The Fashionista Trope - Why She's So Feared

vapid and cruel but oh so beautifully dressed the fashionista is one of film's most reviled characters that is the ugliest effing skirt I've ever seen set apart by their exceptional sense of style they inhabit a fragile fast-paced world where they're constantly competing with other fashionistas and they're only as good as their next outfit hello lover so what are some of the on-screen fashionistas defining features they're usually a woman but sometimes a gay man hush little homo don't you cry Mandy's gonna steal you a prototype and this gendered aspect of the Trope is by no means accidental the link between fashion and femininity is used to make people who are interested in fashion seem stupid and render fashion unimportant ultimately making fashion empty and something that belongs to women and gay men is a slick way of undermining these groups what'd you do in school today well I broke in my purple clocks and the fashionista reinforces the idea that women's interests don't extend beyond buying clothes and looking pretty but I like my money right where I can see it hanging in my closet so the fashionista is often superficial they're obsessed with physical appearance and might have few firm inner values deciding to broadcast their Eco credentials one week or helping needy kids the next I want to flash up pictures of sad but beautiful children happy gay couples slogans like World Health no pollution fashion cares all right darling but it's all surface deep because these characters only care about what they look like the fashionista is frequently the definition of suffering to be beautiful and in the superficiality can lose their Humanity no one cares about the models they're nothing more than hangers they tend to be selfish and needlessly cruel too look I got money to spend in here I don't think we have anything for you you're obviously in the wrong place that's partly because fashion depends on exclusivity quality is for the rich and the fashion industry is notoriously competitive and grueling to Rising it's striking that even to this day a large number of fashionista characters are villains well if we make this code it would be as if I were wearing your dog but there's more to the fashionista than superficiality meanness and gray style here's our take on What Lies Beneath the perfect veneer the fashionista is a largely unpleasant character we're supposed to fear she's clawed her way to the top of a pyramid and often punches down and you have no style or sense of fashion well um I think that depends on what you're you know that wasn't a question in characters like The Devil Wears Prada's Miranda Priestly House of Gucci's Patricia reggiani Cruella Deville and much of the lineup of Ugly Betty we're shown that the pursuit of power and perfection in the fashion world can turn people evil or attract people who already had those Cutthroat instincts even when they're not totally monstrous fashionistas are often unkind trying their hardest to keep others out by treating them badly oh my God is the hag convention in town this exclusivity inherent to the industry is extended to high-end fashion consumers on screen in shows like Gossip Girl fashion is used as a shorthand for class as a means of elevating the characters to a position of superiority the female characters are dressed by world-renowned couturiers like Oscar de la Renta and elisab which makes their existence on Manhattan's Upper East Side seem even more inaccessible to viewers well a lifelong relationship with Ellie SOB does have its perks and maybe that's another reason we dislike the fashionista her unattainability is something we're a little envious of so we tend to vilify her there's also the misogyny that dogs the fashionista Ilya Parkins writes that fashion-consuming women appear as unstable and ultimately women's Ardent relationship to Fashion aligns them with irrationality on one hand I'm like oh I have to pick up garbage all day and on the other hand I'm like look at me in Orange because fashion is seen as feminine it's treated like a low brow interest and people of any gender who are involved with it are cast as stupid the Derek Zoolander Center for kids who can't read good and want to learn to do other stuff good too we teach you that there's more to life than just being really really really good looking so if a fashionista isn't downright evil they're shallow entitled or an idiot all of which makes it easier to laugh at them and think of their interests as unimportant there is another type of fashionista character who doesn't get the same level of vitriol the designer they're often brilliant but aloof defined by a true Talent Jack Jack doesn't have any powers no gotta look fabulous anyway they're not as dismissed largely because they're less involved in the overtly feminine stuff like walking the runways and their creative Dedication that goes beyond Trend fixation is more traditionally male coded Chic oh don't you start using that filthy little word chic whoever invented that all to be spanked still their eccentricities may be extreme bordering on pathological like in Phantom threads controlling Reynolds Woodcock don't move so much I'm buttering my toes and not moving too much it's too much the ultimate fashionista knows that being a fashion icon also means being a Savvy Shopper and nothing makes online shopping more rewarding than using honey is the ultimate shopping assistant that can help you find coupon codes on over 30 000 sites for free and it's as easy as clicking a button just head to your favorite site shop like any good fashionista wood and at checkout hit the honey button within seconds honey will scour the internet for thousands of coupons so you don't have to if honey finds working coupons it'll apply the one with the biggest savings to your cart while you watch and wonder as the price drops recently during a shoe Splurge honey found me a 20 off code that ended up saving me twenty dollars hello new boots honey is super easy to use it just takes a few clicks to add to your computer and it's 100 free but it doesn't just work on desktops it works on your iPhone too just activate it on your preferred web browsing app and you can save money on the go if you're not already using honey you're seriously missing out honey users end up saving an average of over one hundred dollars a year what are you waiting for get honey for free at joinhoney.com my take that's joinhoney.com my take because of the associated vapidity fashion is widely vilified on screen and reduced to something less than a great example is in the 1957 Audrey Hepburn film funny face where the character of Joe D rides fashion because she wants to be taken seriously Dr post would never approve she doesn't approve of fashion magazines it's shishi and an unrealistic approach to self-impressions as well as economics when she's scouted as a model to front one of the world's most successful fashion magazines she's anxious that the philosopher she respects will think less of her funny face ultimately posits that for Joe both fashion and philosophy are too superficial and that she better find herself a good man instead oh dick I thought it would never happen [Music] I never want to go home Fashion's trendy nature also makes fashionable people easy to dehumanize because they shift and change so quickly constantly altering to stay up to date this gives the fashionista the sense of being slippery lacking serious fixed values in the 90s and 2000s there was a move towards humanizing the fashionista to an extent share from Clueless and Carrie Bradshaw are both fashionistas who have lives outside of their wardrobe but who earnestly love clothes as a means of self-expression fashion is a vital part of their existence when Carrie's boyfriend Aiden asks her to clean out her closet so he can move in it causes a major Rift in their relationship we could make some room for it if we cleaned out your closet Carrie ends up instead with Mr big a character who respects and nurtures her inner fashionista I can build you a better closet welcome home baby as a teen girl Cher looks to her fashion to give her a sense of power and control in a confusing disempowering world and she takes pride in how her fashion is original rather than just copying others trends Milan fashion victim or ensembly challenge in 2001's Legally Blonde L Woods is widely underestimated due to her California blonde looks and love of cheerful hot pink fashion but she spends the movie disproving assumptions that these things can't go along with a sharp intellect as she Rises up through Harvard Law School she maintains her signature fashion sense and shows that her lawyerly aptitude isn't diminished by dressing to express her personality still while these characters fashion is celebrated there were limits to how much the fashionista was humanized in this era Carrie can be an unpleasant character who behaves in anti-heroic ways I understand why you see a shrink you know because you're always in your head but I'm fine Cher meanwhile sheds at least some of her fashion Obsession as she goes through an inner makeover to become more serious and starts dating Josh it's almost like to be a better person the fashion aspect has to give I decided I needed a complete makeover except this time I make over my soul so while fashionista characters were fleshed out more in this era the passion for fashion still could come across as a weakness or something to be kept in check I spent 40 000 on shoes and I have no place to live I will literally be the old woman who lived in her shoes meanwhile there's something about fashion that's rarely touched on in film and that's how empowering it can be laughs fashion has the ability to empower people who feel disempowered this is explored under the surface in Clueless a lot of shares life is controlled by her teachers her father and her peers and she expresses herself through what she wears sadly despite how much fun she has with this and how confident she seems shares fashion sense gets her viewed as ditzy by others and in her most vulnerable moment she reveals this devastates her go out and have fun and go shopping you think that's all I do I'm just a ditch with a credit card at times Cher doesn't seem to believe she has a lot of value outside her clothes he does dress better than I do what would I bring to the relationship but her environment reflects a pretty closed-minded and dismissive attitude toward fashion while the fashion industry is exclusionary and money-centric fashion in an individual sense is something anyone can have fun with and can be a wonderful way of bringing creativity into your everyday life one amazing movie about the way that fashion can be a force for good is 1997's Romeo and Michelle's High School reunion Romy and Michelle are immature and hapless best friends and they don't feel like they've made a success of their lives they are convinced they need to dress in business wear to impress their former classmates at their 10-year reunion I just remember from this point on we are sophisticated educated successful career women but after things don't go to plan they finally get dressed into their own clothes the former popular mean girl who used to bully them begins ridiculing their looks there's deluded about their lives as they are about those hideous clothes but in a moment that shows how power Ebbs and flows out of high school their outfits impress another ex-student who's now a fashion editor actually Christine they've got nice lines a fun frisky use of color all in all I'd have to say they're really not bad the film ends with Romy and Michelle in a much happier place than they were at the beginning they've used fashion to improve their lives they're fulfilled because they now own a store where they are able to do what they love spending time with each other and delighting in clothes all day to me fashion is just it's like everything so while fashionistas are often depicted with superiority complexes and innate cruelty it's important to reflect on the nuances of their characterization their looks may serve as a vehicle for their malice but their wardrobes are often visual representations of other more defining traits and rather than painting the less vilified fashionistas with sexist Strokes of vapidity and superficiality it's more productive to look at our own relationship with fashion and the ways it can both Empower and disempower us all ultimately clothing is a form of self-expression so it's best to lace up respect each other's Styles and read between the stitches fashion could be something beautiful something that inspires thank you for watching the tape don't forget to subscribe and let us know what you're watching

Channel: The Take

Views: 68,819

Keywords: Clueless, Devil Wears Prada, Romy & Michele, Cruella, 101 dalmatians, Zoolander, Absolutely Fabulous, Funny Face, SATC, Ready to Wear, BlowUp, House of Gucci, Spencer, Who Are You Polly Magoo?, Ugly Betty, The Bold Type, Emily in Paris, Gossip Girl, The Incredibles (Edna), Pretty Woman, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, The Take, Fashionista, Trope, Villain, Clothing, Cher Horotwitz, Regina George, Mean Girls, Fashion, TikTok, Miranda Priestly, Lady Gaga

Id: jpQmVKSD5pE

Length: 12min 36sec (756 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 24 2023