Vanity in Fashion Culture

I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with fashion

A lot of my engineering friends, and my family (both of whom tend to be more conservative) assume that I’m into fashion because I have dyed hair and gnerally like dressing up

I think I would agree with them, and self identify as such too if the entire subculture behind fashion didnt make me cringe to death

It’s just so,,, vain? self obsessive? I’m not sure what the right term is here to describe my view on it, but a huge chunk of the people I meet who say they are into fashion are just so incredibly dislikeable, and come off as shallow in terms of the depth of their personality/interests

Let me list out some of the reasons I feel this way, and maybe categorize (SOME !!!!!!) of the fashion lovers I’ve met into genres of personality

1. The rich, naive kid: I dont think I have to explain this one, if you think youre above others for the fancy clothes bought purely from your wealthy parent’s money, grow up dawg 😭🙏

2. The person who makes it their entire personality: OKAY LOOK. I’m very aware that that is a common (and incredibly stupid and bitter) conservative talking point, I’m not going to peddle that bs. What I will say, however, that I generally think that fashion is inherently slightly different from other forms of self expression, because it’s tied to oneself, or least is percieved as such. You can argue that fashion need not be tied to your body, but let’s be real, in most cases, it is. Not encouraging that, but I think it’s reasonable for me to claim otherwise. And being obsessed with your body really isn’t going to do anyone any favours

Okay ngl I think the listing the archetypes of people method isn’t the best way to convey my opinion on the matter, I’ll stop it here. I do have quite a bit more to say though

Fashion is awesome, and I personally love it. Hell, I wouldnt doubt that within the context of my CS studying classmates, I’m even known for it. But self obsession and vanity, especially when they stem from surface level characteristics such as looks/clothes are so overbearingly grotesque character traits to me. And a very significant amount of fashion enthusiasts that I come across do fall under that umbrella in my eyes

Once again, I’m not discouraging being into fashion, or pursuing it. You absolutely should love yourself and your body, and if fashion is a medium for you to do it, hell yea, good for you. I just think fashion in general comes with the caveat of self obsession as a side effect, and its very easy to get intertwined in the two

It’s the “fashion mfs” who have nothing else going for them: no real interests or hobbies or drive or goals or ambitions that have soured the field in my eyes. And maybe that’s just a personal issue of mine

I think at some point the lines between vanity and confidence get blurred, and at least from I see on the regular, the scales heavily tip on the side of vanity in the current diaspora of the world of fashion.

You can be the judge of that. Open any social media you use (usually insta has the most fashion content from what I’ve seen), and then, with an unbiased mind, try to see if the focus is on the art or the person themself. From my observation, it’s almost always the latter, and that rubs me the wrong way.

I think, I just have a fundamental hatred towards rich, priveldged kids, at least ones who live in igorance of their privelege, and fashion enthusaists tend to be a disproportionately large sector of that demographic.

Like, think about any other creative hobby for a second. If you’re into movies, you talk about the directors, the framing, the scripts. The art exists outside of your own body. But with fashion, the person looking at the art and the art piece itself are literally the exact same thing. It’s so hard for a subculture not to rot from the inside out when the entire point of it becomes curating yourself as a product for people to perceive and validate.

And obviously, I know there are people who genuinely care about the actual craft. People who know about textiles, silhouette, tailoring, and design history. I’m clearly not talking about them.

I’m talking about the mfs who post a mirror selfie, where the focus is apparently on the clothes, caption it with some cryptic one liner, which they likely dont completely understand or didnt come up with themselves, and act like they’re god’s gift to earth

Like bro, where is the fashion?

The outfit is literally just a prop at that point. The focus is just you.

Which, honestly, goes right back to what I was saying about the lines between confidence and vanity getting completely blurred. Confidence is cool. I genuinely think people should experiment with their appearance, dye their hair, wear weird clothes and accessories, whatever. Life would be so boring if everyone walked around looking like identical NPCs. But confidence feels passive. It’s just “I like how I look.” Vanity is active and desperate. It’s “I need you to like how I look, and I need you to think I’m cooler or more interesting than everyone else in the room.”

Maybe this is just my own bias showing, but I’ve always found people infinitely more interesting when their curiosity is directed outward. Like the friend who spends six months building some weird, over engineered robot, or someone who can hyperfixate and talk your ear off about niche genre of movie that they enjoy. That stuff is cool because it’s driven by a genuine obsession with something outside themselves. A huge chunk of modern fashion culture just feels like curiosity directed completely inward.

It feels like an aesthetic shortcut. It’s a way for people to look deep and complex on the surface without actually doing any of the heavy lifting required to build an actual interior life.

And of course, social media just rewards the absolute worst parts of it. The biggest fashion influencers aren’t the most creative ones, they’re just the ones who are the best at selling themselves as a brand. The algorithm doesn’t care about depth, it cares about engagement, and vanity happens to be incredibly engaging.

It just leaves me in this incredibly annoying loop. I love the clothes, I love the creativity, and I love the self-expression. I just absolutely cannot stand the hollow, self-obsessed culture that treats the entire medium like an empty mirror.