Mix 'n' Match

VIRTUAL FASHION

Just when you're in the market for a new look, the world of the hip is populated by pale faces and smudged eyes, white vinyl hip huggers and too-small sweaters, not to mention those clunky go-go boots. Mod style arrives hard on the heels of grunge—the used look of flannel shirts and baggy pants—not to mention biker chic.

Confused? That's exactly the point, contends psychologist Thomas Ferraro, Ph.D. He insists that in its stunning incoherence, fashion is expressing the information overload unleashed by the digital revolution. "Generation X's sense of time is now so fragmented that they are randomly appropriating fashions of the 50s, 60s, and 70s as a way of seeking meaning during confusing times."

Fashion, of course, has always reflected cultural developments. But recent shifts are putting more on fashion's back.

According to the Long Island psychoanalyst, fashion is increasingly "carrying America's purpose, mores, and ideology" Today's stylistic chaos is a sign that individuals are escaping the grip of institutions, like church, family, and government, that keep tight control of our identity

The speed and quantity of information has collapsed our sense of history and tradition, contends Ferraro. "We can no longer acquire values and meaning in everyday experience." Untethered from the familiar moorings of time, not to mention religion and community, "individuals have no choice but to attach themselves to their own bodies and self-images."

As the role of fashion expands, Ferraro finds it increasingly important to ask: What latent meaning does a particular trend convey about contemporary culture?

Take the grange look, where the goal was to appear as if you had dressed in complete darkness. "Grunge expressed hopelessness and confusion," Ferraro insists, pointing to the style's incorporation of disparate fashion elements like goatees and flannel shirts.

Or consider the recent return of the 60s look. Here an entire style of the past has been adopted wholesale. Virtual fashion, Ferraro calls it, an attempt to simulate a bygone era.

This stylistic chaos is a boon to psychological health. "It's an opportunity for individuals to be themselves, to develop themselves, and to express themselves," says Ferraro.

Granted, clothing has always provided an outlet for personal expression. But when fashion designers and style trends dictate what we wear, we're not really expressing our own selves but adopting a prepackaged persona. It really boils down to one question: Can you buy your self, which is what fashion is, or can you be your self?

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