Fashion Propaganda

Vintage Buttons
Fashion history is full of a certain kind of propaganda. I am not talking advertisement and free (?) market idea proliferation or real designerly desire to fill a need (sportswear, warm coats)or a perceived need for something fresh, fun or shocking. That is juicy enough for another day.

No this is more along the lines of government interference like button laws (The Book of Buttons by Joyce Whittemore) and fabric color rules. With business and government holding hands for so long we have accepted or normed many things by the way they happened as if there is no other way for them to have come about.

As inventions have appeared almost simultaneously in different parts of the world without any special agenda other than the curious motivation of the inventor, I suspect we would be capable of wondrous things without this track. In fact an open systems approach would probably foster more brilliancy, not less.