The Fashion of Freedom

The human body is a beautiful thing. From the top of the head to the tips of the toes, the lines of the human form, evolved over millennia, are as wonderful as the rational faculties inside man’s head.

The human figure is strength and grace. It’s a fact of reality. A free mind (and body) with an objective attitude toward life can and will embrace this fact, and fashion is one of the most personal means of expressing this view.

And so one might ask, “Fashion? Why wear clothes at all?”

Don’t get me wrong. I like naked. Naked is great. But why stop there when you can use that great big brain and get imaginative? Clothing is more than protection from the elements. As with architecture, in fashion form follows function. Once function is covered, the designer is free to be as creative as he can be with form. This is where the fun stuff starts.

It’s the difference between living in a cave and living in an Art Deco skyscraper. The cave may be practical, but that’s all it is. It’s boring. Clothing is the same. A burlap sack might be good enough, but it’s ugly and dull. Your sense of life is hidden behind that dull old sack meant for potatoes, not the elegant human form.

There is no need to hide your beauty when you have a chance to show it off. Wearing clothes that creatively compliment your body and spirit is a great way to do this. As an avenue for embracing and celebrating your physical form, fashion brings attention to your ideas of style and design relative to the shape of your body. Done well, fashion can express confidence and exuberance toward life.

From my experience, nothing expresses this better than a really cute, hip hugging, miniskirt.

Any woman familiar with wearing miniskirts will tell you how great they make her feel. A miniskirt says to hell with cold, constrictive, oppressive winter weather and hello to the warm, liberated summertime full of opportunity. Baring almost the entirety of your legs under a cute, flirty miniskirt after a long winter of thermal pants, scarves, and parkas imparts as close a feeling to freedom as one can get.

The shortness of the skirt reminds a woman of her own beautiful body, reinvigorating her spirit. It draws attention to her, and subtly, the tremendous self-confidence it takes to show off her legs: the type of strong self-confidence that comes from the mind of a thoroughly modern, freedom loving, rational individualist.

This kind of personal expression, by anyone with the desire to show it, wasn’t always acceptable (or even possible). Throughout history, fashion has been a way to demonstrate and impose class, status, and power. Many societies were not open, especially by today’s standards, and had severely strict rules of conduct according to economic and social class — a status that rarely was earned but rather was a virtue of birth or sanction from those already in power.

Fashion then was limited in what the societal conventions of the period had established. Usually as a result of the prevailing philosophical notions of the time, these ideas rarely supported freedom, reason, or individualism, let alone encouraged the prominent and proud display of the body. This was especially true for women, where fashion was oftentimes used as a form of oppression.

Then came the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution afforded the world a sort of cultural rebirth that is still continuing today. Nowhere was this as evident as in the United States. As industry developed, technology advanced, and the economy grew, opportunity seemed infinite. A new way of life was emerging.

Soon, women’s lives were seeing enormous changes. By the 1920’s, on top of entering the work force en-masse and fighting for the right to vote, the hippest ladies were expressing their new way of life by cutting their hair, hitching up their skirts, and shaking-it to the Charleston. Dowdy social customs had changed, and ladies’ fashions wasted no time following the movement. In the U.S., the icon of liberty, fashion finally reflected what it means to be free.

The progress toward greater liberty in every aspect of life continues to gain momentum. Today, more than ever, women are free to be fearlessly fashionable. Styles reflect this liberty, and in doing so, boldly accentuate the beauty of the human form. The hottest trends these days are hems about as high as they can get without violating indecency laws. Miniskirts are commonplace. Freedom looks pretty damn good.