It's not just the clothes which change, but the human subjects under them. Not just hemlines, but the outlines of "me". Between 1996 and 2006 I'd say there's been a major change in conceptions of the self. Personally, I'm very little interested in Western fashion now, but I love the Turkish veils at my local Turkish market, and I love Japanese yukatas at a summer matsuri. In other words, from my perspective, there has been an end to the century of the self and a re-valorisation of the values of traditional society.
1996
Going out: Guilt, repression, class consciousness, elitism, traditional society, duty, restraint, decorum, bottling things up, deferred gratification, introversion.
Still coming in: Emotion, instinct, self-expression, atomization, immediate gratification, focus groups, marketing, psychoanalysis, the self, the now, extraversion.
2006
Going out: Emotion, instinct, self-expression, atomization, immediate gratification, focus groups, marketing, psychoanalysis, the self, the now, extraversion.
Coming back in: Guilt, repression, class consciousness, elitism, traditional society, duty, restraint, decorum, bottling things up, deferred gratification, introversion.
Now, that's a polemical stance, and somewhat exaggerated. But if there's something in it, it's a vast change.
-- Momus (nic...), Sunday 8:56 AM. (Momus) (later)
― Confounded (Confounded), Tuesday, 5 September 2006 17:27 (eighteen years ago)