At the University of North Carolina at Asheville, the day-to-day outfits seen around campus reflect the many personalities of the students and faculty. While fashion may not always be considered an art form, wearing what you want reflects who you are as a person.
“Get over what you feel like people will think of you for your personal expression, wear what makes you happy,” said Casey Watkins, assistant professor of costume design.
What a person wears can reveal a great deal about that person, from their mood and personality to their social status. Fashion is a tool to help you be seen in the light you wish to be seen in, according to Atabi Mandal and Rajeev Kumar’s journal, Fashion is a Form of Social Expression.
“We express things like gender, age, status, group identity, ceremonial use, sexual attraction and artistic expression through our clothing and the choices we make around it,” Watkins said.
According to the Mandal and Kumar journal, “Knowing your style, the colors you look best in, and the pieces that radiate your personality and lifestyle can create a unique ensemble that will leave you placid and fearless no matter the occasion.”
Waktins said for most people, clothing is the only self-expressive art people participate in and create every day, even if it’s subconsciously.
According to Why Is Fashion Considered an Art Form? by the Sustainability Directory. Artists follow a process that consists of concept, sketch, patterns, and a 3-dimensional final product. This is true for painters, sculptors, and fashion designers.
“The individual design, creation, and implementation of creating clothing for more than a practical reason absolutely is art,” Watkins said.
Elena Adell, associate professor in the Department of Languages and Literature, says a lot of her clothes are hand-me-downs from her aunt and mother in Castellon, Spain.
“Fashion, like art, is deeply embedded in culture and society,” Sustainability Directory said, “It reflects and shapes our values, beliefs and identities.”
When Adell visits her family a couple of times a year in Spain, they go through the clothes her aunt and mother set aside for her and try them on and she says they often end up in deep conversations.
“Before you know it, often, we’re talking about my grandma, who passed a few years ago,” she said. “We are all determined to keep talking about her because she was the center part of our family.”
For her, getting hand-me-downs from the women in her family is a bonding experience, often leading to learning about herself and her family.
“I’ve always liked it since I was younger to play around with these kinds of things, so I guess I continue doing it,” Adell said.
A lot of the clothes Adell gets are often flowier and comfortable but still stylish and formal for the workplace, which she attributes to Spain’s lack of air conditioning and a lot of walking making its way to her daily outfits at UNCA.
For students, they may try to tie their majors and interests into their outfits around campus.
“Since I’m a biology major, I go for a lot of biology, plant and animal motifs,” said Rhiannon Sullens. “I try to include as much biology in it as I can.”
Much of her jewelry is fossil-related or related to dogs, as she has four dogs who are a big part of her life, she said.
Comparing herself to a magpie, she said she likes to do bright colors, glitter, and shiny bits.
Sullens said fashion is a way to express yourself and you can express so many different meanings just on how you dress.
“Every unique outfit is a work of art in itself,” Sullens said.
