Intention in Fashion
A Call to Arms, of Sorts
Intention is the single most powerful force you can introduce into your fashion journey - whether you are just beginning, you’re looking to hone your style skills, or you’re an expert looking to spice up your relationship to fashion. That’s why it’s the basis of my first article: without understanding where intention originates from, how to bring it into your scope, and how to put it into practice, you’ll likely feel lost. You might scroll through hundreds of Pinterest pins, watch fashion-related videos, see people wearing great outfits, and feel hopeless about ever achieving your fashion goals. So let’s get started. Let’s make our way through it.
ETYMOLOGY: Exploring “Intendere”
I can never pass up an opportunity to go back to a word’s Latin roots. In this case, the word “intend” comes from the Latin “intendere,” which has several meanings that we can mine for richness. Consider these definitions as you think more about intention in fashion.
“To stretch out” - taking things to the fullest logical extent
When one incorporates this definition of intention into their style, they see style as a vehicle for creative expression. They don’t hold back - their ideas expand into reality.
“To strain” - to apply force, to act upon in some way
When one incorporates this definition of intention into their style, they put themselves in the drivers’ seat. They don’t see style as something that happens to them or that they’re born with - they empower themselves to make fashion work for them by harnessing control over their aesthetic visions.
“To seek” - an attempt to discover what you’re looking for
When one incorporates this definition of intention into their style, they see style as a process of constant reinvention and discovery. They recognize that their intentions with fashion do not have to be set in stone - they can explore their fashion goals and adjust them as they go.
“To aim” - to work toward a goal
When one incorporates this definition of intention into their style, they let themselves take style seriously. They recognize that looking and feeling good are goals that can stand equal to personal or financial goals.
PSYCHOLOGY: Being Guided by Intention
In modern psychology, where we believe people have some level of control over how they think and behave, “intentionality” involves setting a goal and then performing actions guided by that goal. This intention comes from inside of us and leads us to exert that very force on the outside world.
We can benefit from more intention in so many areas of our lives, even in “frivolous,” “shallow,” and “materialistic” areas like fashion. The saying “As within, so without” has lasted for a reason. Parts of ourselves can and should rightly reverberate outwards. Just the same, what we wear with intention can influence how we feel and think. You know this to be true if you’ve ever tried (without alcohol’s help) to let go of your inhibitions completely and dance while wearing a super fancy dress. Or if you’ve gone for a run in jeans. Even barring practical concerns, if you don’t look the part, it can be challenging to feel the part. Our intentions echo outwards, interface with the outside world, are sent back to us for transformation, and are mirrored outwards again. This exchange begins the moment you put something on - dressing up is an opportunity for greater consciousness.
Intention is a fantastic form of control. Of course, in an external visual medium like fashion, you cannot control other peoples’ ultimate perceptions of the final looks, but you can control the source. You can set whatever goal you want when it comes to your style. Many people have feelings-based goals, like “I want to feel classy,” or socially-based goals, like “I want to seem rich.” But the source of our intention can be as deep and varied as our mind dares to go. We can play with it. You might base your intention on more objective measures, like “I want to wear a dress that matches my hair color almost exactly.” You might have a tough work meeting that day, and intend to wear something that brings you a sense of centeredness and peace. You might get rebellious with it, thinking “I was raised to be polished at all times; today, I want to look disgusting.” Maybe you want to disappear completely, so your goal is to look as nondescript as possible. Try dressing in a way that makes your child laugh, or that makes your mother cry.
PHILOSOPHY: Being “About” Something
In philosophy, “intentionality” seems to be framed as if it’s part of a thought experiment. The question is: when we think or when we perceive or when we desire, must we be thinking about or perceiving or desiring for “something” in particular? The answer seems to be: yes, we must. We cannot think about nothing. Our thoughts must be “about” something in particular. Intention, then, is a shorthand for this very property. Intention suggests, “you are in a mental state where you’re directing some action toward a particular object.”
Some people wave off fashion or claim they don’t care about it, thinking that they have no intention at all when they’re getting dressed. They might say, “I’m not trying to do or say anything in particular with the way I dress. They’re just clothes.” People who make these statements don’t realize that they are, in fact, already acting with intention, even if that intention is “I intend to dress for comfort and not personal expression,” or even, “I intend to be fully clothed because I’ll get locked up if I go naked.” If a person spends even 1 second per day thinking about what they’re wearing or looking at what they’re wearing in the mirror, they are now unintentionally directing their mental state toward “something” - that “something” being “what they’re wearing.”
Whether you take charge of your intentions or not, your outfit will unconsciously communicate things. There are some times when this feels overwhelming to me - it’s hard enough to conjure the energy to go to the gym, and now I have to consider the fact that wearing a ratty t-shirt and leggings with holes in it could affect how people treat me? How annoying. On those days, I’ll either think “well, I don’t care what people think,” acknowledge that pure function is my intention, and wear the old t-shirt, or I’ll decide I do want to look a little cute and intentionally pick out a matching workout set. Either way, by thinking about it for even a split second, I’ve put myself in the position of having a choice.
Thinking about our bodies and what we decorate them with is as inevitable as thinking about hunger or thirst, about our finances, or about our feelings. Since this is the case, it can be empowering to investigate where we’re at currently with our fashion intentions, and where we might like them to be directed instead. It’s like, if we need to eat anyway, we should probably think about what we’d like to eat, or what would be best for us.
We are obligated to direct at least a tiny portion of our mental space toward what we wear. What direction has this portion of your mental space taken you in? Do you find yourself intending to feel comfortable? Do you find yourself intending to look attractive? Do you find yourself putting on an outfit for practical reasons, or to fit in professionally, or to show off? Does it all depend highly on the scenario (I mean, when you run into an ex and your intention getting dressed that morning was “put on pants so that I can shop at Trader Joe’s without public humiliation,” you sure wish your intention had been “revenge.”) What do you default to when you’re in a hurry or don’t have much time to devote to it? By recognizing our typical and recurring intentions, we can figure out if we’d like to continue on with these intentions, or if we’d like to adjust them.
BRINGING FASHION AND INTENTION TOGETHER: The aspects
Okay, enough of the deep diving and conceptual talk. Fashion, at the end of the day, is a physical medium. How can these abstract concepts be translated into something I can actually wear on a walk around the neighborhood? You can’t clothe yourself with Latin etymology and philosophical conclusions (or can you? ;))!
I’m going to list three main ways to inject intentionality into your style. I’ll talk about why each aspect is so essential, what it might feel like when you’re unintentional in these three aspects, and how you might feel once you start taking each aspect seriously. These aspects are the foundations of my fashion principles, and many of my future articles will reference them.
Your supplies
If you wanted to make an oil painting, you wouldn’t buy crayons and paper to do it. Fashion starts with raw materials, and our consumerist society pushes all sorts of materials on us that we may not truly want or need to reach that final product. To avoid starting off with the wrong foundation, your intention when shopping should be as clear as possible. Often, this means shopping for very specific items that fit specific criteria. However, this doesn’t mean you can never shop for fun, or shop just to see what’s out there - you just have to acknowledge that you’re doing so and lean into that intention. In future articles, I will talk much more about how different factors like budget, body concerns, lifestyle, and more can affect this aspect of style.
When you are unintentional with your supplies:
You may feel like you will never reach your aesthetic vision
You never feel like you have what you “need” to create an outfit
When you are intentional with your supplies:
You rarely feel like you have “nothing to wear” or have to go on emergency shopping trips
You can feel inspired by something and you have the tools to create a look that aligns with that inspiration
What You’d like to Communicate
When you know what you’d like to communicate with your overall style, a particular outfit, or even a specific clothing piece, you will have your eyes fixed on a North Star. As you practice this skill, you’ll become better at choosing items and combinations that get closer and closer to what you intend to communicate. It will also be easier to get rid of or take away elements that don’t get you closer to that intention.
When you are unintentional about what you’d like to communicate, you might find yourself:
Creating outfits that don’t feel “you”
Feeling a lack of excitement about the outfits you’ve created
Not being able to explain what you like or dislike about the outfit you’re wearing
When you are intentional about what you’d like to communicate:
You walk through the world feeling like you’re expressing yourself in a way that’s congruent with who you are
You are unafraid to wear what you want to wear because the message you’re communicating is more important than any judgements or misunderstandings that your look might receive
The strategies (tailoring, combining elements, principles of certain aesthetics)
Thinking of fashion as “matching x pair of jeans to y shirt” may never get you to where you want to be aesthetically. Creating a look and creating a wardrobe are games of strategy. Your challenge is to break down elements of clothing to an obnoxious degree: tucking in a shirt vs leaving it untucked can transform an outfit. Wearing velvet dress instead of a cotton one can leave people with a totally different impression of you. Replacing the buttons on a shirt can turn it from “just okay” to “this is my favorite thing to wear.” There are countless ways to alter, tailor, combine, transform, accessorize, and re-conceptualize aspects of your wardrobe.
When you are unintentional about your strategies:
Every look may seem to be on the right track, but it isn’t quite there. Something may feel “missing.”
You often feel uncomfortable with the way your clothes fit or the way they come across when you wear them
When you are intentional about your strategies:
You enjoy most of the pieces you have in your closet on an individual level and you enjoy how you can utilize them
You feel confident combining and altering different elements of your look to get precisely the outcome you want
When you keep the concept of “intention” in mind in each of these three steps, it’s much easier to see where you may have gone astray if you get to the end product and don’t love it. If you aren’t in love with your style, start with investigating your wardrobe and style choices using these metrics.
I hope this article has given you the tools to start thinking about intentionality in your fashion choices. For me, “intention” is where my passion for personal style began. In my next fashion articles, I’ll talk about the two other tenets of connecting with your personal style, which are Inspiration and Implementation. For now, I’ll leave you with this: “the way you do one thing is the way you do everything.” Many people take this to mean, “if you do one thing poorly, you probably do everything poorly. I like to think of it differently. I believe that if you strive for intention in one area of your life, it raises the bar for you to be more intentional in all areas of your life. By being intentional with your style, you will practice the skills of thoughtfulness, patience, discipline, and expression. These skills are extremely transferable. People will look at you and notice that you are putting effort into one very visible area of your life, and if they’re smart, they’ll respect you for doing it.
NEXT TIME, I will delve further into the idea of “Inspiration” as a fashion principle.