Global uniforms? What next... sliced bread?

Writing an article on global uniforms is harder than you think.

Firstly the 'globality' of clothing nowadays is become a key factor in every design... so what the hell makes a piece of clothing unique anymore?

My question exactly... personally i love the decorative and fun elements of cultural dress, but granted it does look a little silly completely out of context. For example, if i was to wear a sari or a kimono round at home - people would look at me like 'WTF!?' Well... to be honest 'out of the norm' in Cornwall is more like wearing a pair of shoes that arent chav pink.

The bland outfit of a T-shirt and jeans is kinda boring... yet its everywhere - you look at kids in Africa playing football, what are they wearing? You look at workers in sweatshops - what do they usually wear? You look at the builder across the street, he'd usually wearing the same, except he may need a belt. (builders bum is never sexy)

You look at fashion designers too - expecting them to wear some fantabulous creation with all the trimmings and to be completely avant garde...in fact they're wearing baseball caps and tracksuits. What a crime! It's often the spectators that put on the show with fashion - I've even seen one girl attach barbie heads to her leotard just to make a statment.... talk about desparation to get noticed... yet no sense of culture whatsoever! Culture has been lost on this 'new generation' of teens, tweens and 'fashionista's' who actually have no idea where the trends for their garments came from in the first place.

This superficiality is getting dull if you ask me, its time the cultural influences were brought back into mainstream fashion - who were the British before we became 'Americanised'? Quaint, rather tweedy is the cliché.... but was that really us? or were we more rough and ready?

Actually culture is defined by placement in a country as well.... out in the sticks - fashion is definately not regarded like it is in London...so it is completely wrong to stereotype the whole country as one particular style.

Balenciaga, Zaitsev and Kenzo all keep their cultural traditions in their clothing yet design for the Western world through generally just being simple!

Is it that funny to think that simplicity is the key to cultural transition? Well...quite frankly no... its kind of predictable.

But hats off to these designers for making the effort to preserve what they define as important in THEIR culture through fashion, not everyone has enough passion to do this & can pull it off... it is for appreciators like me that they design, not for the blasé folk that only believe in consumerism and whats coming next. Culture is a style, but fashion will pass.

LONG LIVE CULTURE!