Last weekend on Franklin Street, I passed a gaggle of sorority girls singing Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” in loud, drunken unison. Considering they donned designer dresses, these ladies’ public enthusiasm for a song celebrating used clothing struck me as avant-garde.
The spectacle got me philosophizing: What makes fashion fashionable?
College fashion trends seem particularly fickle, but they can still be understood by the astute student. Students who understand fashion economics can exploit this to impress professors, blend in with peers and even secure more attractive dates than our friends.
Conflicting fashion economics principles divide UNC’s campus roughly across the Chapel Hill-Carrboro line.
On the Chapel Hill side, fashion’s defined by social proof. Social proof, in economic terms, means that whatever the people’s majority does becomes the correct move. Traditions backed by social proof usually have no rationale behind them — just the power of everyone doing things that way.
Why do men deem flimsy silk suits and stifling ties layered over collared shirts “formal?” I don’t know, because our grandparents did? Why does a logo of a man riding a horse make my collared shirt better than yours? I don’t know, because all my frat brothers are wearing this shirt? Defining fashion by college peers’ consensus is social proof in action!
Carrboro counters social proof by defining fashion with scarcity. Scarcity, in economic terms, means that goods increase in value when they are rare (in another word, unique). So Vineyard Vines polos and mall-store suits can’t be fashionable by scarcity terms, because these clothes are produced and buyable en masse.
Instead, fashionably scarce clothes must be scavenged for in less-frequented locations, like one’s local thrift store. Doing so reaps discerning Carrboro buyers’ apparel rewards such as those mentioned in Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” song: “a fur fox skin,” “plaid button-up shirt,” “flannel zebra jammies,” “a onesie” (not sure I’d wear that last one).
Now that I’ve explained college fashion economics principles, it’s important to remember that rules are made to be broken (especially in fashion). Social proof and scarcity fashion outlooks depend on context. So when you attend a UNC basketball game, don’t be that guy wearing a Duke jersey: blend in with your social proof-abiding, Carolina blue-hued peers.
