Community Over All

Oftentimes, fashion is overlooked as being categorized as an art form in general since some people think it’s “just clothes”. However, fashion is not just what you decide to wear while completing daily errands. Telfar Tuesday, long lines of eager sneakerheads on release day, and a group of teenage girls wearing their dearest bands merch are three separate entities that prove that fashion is an art form that places Community Over All, bringing people together by way of their favorite pieces. In the age of social media, it’s become easier to start conversing with people and even making long-lasting relationships because they had on a pair of Miharas. Or we can even take it back to elementary school, where we were making friends left and right by wearing silly bandz.

But… It's also bigger than that.

Fashion has the extreme power of showing the current political, social, and even economic divisions in our communities. A really good example that showcases this division would be the public’s reaction to a Balenciaga drop. On one end of the spectrum, you have fashion enthusiasts that are ready to defend Denma while waiting to buy $1,800 trash bags, $2,000 Ikea bags, and beat-up sneakers that cost $1,000. Then, you have the others who say that people will go to the extremes to prove that they can afford to buy luxury brands like Balenciaga, which is the correct mindset since this is usually the purpose of producing those pieces. Designers like Denma and Kanye love to push the agenda and see how far consumers would go with their purchases, and they’re always successful in doing so by gaining revenue and attention. Lastly, without fashion many cultural groups would have a chunk missing from their identity and traditions.

Photos by: Mahlon West (@basementboyatl), Jaadyn Rogers (@jaa.dyn), and Jasiah Powers (@jasiahpowers).