DEDICATED FOLLOWER OF FASHION

I was working away in my studio the other day and on my MP3 player came The Kinks playing Dedicated Follower of Fashion, it’s a great song which always puts a smile on my face.

“They seek him here, they seek him there,
His clothes are loud, but never square.
It will make or break him so he's got to buy the best,
'Cause he's a dedicated follower of fashion”

This was rapidly followed by David Bowie’s ‘Fashion’ which seems to me to be more about a new dance craze than about fashion per se…

“There's a brand new dance
but I don't know its name
That people from bad homes
do again and again
It's big and it's bland
full of tension and fear
They do it over there but we don't do it here”

…but hey, it got me thinking - not a good thing when I’m wielding a sharp pair of scissors, but still!

Since the 50’s, when the notion of ‘teenager’ was first born, fashion has followed major music movements – Rockabilly, punk, ska, heavy rock, New Romantics, goth… they’ve all generated their own style as fans emulated their favourite music idols.

But equally, music can be influenced by fashion – but as in the chicken and egg scenario, which comes first? Take punk as an example. Did punk music spark its associated fashions and attitudes, or was it the anger of a disillusioned youth who, fed up with high levels of unemployment, took to anarchy and rebellion, part of which involved (literally) sticking two fingers up at the conservative world of fashion (and the world at large) at the time? Did wearing punk clothes give them a whole new, anti-establishment persona, just like an actor really gets into character when he’s in costume? And did that lead to the birth of punk as these angry individuals attempted to spread their message through music?

I’m sorry, I don’t have the answer to that. My guess, is that each acted as a catalyst for the other. As with the chicken and the egg, to be honest, I don’t really care. I just find it interesting to see the intrinsic links they share.

Here are a few more songs about fashion you might like to listen to, some well-known, others less so…

Madonna – Vogue

Hanoi Rocks – Fashion

Green Day – Fashion Victim

Suede – She’s in Fashion

Lady Gaga – Fashion

There are loads more but I just don’t have the time…