All this talking about fashion here is starting to get me interested. However, I have a few problems preventing me from actually attempting anything:
a) All my knowledge of the subject comes from these articles on LW, although I suspect there might be some instant discharge of insight if it’s properly bridged with my general knowledge of Art and evolutionary psychology. (I suspect the generalized understanding of art might even give me a significant edge over most of LW if I’m lucky. But the bridging needs to happen first, and if it’s like most other arts lot of practice will be needed to realize any insight. )
b) Judging from a family history of addictions, my tendency to act into certain kinds of stereotypes, artistic perfectionism, and my behaviour towards other things related to social status such as the karma here on Lesswrong; there is a very real possibility that I might get hooked and become an obsessive snobbish fashion slave of the very worst sort, whit catastrophic financial and character consequences. The fear of this prohibits me from even looking to seriously at the subject.
c) All of my extended family, and and the vast majority of people I’ve ever meet face to face in my entire life, have exactly the anti-fashion stance you describe to varying degrees, and I have been raised in a way that very strongly influences me to think that way as well and which would likely cause unpleasant cognitive dissonance.
d) I have no access to people other than close family IRL none of which know anything about fashion, nor provide any avenue of testing due to small sample size and parental bias.
e) Most of the things I might want to communicate through clothing would most likely just make me look like I were on my way to an anime convention.
EDIT: To clarify: I already have concluded that fashion is probably both a highly useful tool to be used ruthlessly and a valid medium of artistic expression that I’d find intrinsically enjoyable. This post is more of a “True Rejections” type thing.
f) although given I know nothing about it so this might well be entirely wrong, and I have no idea of the possible source, my brain contains the fact that contemporary, male, mainstream fashion is an exception to that thing about being interesting or artistic and would unavoidably communicate things I am diametrically opposed to.
Most of the things I might want to communicate through clothing would most likely just make me look like I were on my way to an anime convention.
This doesn’t make sense to me at all. The whole point of this kind of conscious signaling is to modulate people’s reactions to you; if, in some context, you truly value signaling that (say) you really like InuYasha over all the other things you could be saying with your clothes, even after taking the downsides into account, then looking like you’re on your way to an anime convention is exactly what you want in that situation, not a downside of any kind. Otherwise, it’s not really what you want to say with your clothes.
What I meant is the things I’d like to say are likely so complex and unusual that it’s look like a costume, something only people in other usually fictional cultures wear, rather than any kind of normal everyday or formal clothing.
All this talking about fashion here is starting to get me interested. However, I have a few problems preventing me from actually attempting anything:
a) All my knowledge of the subject comes from these articles on LW, although I suspect there might be some instant discharge of insight if it’s properly bridged with my general knowledge of Art and evolutionary psychology. (I suspect the generalized understanding of art might even give me a significant edge over most of LW if I’m lucky. But the bridging needs to happen first, and if it’s like most other arts lot of practice will be needed to realize any insight. )
b) Judging from a family history of addictions, my tendency to act into certain kinds of stereotypes, artistic perfectionism, and my behaviour towards other things related to social status such as the karma here on Lesswrong; there is a very real possibility that I might get hooked and become an obsessive snobbish fashion slave of the very worst sort, whit catastrophic financial and character consequences. The fear of this prohibits me from even looking to seriously at the subject.
c) All of my extended family, and and the vast majority of people I’ve ever meet face to face in my entire life, have exactly the anti-fashion stance you describe to varying degrees, and I have been raised in a way that very strongly influences me to think that way as well and which would likely cause unpleasant cognitive dissonance.
d) I have no access to people other than close family IRL none of which know anything about fashion, nor provide any avenue of testing due to small sample size and parental bias.
e) Most of the things I might want to communicate through clothing would most likely just make me look like I were on my way to an anime convention.
EDIT: To clarify: I already have concluded that fashion is probably both a highly useful tool to be used ruthlessly and a valid medium of artistic expression that I’d find intrinsically enjoyable. This post is more of a “True Rejections” type thing.
f) although given I know nothing about it so this might well be entirely wrong, and I have no idea of the possible source, my brain contains the fact that contemporary, male, mainstream fashion is an exception to that thing about being interesting or artistic and would unavoidably communicate things I am diametrically opposed to.
This doesn’t make sense to me at all. The whole point of this kind of conscious signaling is to modulate people’s reactions to you; if, in some context, you truly value signaling that (say) you really like InuYasha over all the other things you could be saying with your clothes, even after taking the downsides into account, then looking like you’re on your way to an anime convention is exactly what you want in that situation, not a downside of any kind. Otherwise, it’s not really what you want to say with your clothes.
Am I missing something important?
What I meant is the things I’d like to say are likely so complex and unusual that it’s look like a costume, something only people in other usually fictional cultures wear, rather than any kind of normal everyday or formal clothing.
Make your reasons more resonant and useful in a pro/con list by making them more concise. Like so:
c) unpleasant.
that wasn’t at all what I meant with c. Which sort of proves your point I guess but I have no idea how to compress it further.