The Poison in the Fashion Industry...and its Antidote
It starts with a
simple question. Who are you wearing?
This I believe can fall under the FAQ (frequently asked questions) at any major
fashion event, award ceremony or red carpet across the US, France, China,
Milan, London and any other destination that is big on fashion.
More often than
not, the outfit in question is a long evening gown with a thigh high slit, open
back and revealing cleavage. In other words, the wearer is more undressed than
they are dressed, portraying fashion as more about undressing than dressing. And when they mention ‘whom they are wearing’ the
particular dress is duplicated and sold around the world as the one so and so
wore at the Oscars or Grammy’s. When it seems right the fashion industry
thrives.
And so, the poison
of indecent dressing spills from the red carpet to hundreds of closets around
the world. Thus, the red carpet becomes the floor that principalities use to
tell the rest of the world what to wear.
The fashion
industry is a sensual industry. It thrives on people’s feelings and need to
look and feel a certain way. It prospers because people will always come back
for more; fashion seems to create an insatiable quest that can never be
fulfilled. Fashion has come to symbolize vanity, materialism and extravagance.
Fashion is
intentional. Nothing is by chance about any given design. Principalities that
influence the world of fashion have studied people with the intention of
influencing them. How do you explain an era of miniskirts, another of leggings,
another of low cleavage and yet another or high slits? How do you explain that
when these trends hit the street, you meet hundreds of people wearing the same
exact outfit, whether it works with their body or not? Is the fashion industry
not trying to make slaves of people who follow trends without reasoning with
it? Does it not want to create a people who will put on whatever it
calls up-to-the-minute, cool, and modern without debating its intention?
If I designed an
outfit today, my intention would be to express God’s creativity which is
beautiful but also respectful. When the principalities influence a design, what
is their intention?
Fashion lies. It plays with the very words that many people
crave to be described with. When words such as the’ image of perfection, alluring, sexy, confident, she knows herself’
describe celebrities that are indecently dressed, many people looking for approval swallow the pill. They figure that if they can dress that way, then they will come off
as confident or as images of perfection…and more.
Many people look
to fashion to feel complete, to build their low self esteem or to cover up
their real struggles. The industry takes advantage of hurting broken hearts by lying to
them that this ‘hourte courtre, avante
garde, trendy, hot, cool, modern, up-to-the-minute, winter, fall, summer
and spring collection’ will complete them. It never does. It further empties
their soul and their pockets too.
Fashion giants use
the influence and power that celebrities have over people by dressing them in
whatever they want to sell. You may look at an outfit and wonder what the
designer was thinking when he produced it. But since they are big names who influence
the trends and determine what is fashion-forward, whatever they produce is
endorsed. Many celebrities and models around the world do not mind flaunting
their bodies to the public and so gladly accept to model for the fashion houses.
Here, image is exalted at the expense of character.
As the world applause
and celebrates the fashion houses and its models, the weapon that was fashioned
against people’s minds prospers skyrocketing all kinds of sexual and moral decadence. Identities
are lost as young people seek to look like their ‘idols’, fulfilling the
scripture in Proverbs 16:25 There is a
way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. When the
media splash and praise these clothes, it seems right to them, but
in the end, it ends up breaking lives, homes and societies.
That is the
poison within the fashion industry.
Fashion in itself
is not an evil thing. It is indeed an expression of God’s multidimensional
creativity. When God wanted garments
made for his priests in ancient Israel, he gave the artists of the day a spirit
of wisdom to make outfits for beauty and
for glory. (Ex 28:2). Indeed, Exodus 28 gives a painstaking description of
the design, fabric and bling that were to be used on Aaron’s priestly
garment.
Apart from been
ministered to by priests that looked good, he also wanted to communicate the
beauty, excellence, holiness and purity on the calling of a priest which was
embodied by Christ in the days to come. In Proverbs 31woman went for both beauty and fine quality when it came to clothing, and her manner brought praise to God and her family. But as it is
with everything beautiful that God created, the enemy has turned this one
around for his own destructive purposes.
Slogans such as ‘dress to kill’, ‘dress to impress’ and ‘beautiful to death’ are self-fulfilling
prophecies as they literally kill the moral fiber in society. When people fail
to dress responsibly, many minds are corrupted, both young and old.
If fashion began
with the creator, then we Christians should reclaim it. As it is with marriage
and business and every other institution that God created, we should engage the
fashion industry in an endeavor to produce clothing for beauty and glory,
clothing that perfectly fulfills its purpose. The many Christians gifted
in fashion design ought to tap into the mind of Christ and bring out the most
beautiful design ideas the world has ever seen. Designs that communicate the spirit of
excellence and purity while fulfilling the purposes of dressing.
At the same time,
we should mind how we dress today. Decent clothing is readily available. People
around us should never have to feel embarrassed when they look at us. The images
that we put in their minds are powerful and they reproduce after their kind. We
therefore have a responsibility to dress decently so as to protect their minds. If we saw and treated people around us as brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, then we can accord them the same respect and boundary (1Tim 5)
The secular world
cannot promise to dress well, secular media cannot promise not to show
offensive images. But we can. We can dress smart, fashionably but modestly. All
we need is a strong godly mind that is able to walk away from indecent trends,
a mind that refuses to conform to the dressing of the world just because
something is in fashion. Let’s not look up to the world to tell us what is in
and what is out in the fashion world, instead, let us judge what is trending
based on its excellent design and spirit of purity. One thing I know for sure
is that fashion will always come and go but decent dressing will never go out
of fashion!
