Iconic Styles

 On Halloween weekend, I was deciding on what celebrities are easily to emulate. I stumbled upon this particular picture (Everygued.com) with iconic fashion styles musicians have incurred throughout the recent decades. Each design of each article of clothing was chosen specifically and put together to create a whole outfit, a Gestalt principle. It offers the same concept. The whole is better than the sums of its part. We like to visualize things as a whole/unity and stray away from a bi-stable outlook. An outfit cannot stand-alone without it’s counterparts. It won’t be an outfit. It will just be a single object or entity. The shirt, tie, jacket, shoe, undershirt equate to a whole, one complete ensemble outfit.

 image source: everyguyed

The salient characteristic allows consumers and audiences to distinguish what style is being portrayed. The characteristics of an outfit later become iconic because consumers and society will always remember the outfit. The most distinct one is the Michael Jackson outfit. It doesn’t take time to think what outfit that is from. Another stand out outfit is the suit that Kanye West wears with the heart. The simplicity of each style creates iconic memories that are placed in history. The outfits are concise and memorable. People will discuss the style amongst each other for years and years. With style and fashion always recycling itself, we can also see how certain styles are recreated and recycled.

You may not consider outfits as a design, but it can be. Form is used: the clothes. And content is used: the outfit. The pieces of fabric are mediums to designers. We can have interpretation of what each outfit means, but every generation and cultures will have their own perception. There is room for conversation with these outfits. These conversations have lasted over decades. The outfits are the evidence. We are still discussing it to date.