Is clothing art?

Is clothing art?

I was intrigued by reading Maris’ post about Aesthetic pleasure in which she talks about clothing and how her fashion sense has been influenced by her family and thereby their economic class. Maris brought up the quote from Pierre Bourdieu essay From Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, which states that “And nothing is more distinctive, more distinguished, than the capacity to confer aesthetic status on objects that are banal or even common (because common people make them their own, especially for aesthetic purposes), or the ability to apply the principles of pure aesthetic to the most everyday choices of everyday life, e.g., in cooking, clothing, decorating, completely reversing the popular disposition which annexes aesthetics to ethics.”

After reading her post I realized just how much we, as humans, take common everyday things, such as clothing, and exalt them as art. Now in Bourdieu’s essay, he is stating how different economic classes have different aesthetic values about art. The upper class has a “pure” vision of art, it is not connected to banal everyday things. The working class says that art is practical, it is about the everyday things.

This really made me think about clothing and art. When I think about the upper class, I think about high fashion, Prada bags and designer jeans. I think the upper class is wearing their art. Yes, I do think the upper class has different aesthetic values than the working class, but I think it does reflect in their taste of all things aesthetic, especially the everyday things like clothes. I think that the upper class’ vision of art is connected to everyday things, because their lives are based on everyday things like clothes and cars and food. The presentation of all these things must be top notch and speculator, each everyday things must be its own work of art. And then we come to the working class. Art to them is more practical yes, since they don’t have as much money to spend on Prada bags they look for what is practical, what is good and reasonable to them. Their vision is based on their economic status. But look at Walmart of Target, they are trying to sell cheaper versions of higher fashions. Sure it’s not the same, but yet they are trying to emulate the fashions of the season for reasonable prices. I think the working class is influenced by their economic class and pocket book, but have aspirations to higher economic classes. They want the designer jeans, but will settle for the Walmart imitation. They want the best, but will settle for what they can afford in their pocketbook. So, all in all, I guess what I am trying to say is that while we are influenced (and confined) by our economic classes and situation, we still always have hopes for higher and for more. I think as humans, we want the best. Even if we can’t get it.