As an attorney who specializes in matters dealing with the textile and apparel industries, I was recently reminded about the relationship between fashion and my profession. The traditional look of a male attorney is the three-piece suit, white cuff-linked shirt, conservative tie and shined shoes. For women attorneys, the traditional look is a conservative, matching jacket and skirt, light-colored blouse and mid-heel shoes. How times have changed! Now, the look when going to court is pretty much the same, but fast-fashion has created a new way to look the part.
I think a lawyer should look the part so that the client has confidence that he or she is dealing with a professional person. The accessibility of professional wear has only grown through fast fashion. Women can go to H&M, Zara or others in the fast-fashion arena and find a different outfit every week — or every day, for that matter — with minimum expense. Ties for men in the office seem to be an unnecessary appendage to look the part these days, but I see tie merchants advertising on the internet for beautiful ties at $5 each — with overnight delivery! I have a tie rack with many of them.
My doctors — some of them, at least — look the part, wearing white coats with their names and medical degrees embroidered on the left side and stethoscopes hanging around their necks. However, in recent years, I’ve seen doctors come into the room wearing jeans and a sport shirt without a white coat, and I have to ask, “Are you the doctor?”
Uniform manufacturers have recently been advertising their products on the internet as well as in conventional print media. When the carpet cleaning company sends in a crew, the crew is dressed in matching uniforms with their name embroidered in large letters on the left side of their shirts or jackets. They look professional, and that projects more confidence than someone dressed in dirty jeans and a ragged top, even though their professional skills may be the same is a neatly dressed crew member.
Today, consumers have many choices for clothing to wear professionally and for leisure time, whether on vacation or just doing things other than working. We see a new phenomenon in clothing selection today. For instance, secondhand clothing has become a way to purchase fashionable attire at a vastly reduced price. Even traditional department stores are getting into the trend to meet the competition of other, lesser-known, used clothing outlets. One can purchase an expensive Gucci bag for a fraction of the original cost, and retailers are reconditioning such products so that they are harder to distinguish from new ones.
We have recently seen the re-birth of Forever 21 (after its bankruptcy was declared in September 2019), with new buyers coming in and revamping what once was the top of the pile of fast fashion retailers catering to the younger generations.
What is considered a fashion trend is often created by celebrities such as the Kardashians. When a Kardashian wears something out of the ordinary today, that becomes the fashion trend tomorrow.
In “How Crunchy Technical Gear Took Over Fashion” in the February 25 edition of GQ, author Keegan Brady wrote, “Nothing exists in a vacuum; technical gear and the fashion world began their slow march to marriage in New York in the early ’90s. Though originally designed for mountaineers scaling cliffs in subzero temperatures, the North Face’s Nuptse 700 puffer and GoreTex Mountain Light became fundamental winter wear among hip-hop heads and wealthy prep school kids alike. TNF jackets were hugely popular among rappers — LL Cool J notably donned a cherry red Mountain Light in his ’93 video for “How I’m Comin’” — and, perhaps more notably, graffiti writers. Not only did the closed-face hoods provide coverage that served as urban camouflage, but there was a financial gain in the jackets too. Graf writers would “boost” — shoplift — North Face gear from high-end skiing stores around the city and resell the pieces for marked-down prices in New York’s working-class boroughs.”
As the article said, puffy jackets are the fashion item today in every place that’s cold.
Even water bottles have become an item of fashion. Attached to backpack, belts, coats and every other piece of attire, we see plastic and metal water bottles. With trends moving toward hydration and fewer plastic bottles, your water bottle is an offspring of you.
Benjamin Seigel, Esq. is Of Counsel to the law firm G&B Law, LLP of Encino, California, specializing in matters related to the textile and apparel industries. He can be reached at bseigel@gblawllp.com.
