Harpur College 1965 Yearbook (Binghamton, NY) - Full Access

. Fashion is change and represents what is happening in a formal sense. There is fad-fashion and eternal-fashion and sooner or later, everything one can think of gets involved. Is it done this year, or this month, or day, or instant? This is the key question of fad-fash- ion. Is what done: wearing jockey caps, saying "I might ever," going to Sullivan's, eating clams, .taking a shower for 31 hours, going barefoot, wearing no socks, reading lan Fleming, not reading J. D. Salinger, wearing round sunglasses or high boots or long scarfs or thin ties or army-navy raincoats. Are people alienated this year, or is it passe? It is all of im- portance because if one is out of fashion, he is out of his time and the rules of the game specify that that cannot hal= pen if one is to retain the respect of his fellows. So that a girls sans textured stockings is a g1rl sans chic and if a boy has a cap he is one up on most people...Right" - an expression which dominated speech patterns for years is finally and unucterably Out and nothing is generally In, although in small circles it became In to place the stress on the active verb of the sentence; e.g., "I happen .to be screwed up." James Baldwin, last year's In is th,is year's Out, and Dr. Kroetsch is currently ln. The patterns are relatively unstable and if the cravat seems very, very Out right now, one can never, ever, tell. But eternal-fashion is something else. This is re-occuring form, inevitable pattern. The seasons represent fashion to the nth degree, predictable yet always new, measurable yet exhilirating. In the fall, which trimester has erased for many (that is, most), there are sweaters and coats - the leaves bright, the air crisp but not penetrating. The haze softens the out- ' lines of the buildings. The haze disappears as the cold sets in and more layers of covering must be added t_o bodies: thicker sweaters, heavy jackets, fleece-lined boots. The landscape becomes monotonic: brown hills studded with stark trees. The first snowfall results in heavier socks, ski sweaters, leotards, Ioden coats, parkas - a successive layering and bundling as the whole universe freezes over until there is a kind of equality among men: all girls have the same figures, all boys' shoulders are the same width. This lasts seem- I ashion ingly forever and it is a fashion of- necessity: and bulkiness, people wrapped like so many perish- able commodities. There is no spring. There is a brief time in between the Ice Age and the Inferno when there is a great deal of mud but Spring never really happens, no flowers bloom, except for wild dandelions and only the grass gives a sense of rebirth. As soon as the temperature goes above freezing, the lovely ladies are sprawled on the grass, behind the fences and in the pastures, to offer their bodies to the potent Sun. Fashion again involves sex rather than survival. When there is fashion of allure- ment, fad again becomes a factor - there is more freedom of choice. So bermudas with pat- terns on them are Out, wearing tennis sneakers without socks (which causes a substance known as Sneaker Butter to form on the inside of the sneaker) is In and sunglasses are always In, especially if you are very, very cool and wear them indoors. Stickball is In, sitting on the patio is In, and girls have figures again. Fashion is change and represents what is happening in a formal sense.