A Personal Research Project on Fashion As my aim was to obtain another opinion about fashion, I decided to conduct a small scale

interview, which proved to be a face-to-face encounter and which also helped me to have direct access to authentic information related to this subject. I wanted an experienced and professional opinion and therefore I turned to Ovidiu Buta, a wellknown fashion stylist from Romania. Owner of two awards for excellence in the fashion media, he is a Fashion Director at GQ Romania, Senior Fashion Editor at the Textil Dialogue specialized magazine and has carried out fashion and drama projects in London, New-York, Chicago, Paris, Milan, Hanover and Budapest. Together with Irina Schrotter, he organizes the most important fashion event in our country: the Romanian Fashion Week. The above-mentioned interview consisted of six questions which cover only a little part of this wide subject and its meaning. At a first look, the answers I received seemed to be extremely concise. Soon after I realized that it was precisely the fact that they were short and seemed a little ambiguous that made me think deeper about their meaning, in my attempt to catch the essence of what Ovidiu Buta had attempted to transmit to me. The first question was What is fashion for you? and because Ovidius answer was that fashion is for him a way of understanding the whole world and the direction it is heading, I started to think about it and I realized that I personally would have never given this definition. Nevertheless, I realize now that he has a point when saying that one can understand the world that surrounds him through the way people are dressing sometimes only by looking at a person we can immediately understand what kind of music he enjoys, what religion beliefs he has, in a word, we can catch a glimpse of his / her culture and way of living. This constant reminder of the vast diversity that populates the Earth takes us to a higher level of knowledge and acceptance. My second question: If you were to choose between the fashion styles of the 20th century and those of the 21 st which would you pick and why? brought me exactly the answer I would have expected. Ovidiu selected the 20th century and said that was the last period when Fashion did actually have something to say today we only witness a recycling of the past styles. The third question was: Which part of the 20th century inspired you the most and why? It did not come as a surprise for me that he chose the 1920s for the radical transformation of attitude and style these

years were meant to promote. Everyone knows that this period was the one that started the era of a series of unbelievable and extravagant changes. On the other hand, I admit that the answer I received for my forth question took me a little by surprise. When asked to name one fashion icon from Great Britain and one from Romania, Ovidiu chose Isabella Blow and Corina Chiriac. Neither one had been on my list of famous fashion icons and he stated that he had chosen Isabella Blow because she managed to impose in Fashion not only a style but also the designers that had helped her to outline it and Corina Chiriac because all the wardrobes of our mothers have at least one outfit inspired by what she used to wear. As my fifth question was: What overall image have you got upon the Romanian fashion of the 20th century?, his answer may at first seem ambiguous: we were still at the beginning, learning from our mistakes and with a long road ahead us towards normality , but at a closer look we will realize the deeper meaning of his thought. The 20 th century was a period that can be characterized through the outburst of the two major conflagrations that involved Great Britain as well as Romania. After the Second World War the destinies of these two countries separated; while in Great Britain democracy remained untouched, in Romania the Communist regime was installed, a totalitarian system, which violated the human rights. The Western influences were banned and everything from literature to fashion was carefully analyzed by the Communist Party before reaching the attention of the people. When democracy came back in 1989, the state that characterized Romania perfectly was dizziness: after almost fifty years of Communism we were free again but we did not know what we were meant to do, as if we were children learning to walk again after a hard fall. The last question of the interview was: Do clothes make the man or is it the other way around? Ovidius really short answer that both situations are perfectly valid made me meditate about what defines us as human beings. I am quite convinced that most of us, if we were asked this question, would answer without even thinking the man makes the clothes and the explanations of this fact are varied: some of us like to think so, some of us are taught to think like this, some of us do not want to think about this, so they choose the strikingly obvious answer. What is more, I also used to think that the man is the one who makes the clothes; we can give life to a piece of fabric only through the way we smile while wearing it. I then realized it some clothes which you enjoy wearing may give you the strength to show everyone your true colors. In consequence, clothes may act like a superheros costume giving us the proper amount of force needed in

order to survive. An outfit, as I have already said, may give us the opportunity to make a statement about us, about our life, our beliefs, but often this statement is made unconsciously, which means that our clothes are speaking for us. In conclusion I must say that this interview proved to be a wake-up call for me. I believe that my personal opinions have changed a little, as I have grown to understand or to realize that fashion indeed plays and it will always play an important role in our life. I admit that I have never before given so much attention to this subject, while now I might even consider a job in this field. Color, mystery, deeper meanings, feelings, history, sincerity all combined in one. A perfect mixture, is it not?