It is brings in a massive revenue each year, with consumers spending millions or even trillions of dollars watching shows on TV, buying the newest issue of Vogue or Glamour, or spending fifty dollars on something as simple as a tee shirt- the fashion industry.

Growing up, my mom taught me how to make simple purses, blankets, and dresses on the sewing machine which made me quite interested in textiles and fabrics. I have always been intrigued by the fashion world and how it is continuously changing and exactly who is making the decisions that filter all the way down to the consumer buying either skinny jeans or flares. Over the past few years, I have paid more attention to what I wear and what others are putting on themselves. Thinking of my own personal style got me thinking about Lacan and what was discussed in class about the idea of a dis-satisfied "I". 

Objects create desire.

Lacan states this very thought provoking theory in "The Agency of the Letter...". In other words, nobody knows what they truly want. People's desire to attain things, whether material or emotional, is always produced by an object. Whether it be MTV telling us that we all want a rockin' party, a mustang, and Rhianna to sing at our super sweet sixteen birthday party, or going out and buying Skyy Vodka because a handsome man will immediately consider you more desirable and you will attain more sexual pleasure, advertisements telling one what they should want are constantly thrust upon them.

Are the desires felt by objects then considered fake? Does that make the fashion industry an industry completely driven by dis-satisfied thoughts that they themselves created? Well, that makes me a little ashamed to be a contributing factor...

But why do so many people like myself fall into the fashion industry trap of telling themselves that they will be happy if they buy that special skirt or that they will inevitably be more cool if they attain a certain look? Lacan puts it by simply stating that "X creates a wanting I". That "I" is always going to be considered incomplete because it is the human condition to be searching or trying to fully complete oneself. This I is initially constructed through culture. Our own culture telling us we are never fully complete without "X". 

When working on one's 'fashion' or 'style', one almost always feels the need to keep up with the constant changing of what is considered in style and therefore never fully feels complete about the clothes they own. By buying the next cutest item, these consumers are just contributing to the never-ending cycle that they are always going to be a little bit behind on. 

That begs the question: Are the people who don't give a damn about what is 'in' and march to the beat of their own quirky, stylish drum the ones that start the trends? Are the people who have a better grasp on their desires  the ones that make the rest of us exist in a world where we never think we are good enough? Are there people out there that are fully complete and are not affected by objects around them? 

My guess is that those types of people exist where objects are the most limited. In tragically poor areas around the world, the term fashion does not exist because people are too worried about surviving through the night to care about what shirt they have on, if any. 

All this is really making me rethink how I spend my money on clothes and why I hold 'style' and 'fashion' in such a high regard...