‘Oh la la, tu es à la mode !' This set phrase might sound
flattering on the spur of the moment, but it is not necessarily
meant as a compliment. Although fashion can definitely
be original and express what amounts to avant-garde
individuality, it is much more frequently associated with a
commercial industry which in producing numerous copies
increases the uniformity of society. Understood in this
way, being ‘fashionable' really means having no style and
just going along with things as they are. ‘Etre à la mode
de quelqu'un,' to quote the whole phrase, means to dress
in the manner and style of somebody else. And this always
implies failure. You aspire to be a paragon of fashion
but in the process you are unable to achieve the very
thing you are looking for: originality.
Role-Model and imitation, originality and failure. The
alternative seems clear from this contrast. Who would not
cast themselves on the side of individuality, rejecting industry
and commerce? Yet the paradox of fashion is that
as ‘original' as it might claim to be, it is in fact ‘always already'
demanding imitation. Since like every avant-garde
movement, it works towards a ‘coming community,' which
would be a community of ‘style' and good taste. Seen in
this light it makes little sense to hold industry completely responsible for mass market products and to attempt to
rescue fashion's bid for originality.
How about starting on the side of imitation instead:
attempting to be ‘à la mode'? The articles in this book seek
out instances of ‘fashionable' failures – in film, literature,
art, fashion, television and music. What emerges is that failure
need not be embarrassing and that it need not in every
instance lead to the endorsement of the original model and
to uniformity. On the contrary, there are instances where
‘à la mode' becomes a principle in its own right, giving rise
to novel and selective alternatives which remove the dichotomy
between original and copy, and introduce a ‘third
way' between avant-garde and commercial industry. In
the end to be ‘à la mode' might no longer mean ‘à la mode
de quelqu'un,' but ‘à la mode de n'importe qui.'
