About
In 2008, at age 43, I began to seriously think about what I wear for the first time since high school, where I learned to dress like the Southern preppy I was (and still am inside). I used to think that anybody concerned with fashion was stupid, until I fell in love with Catherine Montalbo, a woman who is concerned with fashion and who is very smart.
I look at fashion through the lens of psychology, politics, religion, and philosophy.
Psychology
Jungian psychology sheds light on many of the deeper forces at work in fashion, in particular, unconscious attitudes toward masculinity.
Politics
The dominance of corporate values in the media, which exists because of a moral weakness in our political system, explains quite a lot of stupidity in men’s fashion magazines.
And our political and media elite, whose male members should be role models, are children of the Sixties who reject the authentic leadership of traditional masculinity in favor of tough-guy posturing that is actually spineless in the face of such national tests as terrorism, structural economic problems, and coming shortages of vital resources.
Religion and Philosophy
Attitudes toward fashion are related to attitudes toward sex, the human body, masculinity, power, and community. My attitudes toward all these things have been influenced by my experiences with two very different versions of Christianity, Buddhism, yoga, Western philosophy, and Eastern philosophy.
I reject common moralistic and nihilistic attitudes toward fashion. I do not find myself able to practice an institutional religion anymore, but I see my pursuit of fashion as my own way of honoring God’s creation. In bringing a little more beauty to one aspect of my appearance, I honor the little part of creation called me, and I honor the others I come into contact with.
Hastings Hart
Oakland, California