Fashion Avenue

If there is one thing I will never understand, it's fashion.

Not that I look down upon fashion, or an ignorant to fashion. I'm just... blind to fashion. I can tell when I think someone's outfit looks dashing, but if you had to make me chose blindly between a $20 purse, and a $100 purse, I'd be unable to tell the difference. This probably sounds silly, but when I need to dress up, I still ask my mom to pick out clothes for me. Something about what colors match, and what kinds of shirts go with what kinds of pants just doesn't register correctly in my mind.

That said, I was pretty excited to walk up Fashion Avenue. I'm always intrigued to learn more about the cultures I don't understand.

The first thing I saw here was worth more money than I currently have in the bank. And I've been working overtime all summer.

The first thing I saw while walking up to the building was the store display windows. As far as I knew, most display windows serve the purpose of showing off the outfits available for purchase within the store. They function as advertisements, and as such, need an effective way of drawing in potential consumers. I think this store accomplished its goal by the sheer uniqueness of the outfits on display alone. As already stated, I'm not well versed in fashion, but these outfits here looked like the kind of thing I'd expect to see in an adaptation of The Great Gatsby. They had complex patterns and deep colors and an overall shine to the entire outfit. Behind them sat a wood carving that looked like firecrackers going off, a massive explosion of light to celebrate how awesome these outfits were. The whole thing stood out from the rest of the windows on the street, and I decided I just had to enter the store.

Once inside, I no longer felt like this was a store. This was a museum, a museum of fashion, complete with the perfect display cases and a large variety of outfits from different cultures and time periods throughout the seven or so floors present in the building. I also felt out of place amongst the many better dressed (and considerably cleaner, since it was hot out and I was sweaty) people who browsed the store. Much like a museum, the different works of art inside were quite priceless, and just touching them to look at the price tag had me concerned that an alarm would go off and some scary guards would come and escort me out of the establishment.

Oh, snap.

I should probably mention that this particular stream was listed as "luxury". Considering that the first purse I checked the price tag on was listed for over $3500, I think it lives up to its name. I actually spent a solid hour and a half just browsing this store, but I'll condense it, since my thoughts were more or less the same: Wow. That's beautiful! But who on Earth can afford this?

One item in particular that stood out to me was a dress. It was white, with a see-through top (that I presume was either meant to be worn over or under a separate top). This dress was absolutely beautiful. So, I just had to take a look over at the price tag. It was only $5395, considerably less than I had anticipated.

One the uppermost level of the store rested a small art collection. All of these pictures were 3D, as in, not drawn on paper, but rather made by pasting a large number of smaller pieces onto a canvas. They were absolutely stunning, and only contributed to my feeling of being in a museum the entire time.

You can really see the depth on this one.

I decided to leave the store, and continue down the avenue. The other stores along the path seemed to be a bit more typical, with some big names such as Banana Republic and Victoria's Secret.

Affordability, we meet again.

Some of the stores seemed to specialize in different things, such as watches, jewelry, purses, jackets, or footware. I was a bit surprised that most of the stores were less universal in the goods they carried, but I presume it was done to keep them all competitive with each other. Many of the displays seemed to be more than just mannequins wearing clothes, and were instead artistic dioramas. Two that stuck out to me the most were a very Asian-styled small house and garden model on some smooth rocks, and a forest-type area with a dark backdrop.

I chose another store to go into at pure random. I wrote down the name of the store, but my little notebook has fallen apart and some of the pages are missing, sadly. This store had mannequins placed all around the store. Some were looking at clothes, and some were just resting on the chairs or benches. Mannequins sort of make me uncomfortable. Something about their uncanny faces sets me off. I think it's how dead and soulless they look. I realize that probably sounds childish, but I'm pretty sensitive to the uncanny sometimes. Not to mention the fact that I've had nightmares about being chased by those things as a kid... *shudders*

 

Just look how creepy they are!

The rest of the store was refreshing to see after the fanciness over at Bergdorf's. The content here was

more my style, being more laid back and casual in nature. Personally, I always wear shorts and a T-shirt when lounging around, and only dress up for special events and work. I saw a rather cute woman's jacket that I just had to send a picture of to my girlfriend. One thing I noticed was that the floors were not divided up evenly. The first floor and basement were both women's clothes, but all the men's clothes were regulated to the second floor only. A little odd, that men are given so many less fashion options than women are. A man doesn't have to be metro to have an interest in wearing nice clothes, in my own opinion.

Of course, there was one thing about this store that I really loved:

Only $90? I got that!

Overall, while fashion isn't my thing, I feel like I gained an understanding of it from this walk. Fashion, especially expensive fashion, must feel phenomenal to wear. Not to brag to others, but simply to display to others your state of well-being, financially. If I could afford clothes at Bergdorf's, I would, because I would just feel happy to wear an outfit like that around. It's a way to have fun and express one's self, and even if it's not my preferred way, it's still a very special way to do so, and an important part of being human.