Fashion: Art or Science?

In mainstream consciousness, fashion sits firmly within the arts. Drawing in creative types who deal with issues such as the right amount of drape, or whether to use tulle or organza, the business of making clothes, and making them good, seems less of a systemized, tangible pursuit than biophysics. But I’d argue that similarly to architecture, fashion sits at the intersection of where art and science collide.

Let’s look at some definitions. Art is “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power”. Check. Science is “the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment”. Also check: You can systematically examine what makes a design or outfit good, and it’s usually down to an 80/20 formula and a certain amount of contrast. Alexander McQueen collections come to mind as intuitively following the 80/20 rule consistently. A feminine lace dress is always offset by a tough jacket or studded leather boot.

Alexander McQueen FW18 by Sarah Burton always follows a strict aesthetic formula. (Photo: vogue.com)

Or, another method (once you’re aware of the rule) is to break that rule entirely, a la Rei Kawakubo, and spill into 90/10 or 100% category. But this is still a method: it can be observed and measured. The implementation of these methods in design either make us feel something, or they don’t. Much like a good film, dish or song has a careful balance of its receptive elements - character, script, salt, tempo, timbre - collections, looks, and outfits have their respective parts.

Commes Des Garcons FW18 by Rei Kawakubo: over-the-top is a formula too. (Photo: vogue.com)

Most feel that science and fashion might seem to have little to do with each other, or even exist in some sort of opposition to one another. Yes creative vision has everything to do with it, but much like we now know that we like a certain symmetry in faces, what makes something visually appealing, can be quantified. And many of the qualities that drive a scientist to explore the world not dissimilar to those driving a designer to create art: curiosity, creativity and imagination.

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But at the end of the day, does it matter? And is it helpful? If we only listened to data, perhaps all we’d ever see at the end of the runway is more of the same. Good designers give us what we didn’t know we needed. And doesn’t breaking fashion down into systemized methods take the romance out of it all? Despite these concerns, seeing fashion through a scientific lens can improve the industry in these three ways.

1. Fashion psychology: we can understand what appeals to whom and why.

Personal style is not random: we wear what we wear because it fills a psychological need. Understand all the whys involved will improve every aspect of the industry from design and marketing to retail and styling. What to wear to your cousin’s wedding? One day, etailers will be able to spit out razor-sharp suggestions.

Lara Stone in Vogue India is a masterclass of visual contrast: naked/clothed, black/white, hard/soft, fluid/structured.

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2. Innovation: a scientific design framework can help creatives when they’re stuck.

No one is happy when designers create things no one wants to wear. Not the environment, not consumers, and certainly not the designers themselves. While garden-variety design principles already exist, applying science to design or styling a collection serves as a sort of final checklist.

For example, counterintuitively, many sweet baked goods recipes call for a pinch of salt. You would think it unnecessary, but adding a tiny bit of salt apparently strengthens pastry dough, controls the fermentation, and brings out all the other flavors, making chocolate more chocolatey, and so on. Rules like these are based on science. Deciding to dump an extra container of custard over the cake for flair, and three raspberries, is a creative impulse. Much the same, there are certain elements that are missing in collections that can be called upon. Fluidity, romance, contrast, hardness, softness, these types of elements may be fashion’s salt.

3. Reach: Understanding why we wear what we wear can help skeptics engage with fashion.

When I catch up with my non-industry friends who work in more rational “left-brain” fields such as banking and consultancy, they often ask me “So, what are the latest trends?”. After a mild cringe, I always discourage this line of thinking, and come strong with my fashion psychology theory, explaining that better styling can be achieved through an assessment of one’s personality traits and finding the aesthetic that best complements them. Following this little tutorial, it’s clear they see fashion in a much more clear, and respectable light.

Fine, it’s not rocket science, but it’s science nonetheless.

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