrupled this year alone. Perhaps governments should be looking to the so-called “nonsense” industry for some financial guidance?

The fashion industry is one that many people like to belittle and shrug off as nothing other than a distraction from real business. Like art, dance, theatre and music, people who don’t ‘get it’ like to dismiss it. When it comes to fashion, you can’t ignore the fact that an estimated 4 million people globally are employed in an industry which spans far more than glossy magazines and runway shows. Factor in design, materials sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, retailing, advertising, communications, publishing and consulting and you start to get a sense of what this ‘load of nonsense’ is all about.

If you really examine it you’ll find that the fashion industry in some way, shape or form affects many aspects of all our lives. Indeed this very magazine, a platform for views to be expressed, may not exist if it weren’t for the fashion industry and it’s widespread advertising spend. In a world where all too often big corporations try to control, regulate and manipulate, fashion is one of the few precious areas where we are all free to express ourselves without uttering a word. Indeed, throughout history there have been various laws that have tried to control who is allowed to wear what in order to keep people in their so-called place and maintain social hierarchies.

Fashion as we know it today helps demolish such barriers and is a form of empowering communication. On a daily basis what you wear communicates who you are, what you value and where you see yourself in society. You decide! Therefore I believe fashion, far from being a fickle load of nonsense, firmly deserves its place in the world. People are fickle but great fashion lives forever!