Courtney Brown
English 226
Professor Coronado
7 December 2014
Unknown
Fashion
When
searching for an archive, it proved to be a hard decision. There are a lot of
topics that I could have chosen. While doing my research on certain archives, I
stumbled upon a small little text that related to fashion. Now I thought to
myself, how am I going to connect this text to our class as a whole? I felt
that it would be greatly beneficial for me to connect it somehow to our class
because it then would allow me to understand how fashion connected to different
parts of history. The archive that I decided to choose for this particular
project was “The Fashionable World Displayed,” by John Owen. When skimming
through this text, I thought there’s no way that there will be material that I
can use, but boy was I wrong. This text describes the importance of the fashion
world and how it connects to the reality of what’s going on in the world within
that period of time and the modern world.
Although
there’s a lot of material within this text that proved to be useful to me, I
still wanted to know more about John Owen as a writer. Now when I started this
search, I honestly didn’t find much on him other than the past work that he has
written. What I do know about Owen is that he lived in London, and this is
where this book was first established. In an article I found it mentions Owen
and it says, “…as far as we know, he never left these shores, never married,
and consistently refused ordination, despite the obvious career advantages for
a successful school head master and the opportunities for preferment it
conferred” (Harries 21). This just gives a little dip into his past, and his
was like prior to writing this text or possibly during. The article also
mentioned that Owen always wanted to play tricks on his readers or audience
members, which to me is quite interesting. When I started reading this text, I could
definitely detect a sense of confidence within his writing. Eventually this
text was printed in the United States in the state of New York City. When I
found this source I definitely needed to figure out if it fit the time frame
that was required, and it turns out it was perfectly fine. This text was
written in between the years 1766-1822, which I was thoroughly excited about.
This text is divided into eight chapters, which tackles a variety of topics
that were involved in the fashion world, but they might not be what you think.
Like I mentioned earlier I was surprised to find that there was a deeper issues
in the fashion world back in this that I might have known about. The chapters
in this text talk about climates, seasons, government and laws, religion and
morality, education, and manners, which basically connects to language, dress, happiness
of the people, and lastly the plan of reform. This definitely seems like a lot
of content to tackle, but these chapters are quite short, and gives the reader
just enough knowledge to feel satisfied. All of these topics proved to be very
interesting, and I plan on going into a deeper explanation of specific chapters
because I think that it would benefit the reader in a enormous way.
In
the first chapter of this text it covers the topic of boundaries, seasons, and
climate within the world that Owen is depicting to be the ‘fashionable world’.
First, Owen goes into great detail about how the detail about the landscape
isn’t necessarily about Geography, and he definitely points that out to us
readers as he says, “My readers must be at the same time cautioned, not to form
their expectations of the geography of Fashion from that of other countries”(1).
I found this to be quite interesting in the way that he’s stopping us from
making other accusations about his writing, and not to form other false
judgments. Within this chapter he explains how the people adapt to different
living conditions, and not settling for a certain area. Owen tells the reader
that the people often feel the need to migrate, but that’s okay. They live
under the roof of the ‘parent country’, which to me represents the British.
Like we learned in class, British acts as a parent to the United Stated, but
that’s just how I translated the material that we learned and tried to connect
it to this material. Owen finds it important to divide some of this living
conditions into degrees and circles. Normally geographers use these two terms,
but in the fashion world that are taken in a different context. This chapter
mainly talks about how fashion isn’t just located in one location. It can
continually evolve and move elsewhere. Believe it or not, the landscape also
connects with a citizen’s status in a society. Some people in the fashion world
move to a certain area just because it’s satisfying at that moment. Since they
are able to move wherever they please, they can give up that property to
someone that is in dire need of money or to keep their shop afloat in the
business of fashion. When Owen speaks of climate he’s not specifically speaking
on the weather on each day, but is talking about how it affects men and women
in the fashion world. The elite side of the fashion world figure that they are
above the other lower classes, and feel that since they hold themselves to a
higher degree than the others are on a lower degree. That is similar to how people act in today's society in America. In America, many people that are involved in the fashion world appear to be more superficial and cold. This text gives a better reputation for fashion because Owen goes on speaking about how there's actually more to the people in the fashion world in regards to religion and their overall happiness. I particularly enjoy the
way Owen goes about relating fashion to ordinary concepts in an interesting
manner.
Although
the fashion world doesn’t seem like they would reveal if they believed in any
religion, but that is totally wrong. John Owen describes some of the religion
that some of the people that lived in this era believed in. When one thinks
about the fashion world one might think of secrecy. What I mean by that is that
everything seems to be perfect from the outside, and most of the time they want
it to stay that way. Within chapter three he speaks of his observations of how
the fashion world handles religion. Owen makes it clear that he wants to make a
clear point on the religion of the fashionable world and he states:
However,
as I am not aware that any thing of this nature is yet taken in hand, I shall
lay
before
my reader such observations as I have been able to make; partly because it
seems
necessary
to the perfection of my work that something should be said on the subject; and
partly
because I should be unwilling to afford by my silence any ground of suspicion –
that
there is no religion in the
Fashionable World (34)
This quote from the text explains
this chapter perfectly because Owen definitely doesn’t hold back with his
knowledge on their religion. In my opinion, Owen wants to make it known that
even though the people of the fashionable world in this era are not Atheists.
When reading this chapter one might think these people must believe in God
because they know that he exists, but that’s Owens point. Just because they
know that God exists doesn’t mean they believe in him and connect themselves
with a particular religion. With reading this chapter it gives the reader a better
understanding of the fashion world, and not just the superficial side of it.
Owen actually argues that the fashion world has deeper issues besides what
dresses or jewelry to wear. He dives deep into the issues that many might not
want to acknowledge the truth behind it. Religion can be a tough topic to
tackle, but I think that Owen did a great job within this chapter. This relates to the modern world in regards to Americans. As Americans, we are able to believe in any religion or not believe in one at all. We have that choice, and we can see that the people in this fashion world can do the same, but just keep it more private. Although I
had to leave some of details out about Religion, I think I presented a great
summary of what Owen wrote on the subject.
Although
many of the chapters within this book are important knowledge to the fashion
world, I felt that the happiness of these people proved to be very vital. When
looking at the fashion world from the outside it seems to be quite cold. They
don’t smile very often because of the requirements of the business. Back in
this era, John Owen goes over these key points in chapter seven entitled, ‘Happiness
of the people estimated.’ This chapter dives right into what the people of this
world do on their free time, which actually includes many things. For example,
they like to enjoy their days off on Sunday. To them Sundays are dedicated to
Sabbath. Mostly this day is used for reflection. John Owen states, “Now these
are real afflictions; and that Reflection from which they result is, not
without reason, felt and acknowledged as the scourge of their existence, by the
ingenuous part at least of the fashionable world” (93). In this quote Owen
explains that there is an importance to reflection, and how they deal with it.
Making time to reflect is important for the mind because you don’t want to hold
it in. Whether that means it is positive or negative, it is still necessary. If
these people don’t desire to use reflection, they often turn to more dangerous
means. Such as drinking, or traveling to avoid the true feelings that lie
inside their minds. It will only get worse if they don’t face it, and
acknowledge that there is a problem there. In my opinion, this chapter doesn’t
just have a negative impact on the reader it has a positive one. Within an
article that corresponds with this time period of fashion, it is mentioned that
happiness lies in the dress or material objects. In the article it says:
…give a sense of Bath during specific years and
demonstrate how, in such a fashionable
place, even a provincial parson distracted by physical
pain was affected and disturbed by
matters of dress. The family reaction was to go shopping
in order to restore their self-
esteem (Adams 79)
I thought that this quote
was a great way to compare Owens opinions on fashion with another perspective
on fashion. The article was written in 1766 to 1767, so I felt that it was
somewhat necessary to show the differences. With this article we can see the
difference ways that people in this time period made themselves happy. Adams is
basically saying that they even if the people felt upset or sad they would just
go shopping to make themselves feel better. On the other hand Owen believed the
opposite because the people in the fashion world that he observed would go to a
negative place. Material items couldn’t fix the problem. It just shows the
variety of emotion that went on in this time period. In America, people tend to make substitutions for their own happiness. They rely on different things to make them happy if they aren't currently happy in the place they are in. Such as purchasing clothes, doing drugs, drinking alcohol, and therefore suffering with depression. The people on the fashion world that Owen describes are quite similar to the people in today's society. Owen seems to want the
message out there that no one is perfect, and in the fashion world that’s just
how everyone looks at it. They think that they are not allowed to show
weakness, and John Owen is making it clear that it’s okay to be yourself no
matter the circumstances.
This text has absolutely opened my eyes to a new perspective how to connect the
fashion world with reality. What I mean by that is that these are real people
in front of you, and they do actually have feelings. When looking at a magazine
or a runway show you see no emotion on their faces and it almost seems as if
they are quite fake on the inside as well, which is definitely not the case.
This text goes into much detail on these people are on the inside, and what
they are like outside the fashion world. I found it interesting that this text wasn’t
just about dresses, and what’s in every season. Basically I was hoping that I
didn’t come across any superficial facts; I wanted it to go deeper, and dive
into a more sensitive detail. In the modern world a lot of people seem to worry
about material objects more than what’s really important. John Owen did a great
job diving into the deeper subjects of the fashion world that if I hadn’t read
it I would have never realized that it actually connects to the world that we
live in today. These are the reasons why I think that this text should be a
part of the canon of American Literature.
Adams,
Suzanne. "Purchasers From The Parsonage: Observations On Bath Dress And
Reactive Shopping By The Penrose
Family, 1766-1767." Costume: The Journal Of The Costume Society
39.(2005): 79-90. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.
Harries, Byron.
"John Owen The Epigrammatist: A Literary And Historical Context." Renaissance
Studies: Journal Of The Society For Renaissance Studies 18.1 (2004): 19-32.
MLA International Bibliography. Web. 13 Nov. 2014.
Owen, John. The fashionable world displayed. New
York: Hopkins and Seymour. 1766-1822. Print.
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