Fashion isn't art. It's something more.
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The last time Antonio Mays Sr. heard from his son, it was in a note the 16-year-old left in the family's garage. He told me he was going to make me proud. Antonio Jr. left home to join a protest in Seattle. A week later, he was shot and killed there. I need some arrest made, justice for my son. Listen to We Keep Us Safe on the Embedded podcast from NPR.
What is the most unhinged thing that you sincerely believe?
I guess I would say you should always write a handwritten thank you note. And I think it's OK to do it eight months later. And if you do it many months later, you don't have to apologize for how late it is.
OK, wait, that isn't it. I actually agree. I think that like I'm happy to receive because I think the way I think about it, sometimes when I'm sending the thank you letter late, I'm like, oh, this is late. But when I receive one, I'm always happy to receive gratitude. I think about it that way.
Right. And if there's no mention of why it's so late, then you have something fun to talk about your friends with later over dinner. Something mysterious. Yes. And then they find out. A mysterious letter in the mail. I mean, that's exciting. Exactly.
Is fashion art? Does everything need to be 100% cotton? Are we getting too pretentious? My guest today says no. We can think bigger than this. CNN's senior style reporter and author of CNN's Big Style newsletter, Rachel Taschian-Wise, joins the show today to give her take on fashion as art, how our political skepticism has shaped conversations around sustainability, and how to find your personal style, even if you have no personality. Rachel, welcome back to It's Been a Minute. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. Okay, so I want to talk about clothes, which you're so fabulous at talking about clothes.
The theme of this year's Met Gala, which was about fashion as art, It raised an age-old question. Is fashion art? And this is a question that you spent some time thinking about. You argue that there are aspects of the artist in the garment or article of clothing, but it's not art. You say that it's something else. I want to know, why don't you think fashion is art? And also, if it's not art, then what is it?
Well, I think we have this tendency, especially with... areas of culture that are traditionally dominated by women, we want to say that something needs to be justified and it needs to have something serious behind it that allows us to like or appreciate or spend time thinking about this subject. But I think our sort of go-to for fashion over the past, I would say, decade and a half has been, you know, this is considered by many people to be shallow, to be wasteful, to be environmentally unfriendly or harmful. And it's actually okay, though, that we appreciate it because it's like art. And what I find sort of... troubling, troubling about that is that the joy to me, the great pleasure and joy of fashion is that it actually is much more present in our lives than art is.
You know, I think to see art, one has to seek it out. Of course, there's a wonderful tradition of public art, of street art, and that's become much more appreciated and predominant in our culture over the past several decades. But when you're walking down the street, you can see so much information and create these beautiful narratives in your mind by seeing what other people are wearing. And we just don't have that kind of constant interaction With art.
I love that. Art is this thing that maybe we don't have access to every day, but getting dressed and seeing other people dressed is something that we do have access to every day. And like the pleasure that you attach to that is so interesting.
Yeah. I mean, I do think that it's so much more approachable and in some ways like more democratic and disruptive than art can be.
Democratic and disruptive. Say more about that.
Well, I think that you can... You can shape public opinion with what you wear.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–5:20
2
How did the hosts introduce the question 'Is fashion art?' and the guest Rachel Tashjian Wise?
5:20–14:31
3
Why does Rachel argue that fashion is not the same thing as art?
14:31–19:38
4
How does Rachel explain fashion's everyday power compared to traditional art?
19:38–29:17